Spades is a four-player partnership game where you bid how many tricks your side will win, then prove it, with spades permanently trump. First partnership to 500 points wins, and the scoring’s twin dangers (failed bids and the bag penalty) are what turn a simple trick game into a lifetime argument. Complete rules below.
Setup
- Four players in two partnerships, partners seated across from each other.
- Standard 52-card deck, 13 cards each. Aces high; spades always trump.
Bidding
Starting left of the dealer, each player bids the number of tricks they expect to personally win (0-13). Partners’ bids combine into the team contract: you bid 4, your partner bids 3, your team must take at least 7 tricks.
Nil: bidding zero means you personally promise to win NO tricks: +100 points if you succeed, -100 if you take even one. Your partner still pursues their own bid alongside your sabotage-yourself act.
Playing the Hand
- Player left of dealer leads any card except a spade.
- Everyone follows suit if able; the highest card of the led suit wins the trick, UNLESS a spade was played: the highest spade always wins.
- Void in the led suit? Play anything, including a spade (trumping in).
- Spades can’t be LED until “broken”: someone must first trump in with one (or a hand of only spades forces it). After that, spades lead freely.
- Trick winner leads next; 13 tricks and the hand’s over.
Scoring (and Bags, the Silent Killer)
- Make your contract: 10 points per bid trick. Bid 7, took 8: 70 points, plus…
- Bags (overtricks): each extra trick is 1 point AND one bag. Collect 10 bags and your team loses 100 points. Sandbagging is the game’s tax on cowardly bids.
- Fail your contract: lose 10 per bid trick. Bid 7, took 6: -70.
- Nil: +/-100 as above.
- First to 500 wins (some tables also play a -200 floor as instant loss).
Strategy Fundamentals
- Count sure tricks conservatively: aces, protected kings, and long spade suits are bids; queens and hope are bags.
- Communicate through legal play: leading your short suits early telegraphs where you can trump; a partnership’s real skill is reading each other without a word (talking across the table is the one unforgivable sin).
- Protect your nil partner by overtaking their accidental winners; a nil bid is a team project.
- Watch the bag count as hard as the score; teams at 8 bags start dumping tricks in ways that create openings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can two players or three play Spades? Variants exist (each plays solo, adjusted deals) but partnership Spades is the real game.
What’s “blind nil”? Nil declared before looking at your cards: +/-200, legal at many tables only when trailing badly, and always a cry for help.
Do both partners’ failed bids combine? The contract is combined, so the team makes or fails it together; nil is the exception scored solo.
Joker or deuce variants? House variants (jokers as top trumps, deuce of spades high) are common; agree before dealing or accept the consequences.