What Is Spades?
Spades is a trick-taking card game for four players in two partnerships, played with a standard 52-card deck in which spades are always trump. Each player bids how many of the 13 tricks they will win, partners add their bids into one contract, and the first team to 500 points wins.
You can play spades online free right here, against the computer with a computer partner sitting opposite you, or against people online. Quick Match seats you at a table with other players, and Ranked games track a rating. To play with friends, open a private table and send them its link. You play as a guest, so there is nothing to sign up for.
Unlike Bridge and Bid Whist, spades are always trump, so nobody bids to name the trump suit. Every player simply bids the tricks they expect to take.
| Players | 4, in two teams of two; partners sit opposite |
|---|---|
| Deck | 52 cards, no jokers; Ace high, 2 low |
| Cards each | 13 |
| Trump | Spades, every hand |
| Bids | 1 to 13 tricks, nil, or blind nil |
| Scoring | 10 per trick bid, 1 per extra trick (a bag), minus 100 for every 10 bags |
| Game | First team to 500 wins; in our game a team that falls to -200 loses |
How to Play Spades
The basic spades rules fit in eight steps, and the game repeats them until a team reaches 500.
- Sit opposite your partner. Four players form two teams, so the turn passes from one team to the other after every card.
- Deal 13 cards each. The dealer deals the whole pack one card at a time, clockwise, starting on their left. The deal passes to the left after each hand.
- Bid for tricks. Starting on the dealer's left, each player bids once: the number of tricks they expect to win, or nil for none. Partners add their bids into one team contract.
- Lead the first trick. The player on the dealer's left leads any card except a spade.
- Follow suit if you can. Each player in turn plays a card of the suit led. With none of that suit, play any card, including a spade.
- Win with the highest spade. A trick goes to the highest spade in it, or to the highest card of the suit led if nobody played a spade. The winner leads next.
- Break spades before leading them. Nobody may lead a spade until a spade has been played on another suit, unless they hold nothing but spades.
- Score the hand and deal again. Teams that make their contract gain points and teams that fall short lose them. The next player deals, and play goes on until a team reaches 500.
In our game you deal the first hand, so West, on your left, bids first and leads the first trick. After that the deal moves one seat to the left every hand, so you bid from every position in turn. The full spades rules cover the finer points, from the first deal to reneging.
Bidding: Tricks, Nil, and Blind Nil
Bid the tricks you expect to win, and round a doubtful trick down. A team that falls one trick short loses its whole contract: bid 9 and take 8 and you lose 90, while bidding 8 and taking 8 scores 80.
Count about one trick for each side-suit Ace, most of a trick for a King in a suit of two to four cards, and a trick for every spade beyond your third, with your high spades on top. Be careful with high cards in other suits when you hold only one or two spades. An opponent who runs out of the suit will trump them.
Your bid and your partner's bid add up to one team contract, and it does not matter which of you takes the tricks. If you bid 4 and your partner bids 3, your team needs 7 tricks between you.
Nil is a bid to win no tricks at all. Make it and your team scores 100; take even one trick and your team loses 100. Your partner still bids and must make their own number, and your tricks never count toward it. Partners cannot both bid nil in our game.
Blind nil is nil declared before you look at your cards, and it doubles the stakes to 200 points either way. Standard rules allow it only when a team is 100 or more points behind, and let the blind bidder swap two cards with their partner. Our game has a Blind Nil button beside Nil, open at any score and with no card swap. Your cards are already face up, so bidding it blind is on your honor.
Playing the Tricks: Trump and Breaking Spades
Spades beat every other suit, so the Ace of spades always wins the trick it is played to. Any spade, even the 2, beats the Ace of a side suit.
You must follow the suit led whenever you can. Only when you have none of it may you trump with a spade, or throw away a card from another suit. Trumping is allowed from the first trick on.
Failing to follow suit when you could is called reneging. Our game rejects illegal cards; the penalties home tables use are in the questions below.
Spades Scoring
A team that makes its contract scores 10 points for every trick it bid, plus 1 point for each extra trick. A team that takes fewer tricks than it bid is set, and loses 10 points for every trick it bid.
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Contract made | 10 per trick bid |
| Each trick over the contract (a bag) | +1 |
| Contract set (short by any number) | -10 per trick bid |
| Nil made / broken | +100 / -100 |
| Blind nil made / broken | +200 / -200 |
| Every 10th bag | -100 |
Nil is scored on its own, beside the partner's contract: a made nil earns 100 even if the partner is set.
Bags and the Sandbag Penalty
Every extra trick adds 1 point and 1 bag, and bags carry from hand to hand. When a team's total reaches 10 bags it loses 100 points and the count drops by 10, so 12 bags becomes 2. That makes each bag cost about 9 points over a game.
How to Keep Score in Spades
Write down every bid before the first lead, then score each team's hand and keep a running total with the bag count beside it. Here are three sample hands, scored the way our game scores them, where "Us" is you and North, and "Them" is West and East.
| Hand | Bids (Us / Them) | Tricks (Us / Them) | Us | Them |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 / 5 | 8 / 5 | +71 (70 plus 1 bag): 71, 1 bag | +50: 50 |
| 2 | 5 and nil / 7 | 6, nil takes 0 / 7 | +151 (100 nil, 50, 1 bag): 222, 2 bags | +70: 120 |
| 3 | 6 / 6 | 5 / 8 | -60 (set): 162, 2 bags | +62 (60 plus 2 bags): 182, 2 bags |
After three hands, the team that was 102 points ahead is 20 behind. The set cost 60, and the opponents' 62 made up the rest of the 122-point swing.
House rules change a few of these numbers. Some tables score a set as zero instead of a loss. At others nil is worth only 50, and a shorter game to 250 may charge 50 points at every 5 bags. Agree the rules before the first deal.
How to Play Spades with 2, 3, or 4 People
Yes, you can play spades with two or three people. Two players build 13-card hands by drawing from the pack, and three players take 17 cards each and play alone. Four players can also drop the partnerships, which is called cutthroat or solo spades.
How to Play Spades with 2 People
- Shuffle and put the pack face down between you. There is no deal.
- Take the top card and look at it. Keep it and throw the next card on a discard pile, or throw it away and keep the next card.
- Your opponent does the same with the next two cards. Take turns until the pack is gone.
- Each of you now holds 13 cards and has thrown away 13: 13 + 13 + 13 + 13 = 52.
- Bid alone, play 13 tricks, and score as in the four-player game.
The discards stay out of play. Players differ on whether they lie face up or face down, and on who leads the first trick, so agree both before you start. The two-player spades rules cover nil and blind nil head to head.
How to Play Spades with 3 People
Deal 17 cards each and set the last card aside unseen: 3 x 17 + 1 = 52. Some groups take out the 2 of clubs before dealing instead. Everyone plays alone, for 17 tricks. The player holding the 2 of clubs leads it to the first trick, or the 3 of clubs if the 2 is out. Under common three-player scoring, each trick over your bid costs 10 points: bid 4 and take 5 and you score 30. Some groups count bags in the normal way instead. The three-player rules add the joker version and the dummy-hand game.
Our game deals the four-player partnership game, with a computer partner when you play alone.
Spades Strategy
Accurate bids and sets win spades games. A bag costs about 9 points; setting a bid of 6 costs the other team 60.
- Watch the table total. Add all four bids. At 10 or less there are spare tricks, so get rid of high cards you do not need. At 12 or more there is at most one spare trick and the opponents can be set, so take every trick you can.
- Count to 13 spades. Subtract your own spades, then every spade played. Hold five and see two ruffs and one full round of spades, and three are left outside your hand.
- Play third hand high. When your partner leads low, play your highest card to force out the opponents' honors. Play second hand low when the player on your right leads.
- Do not trump your partner's winner. If your partner leads the King of hearts on a hand where you are trying to set the opponents, let it win.
- Dump high cards to avoid bags. If your partner is already winning a trick, throw your highest card of the suit led on it, or a high side-suit card if you are out of that suit. The trick is yours either way.
- Bid a nil with three spades or fewer, all of them low. An Ace or King in a long side suit is fine; the King of spades, or spades like the J-8-7, are not.
- Count spade length as tricks. Every spade beyond your third is worth about a trick, and your high spades count on top of that.
In our solo game only you can bid nil, and your computer partner will not lead to cover it, so a nil against the computer rests on your own cards. The spades strategy guide covers bidding, nils, and endgame bag play in more depth.
Where Spades Came From
Spades is an American game from the 1930s. It belongs to the whist family and sits in the same group as Bridge and Bid Whist: fixed partners who bid for tricks. An often-repeated account credits the bridge writer George Coffin with tracing its start to Cincinnati between 1937 and 1939, but the exact place is not documented.
US troops spread the game during the Second World War. It was simpler than Bridge and Euchre and easy to put down when duty called, and it caught on in countries that hosted American forces, parts of Germany among them. Veterans took it home and to college on the GI Bill, and by the late 1940s it was a campus game. It remains a card-table tradition in African American communities, often played with two jokers and high deuces. Microsoft shipped Internet Spades with Windows Me (2000), XP (2001), and 7, and switched its servers off in 2019 and 2020. The history of spades tells the longer story.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens in Spades if you don't get your bid?
Your team is set. It loses 10 points for every trick it bid, so a team that bids 8 and takes 6 loses 80, and the tricks it did take earn nothing toward the contract. Some house rules score a set as zero instead; our game uses the standard loss of 10 per trick bid.
What card always wins in spades?
The Ace of spades. Spades are trump, so any spade beats every card of the other three suits, and the Ace is the highest spade. It wins every trick it is played to. In house games played with jokers, the big joker ranks above it, followed by the little joker.
What two cards are removed in spades?
None in standard spades, which uses all 52 cards. Tables that add a big and a little joker take out two 2s so the deck stays at 52: usually the 2 of clubs and one red 2, the 2 of hearts or the 2 of diamonds. The jokers then rank as the two highest spades.
Does 2 of diamonds beat 2 of spades?
Not in standard spades. Every spade beats every diamond, so the 2 of spades wins. The answer only changes under deuces-high house rules, and those disagree: the New York "Joker Joker Deuce Deuce" order puts the 2 of diamonds above the 2 of spades, while other orders put the 2 of spades first.
Does 2 of clubs start in Spades?
Not in the standard game. The player on the dealer's left leads the first trick with any card except a spade. Leading the 2 of clubs is a house rule, the same opening Hearts uses, and it is the normal opening in three-player spades. Our game uses the standard lead from the dealer's left.
How many spades are in a deck of cards?
There are 13 spades in a standard 52-card deck, one of each rank from the Ace down to the 2, and in the game of spades all 13 are trumps. Tables that add two jokers and rank them as the highest spades play with 15 trumps instead.
What is the penalty for taking 5 bags in spades?
Under standard rules, 5 bags cost nothing yet: each bag scores 1 point, and the penalty arrives only when a team reaches 10 bags, which costs 100 points. Some tables playing a shorter game to 250 charge 50 points at every 5 bags instead. Our game uses the standard 100 points at 10 bags.
What is it called when you win every hand in Spades?
Winning all 13 tricks in a hand is called a Boston, or shooting the moon. At some tables it is a special bid: bid all 13 and make it for 200 points, or win the game outright under some house rules. Our game has no Boston bonus; 13 tricks score as a normal made contract with bags.
What happens if you get caught reneging in Spades?
The penalty depends on the table. The most common is three tricks: some groups hand three of the reneging team's tricks to the other side, others add three to the reneging team's bid. Some simply count the offending team as set for the hand. Our game only accepts legal cards, so reneging cannot happen.
Is there a mercy rule in Spades?
Yes, at many tables: a team that falls to -200 loses the game. It is a common house and online rule. Some rulebooks set no floor at all, and a few groups use -500 instead. Our game ends as soon as a team reaches 500 or drops to -200.
Is it better to bid high or low in Spades?
Bid what you expect to take, and round a doubtful trick down. An overbid by one trick costs the whole contract: bid 7 and take 6 and you lose 70, where a bid of 6 would have scored 60. Underbidding by one costs 9 points on the hand, plus a bag toward the next 100-point penalty.
Play Spades Online Free
Deal a hand above and the game keeps score for you. Try the daily spades challenge to play the same opening deal as everyone else that day, or browse every card game we host. If you know Hearts, our guide to Hearts vs Spades sets the two trick-taking games side by side.