Spades Rules

Under standard spades rules, four players in two partnerships bid for tricks from a 52-card pack, and spades outrank the other three suits in every hand. The first side to 500 points wins. The same rules stretch to two players, who draw their hands, and to three, who play 17 cards each; where tables split, the rule our game plays is named.

Quick Reference

Our game deals standard four-player partnership spades, with nil and blind nil and no jokers.

One Hand, Step by Step

1. Deal out the pack. All 52 cards go face down, one at a time, clockwise from the dealer's left: 13 each.
2. Bid once each. From the dealer's left, name 1 to 13 tricks or nil; partners' bids add into one contract.
3. Lead a side suit. The player on the dealer's left opens trick 1 with a heart, club, or diamond.
4. Match the suit led. Without it, trump with a spade or throw any other card.
5. Give the trick to the top card. The highest spade wins, or else the highest card of the suit led; the winner leads next.
6. Hold spades back as a lead. Lead one only after spades are broken, or when you hold nothing else.
7. Score after 13 tricks. Each team scores its contract, its bags, and any nil; the running totals carry to the next hand.
8. Pass the deal left. Repeat until a team reaches 500 or, in our game, falls to -200.

The Deal

The player on the dealer's right cuts, and every card is dealt, so each hand starts with 4 x 13 = 52 cards in play and none left over.

Rulebooks pick the first dealer at random, or by a draw where the high card, or the first spade turned up, deals. Our game skips the draw: you deal hand 1, then West, North, and East in turn. The player on the dealer's left always bids first and leads to trick 1, so West opens hand 1.

Bidding

Each player bids once, and partners' bids add up to their side's contract. Bidding runs clockwise from the dealer's left; nobody passes, bids need not rise, and no bid can be changed. In our game you see every earlier bid before your turn.

A bid is 1 to 13 tricks, or nil; there is no plain zero. If North bids 5 and you bid 2, your side needs 7 tricks in any split: 6 from North and 1 from you makes it.

Nil earns 100 when the bidder takes no tricks and costs 100 the moment they take one. If North bids nil and you bid 4, you need 4 tricks of your own; a trick North takes breaks the nil and never counts toward your 4. Our game refuses a second nil from the same team: if your partner has bid nil, you must bid 1 to 13.

Blind nil pays or costs 200, double a nil, because the bidder commits before picking up a card. The standard conditions: the bidder's side must be at least 100 points behind, and the blind bidder passes two cards face down to their partner, who passes two back. The swap runs from none to four cards depending on the table, the deficit can be set at 200 or 250, and a few groups pay only +100 / -50. Our game drops both conditions: you can press Blind Nil at any score and no cards change hands. The deal is already on screen when your turn comes, so the only blindness is your own restraint. The three computer players never bid nil or blind nil.

House rules for bidding, none of them in our game:

• Board: each team bids at least 4, so a nil bidder's partner must bid 4 or more.
• Double nil: both partners bid nil, for anything from 200 to 500 points, or the game. Failure costs anything from nothing to 500, or the game, and some tables require a 400-point deficit.
• Blind bids: 6 or 7 tricks bid before looking, at double value (see variants).

The Play

A spade beats every card of the other three suits, and among side-suit cards only the suit led can win.

First lead. The player on the dealer's left leads any heart, club, or diamond, or a spade only from an all-spade hand. The 2 of clubs lead is a house rule, the same opening Hearts uses.

Following and trumping. Play a card of the suit led if you have one. If not, play anything: a spade trumps, and any other card is a discard that can never win, however high. Our game, like the standard rules, allows trumping on trick 1; some house rules forbid it.

Breaking spades. No one may lead a spade until one has been played on a trick led in another suit. A player holding only spades may lead one anyway, and by the rule's own definition that lead does not break spades. Our game agrees.

An all-spade lead leaves spades unbroken

Left with only these three cards before spades are broken, you may lead one. Spades stay unbroken, because no spade has yet been played on a trick led in another suit.

Reneging. Most tables let a player take back a wrong card before the next card is played; after that a renege can be claimed until the hand's last card. The usual charge is three tricks, moved to the opponents' count or added to the offender's bid. A set, 100 points, or loss of the one trick are the other versions. Our game will not accept an illegal card.

Scoring

Missing by one trick costs the same as missing by seven: bid 7 and take 6, or take none, and the team loses 70. Each team scores once, after the 13th trick.

Set. Tables differ on the loss. A few printed rules score a set as zero, and one variation deducts 10 per trick short. Our game deducts 10 for every trick bid.

Bags never reset between hands. Every time the count reaches 10 the team loses 100 and 10 bags come off, so 20 bags cost 200.

Nil and the partner's contract are scored separately, then added.

Nil made, contract set: +60

North bid nil and ducked every trick with low cards like these: +100. You bid 4 and took 3: -40. The team still gains 60 on the hand.

Failed nil. Usually the nil bidder's tricks do not help the partner's contract but do count as bags for the team. Some tables let them help the contract; others ignore them. Our game scores them the usual way in solo play against the computer.

Winning the Game

The first side to 500 wins, and the check comes only at the end of a hand. If both sides pass 500 on the same hand, the higher score wins. An exact tie means another hand in most printed rules, and a bag-count tiebreak at some tables. Our game does not deal again; it settles an exact tie by seat.

The -200 floor. Our game also ends when a team reaches -200: from -150, a set on a bid of 9 drops you and North to -240, and West and East win. The floor is a house and online rule. The basic printed rules have none, and a few groups play to -500 or -250.

Game length. Short games run to 300, 250, or 200, and the 250 game often charges 50 at every 5 bags; long ones run to 1,000. Ours is always 500.

Keeping Score

Record the four bids before trick 1 so they stay visible during play. The sheet needs a column per team for bid, tricks, hand score, bags, and running total; one player keeps it in plain view, and the table agrees each hand before the next deal.

The units-digit shortcut. Many scorers let the last digit of the score stand for the bag count: 177 means 7 bags. It works because contracts, sets, and nils move the score in tens, and a team whose count passes 9 has bagged out and loses 100. The shortcut only reads cleanly while the score is above zero. Take a team on 369 that bids 7 and takes 9. In the strict form the bag digit never carries: 360 + 70 - 100 = 330, and the digit wraps from 9 to 1, so the team sits on 331. Under ordinary scoring, which our game uses, it lands on 341: 369 + 72 = 441, minus 100, with 1 bag carried.

Four sample hands, scored the way our game scores them. Bids and tricks run in seat order: you, West, North, East.

West and East took 33 of the 52 tricks and still trail by 60: their 11 overtricks earned 11 points and cost 100. Each total's last digit matches its bag count.

Two-Player Spades

In two-player spades the hands come from a draw, and each player ends with 13 cards to play and 13 thrown out: 13 + 13 + 13 + 13 = 52.

Each turn uses the top two cards of a face-down stock. Look at the first privately. Keep it and discard the next card, or discard it and take the next card, like it or not. Turns alternate until the stock runs out after 26 turns, 13 each. Some players take two cards, keep one, and discard the other, which also ends at 13 each.

A two-handed game therefore has 13 books, the table word for tricks, and the 26 discards sit out until the next shuffle. Each player bids and scores alone under the four-player rules, usually to 500.

13 kept

Player A's hand

13 discarded

Player A's discards

13 kept

Player B's hand

13 discarded

Player B's discards

Settle three points before the first draw, because sources disagree:

• Discards: face down at some tables, face up at others.
• First lead: the second drawer, who also bids first, at some tables; the first drawer at others. Alternate who draws first each hand.
• Blind nil: declared before the first draw, worth 200 either way. A few tables let a blind or double nil bidder swap up to 3 cards with the discards afterward.

Our game has no two-player mode.

Three-Player Spades

With three, the deal stops at 51 cards, 17 each, and every player bids and scores alone: 3 x 17 + 1 = 52. The 52nd card sits out unseen, unless the table removed an agreed card, usually the 2 of clubs, before dealing.

Whoever holds the 2 of clubs opens trick 1 with it. Players follow with a club if they can, and trump or discard if not.

The opening lead with three players

If the 2 of clubs is the card left out, the 3 of clubs opens instead. Either way, trick 1 is a club trick.

Each bid is its maker's own contract, and some groups forbid bids that total 17, so someone must miss. The common scoring charges for overtricks: 10 per trick bid if made, minus 10 per trick bid if missed, and minus 10 for each trick over, so bid 3 and take 7 scores -10. Some tables count ordinary bags instead. Games run to 300, 400, or 500, and the highest score wins once someone passes the target.

With jokers: add a big and a little joker as top trumps and deal all 54, 18 each (3 x 18 = 54), for 18 tricks. With a dummy: deal four hands of 13; the highest bidder plays the exposed fourth hand as a partner, bridge style, against the other two, who score separately. Details vary.

Cutthroat and Six-Player Spades

Cutthroat, or solo, spades is spades without partners, most often played by four: 13 cards each, every player bidding and scoring alone. Three-player spades is cutthroat by necessity. House rules vary, and nil is rarely made with no partner to cover it.

Six players form three partnerships, partners opposite, with one player from each other team between them on either side. They use two packs minus two low cards, usually both 2s of clubs or both 2s of diamonds: 102 cards, 6 x 17 = 102. Bidding and scoring follow the four-player game. When identical cards fall on one trick, the second played usually wins; agree it in advance.

Variants and House Rules

Our game plays none of these; it deals standard spades with no jokers and no promoted 2s. Agree any of them before the first deal.

Jokers. Both jokers count as spades when following suit. The more colorful one is usually big, though some New York groups make the black joker big. Tables split on which red 2 comes out; others keep 54 cards and let the dealer discard the 2 extra. Bid Whist uses the same big and little joker names.

The deuce orders. Joker Joker Deuce puts the 2 of spades third, with the 2 of clubs and one red 2 removed. Joker Joker Deuce Deuce, the New York City order, removes the 2 of clubs and 2 of hearts and ranks the 2 of diamonds, played as a spade, above the 2 of spades. Under it the 2 of diamonds beats the 2 of spades; in standard spades it never can. Plain deuces high uses an agreed order, such as 2 of spades, 2 of diamonds, 2 of clubs, 2 of hearts, then Ace.

Mirror and Whiz take the choice out of bidding, and neither allows blind nil.

Suicide. The second partner settles the roles: if the first bids 4 or more and the second also bids a number, the first is stuck with the nil. Some versions just require one nil per team.

10-for-200 and the Moon. 10-for-200 is also called 10-for-2 or wheels; some tables accept 10 or more tricks, and some charge only 100 for a miss. Boston also names taking all 13 tricks without bidding them, which earns no bonus in our game.

Blind bids and misdeals. Blind bids are usually capped at 7, some tables allow them only to a side 100 or more behind, and values vary. Besides a spadeless hand, a redeal is sometimes allowed for one spade, a suit of 7 or more, or no face cards.

Our Game and Common House Rules

Our game follows standard partnership spades except in the rows below, where it takes one side of a split.

Try these rules against three computer players on the spades page, which keeps score for you, or take the daily spades challenge, where everyone gets the same opening deal. The strategy guide covers bidding and bag control, the glossary defines table terms, the FAQ answers more questions, and the history of spades traces the game's roots.

Quick Answers