How to Play Spades

Objective

Win at least as many tricks as your partnership bid. Make your bid and you score ten points for every trick in it; miss it and you lose the same. Extra tricks earn a point each, but collect too many and they come back to cost you.

Bidding well matters as much as playing well. A team that bids accurately hand after hand will usually beat a team that takes more tricks but guesses wrong.

Setup

Partners sit across from each other. Choose a dealer, then deal all 52 cards one at a time, so everyone holds 13. The deal passes to the left after each hand.

Cards rank from ace (high) down to 2 in every suit. Spades are permanent trump: any spade beats any card of another suit.

How to play

Bidding comes first. Starting at the dealer’s left, each player says how many tricks they expect to win, from 0 to 13. A bid of zero is called nil and is scored on its own. Partners add their bids together to make the team’s contract.

The player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick. Many tables require the 2 of clubs to be led first instead. Everyone must follow suit if they can. If you cannot, you may play a spade or any other card. The highest spade wins the trick; if no spade was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads next.

You may not lead a spade until spades are broken, meaning someone has played a spade on another suit, unless your hand holds nothing but spades.

1Bid the number of tricks you expect to take
2Follow suit whenever you can
3Play a spade to trump when you are out of the suit led
4Highest spade wins, or the highest card of the suit led
5Do not lead spades until they are broken

Scoring

Score each partnership after every hand. A nil bid is scored separately from the partner’s bid: the nil bidder must take no tricks at all, and the partner still has to make their own number.

Result	Points
Make your contract	10 per trick bid
Each trick over your bid (a bag)	1
Every 10 bags collected	−100
Miss your contract	−10 per trick bid
Nil made / missed	+100 / −100
Blind nil made / missed	+200 / −200

The first partnership to reach 500 wins. If both teams pass 500 on the same hand, the higher score wins. Many tables also end the game when a team falls to −200.

Variations

Spades with Jokers: two jokers join the deck as the highest trumps, and two low cards come out to keep it at 52. See our separate rules.

Cutthroat Spades for three: everyone plays for themselves. Take out the 2 of clubs and deal 17 cards each.

Suicide Spades: in every partnership, one of the two players must bid nil.

Team minimum: some tables require each partnership to bid at least four tricks between them.

Tips from the table

Count your sure tricks before you bid: aces, kings with a guard, and long or high spades. Treat anything else as a bonus rather than bidding on it.

Watch the bags. If your team is sitting on seven or eight, it can be worth ducking tricks you do not need rather than taking them.

When your partner bids nil, cover them. Play high in suits where they might be forced to win a trick, and try to win the lead so you control what gets played.

Sometimes the best play is defense. If the other team has overbid, focus on taking the one trick that sets them.

Game Guides

Video Guides Are on the Way

We’re filming Game Guides that walk through full hands at the table, from the deal to the score.

See the game guides

Frequently asked

Can I lead spades on the first trick?

Not usually. Spades cannot be led until someone has played one on another suit, unless you hold only spades.

What is a bag?

Any trick your team takes over its bid. Each is worth a point, but every ten bags costs you 100.

If my partner bids nil and I bid four, how do we score?

You still need four tricks of your own. Your partner’s nil is scored separately: plus 100 if they take no tricks, minus 100 if they take any.

How is Spades different from Spades with Jokers?

The joker version adds two jokers as the highest trumps and removes two low cards. Bidding and scoring stay the same.