Spades
Partners bid how many tricks they'll win, and spades beat every other suit. Make your bid to score.
the best bit: your partner bidding nil and somehow pulling it off
- Players
- 4
- Time
- 45–90 min
- Learn in
- A few minutes
- Mood
- Lively
- Format
- Teams
The 30-second version
Four players in two teams of partners. Each hand, everyone bids how many tricks they think they'll take, and partners add their bids together. Spades are trump, so they beat every other suit. Make your team's bid and you score. Fall short and you lose points. First team to 500 wins.
don't explain it all up front. play one practice round.
Grab these
Set up
- Sit across from your partner.
- Deal the whole deck, 13 cards each.
How to play
-
Bid
Starting left of the dealer, each player says how many tricks they think they'll win. Add partners' bids together. That's your team's target for the hand.
-
Lead
The player left of the dealer leads any card except a spade. Nobody can lead a spade until a spade has been played on another suit, unless spades are all they have.
-
Follow suit
Going clockwise, everyone plays one card. You have to play the suit that was led if you have it. If you don't, play anything, spades included.
-
Win the trick
The highest spade wins. If no spades were played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner takes the four cards and leads next.
-
Score
Make your bid: 10 points for each trick you bid, plus 1 for each extra trick, called a bag. Every 10 bags costs your team 100 points. Miss your bid: lose 10 points for each trick you bid.
-
Go nil
Bid zero and win no tricks at all to score 100 for your team. Take even one and lose 100. Your partner's bid is scored on its own.
How to win
The first team to reach 500 points wins.
From experience…
- Count spades. There are 13 in the deck, and knowing how many are left wins hands.
- Bid a little low at first. Missing a bid hurts more than a few bags.