How to Play Spades

Spades is a trick-taking card game for four players in two fixed partnerships (you sit opposite your partner). A standard 52-card deck is used, and spades are always trumps. The first partnership to reach 500 points wins.

Deal & bidding

Each player is dealt 13 cards. Starting to the dealer’s left, every player bids the number of tricks their partnership will take. You may also bid Nil (contract to take no tricks at all, worth ±100 points) or Blind Nil (a nil declared before looking at your hand, worth ±200 points).

Playing a trick

The player to the left of the dealer leads the first card. Players must follow suit if they can; if not, they may play any card. Spades cannot be led until they have been broken — that is, until a spade has been played on a trick. The highest spade, or the highest card of the led suit if no spade is played, wins the trick. The winner leads the next trick.

Scoring

If a partnership meets its contract, it scores 10 points per bid trick, plus one point for every overtrick (a “bag”). If a partnership fails to meet its contract, it loses 10 points per bid trick. Accumulating 10 bags incurs a 100-point penalty.

Variants

Classic — standard 52-card Spades with nil and blind nil.
Joker — the two red deuces are replaced by two jokers, played as the two highest spades (big joker beats little joker beats the 2♠).
New York City — team-wide bidding of 4 to 10, no nil, restrict leading spades for the first three tricks, a 13-trick “Boston” win, and two consecutive sets lose the game.

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