How to Play Spades
Spades is a team game for 4 players. You and your partner (the player sitting across from you) work together. You each guess how many tricks you’ll win, then try to hit that number as a team.
The twist: Spades are the most powerful suit. A spade beats any card from another suit.
The Basics
- 4 players in 2 teams — your partner sits across from you
- Each player gets 13 cards
- Spades are always “trump” — they beat every other suit
Card Order (weakest to strongest)
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace
Step 1: Bidding (Making Your Guess)
Each player takes a turn guessing how many tricks they’ll win (from 0 to 13).
- Normal bid (1–13): How many tricks you think you’ll personally win
- Nil bid (0): A bold bet that you’ll win zero tricks
Your team’s goal is the total of both partners’ bids. If you bid 4 and your partner bids 3, your team needs to win at least 7 tricks together.
Step 2: Play Tricks
The game has 13 tricks. A trick is one turn where everyone plays a card into the middle — whoever plays the strongest card wins that pile.
How each trick works
- Someone leads — The trick leader plays a card
- Follow suit — You must play a card of the same suit if you have one
- No matching suit? — If you don’t have that suit, you can play anything — including a spade
- Spades beat everything — If anyone plays a spade, the highest spade wins. Otherwise, the highest card of the led suit wins
Spades must be “broken” first
You can’t start a trick by playing a spade until someone has been forced to play a spade in an earlier trick (because they didn’t have the led suit). Once that happens, spades are “broken” and anyone can lead with them.
Scoring
Scores are shared between you and your partner — you win or lose as a team.
Normal bids
| What happened | Points |
|---|---|
| Your team won enough tricks (met or beat your combined bid) | +10 for each trick you bid, +1 for each extra |
| Your team fell short | -10 for each trick you bid |
Example: Your team bid 7 and won 9 tricks. You get 70 points (for the bid) + 2 points (for the extras) = 72 points.
Extra tricks are called “bags”
Those +1 bonus points for extra tricks are called bags, and they’re a trap. Bags pile up across games, and when your team hits 10 bags, you get a -100 point penalty and the count resets. So winning too many tricks is actually dangerous.
Nil bids (bidding zero)
| What happened | Points |
|---|---|
| The nil bidder won 0 tricks | +100 for the team |
| The nil bidder won any tricks | -100 for the team |
Nil is a huge gamble — 100 points on the line either way. If the nil bidder accidentally wins tricks, those tricks count as bags too.
Playing Multiple Games
Scores add up across games. The team with the highest total wins the session.
Tips for Beginners
- Bid carefully — It’s better to win exactly what you bid than to win extra tricks and collect bags
- Watch your bag count — If your team is at 8 or 9 bags, avoid winning extra tricks at all costs
- Protect a nil bidder — If your partner bid nil, lead with your highest cards to win tricks before they’re forced to take one
- Count the spades — There are only 13 spades total. Keep track of which ones have been played
- Play as a team — You can’t talk strategy with your partner, but your card choices can send signals. Pay attention to what they play