 Four
Player Spades Rules
Spades is most often played with four
players, which is often called a partnership game because the
players play in pairs of partners. If you are looking for the
Spades rules for three or six handed play, please see the
Spades variations page.
Spades Set
Up and Dealing
Four players, split into two
partnerships with partners sitting opposite of each other, use a
standard 52-card deck of playing cards. The first dealer is chosen
randomly, either by mutual consent or by dealing each player a
single card with the high card winning the right to the first deal.
All cards are dealt to the left first around the table and the deal
is passed one player to the left after each hand. Cards are dealt
one-by-one to each player until all of the cards are distributed.
This creates a hand of 13 cards for each player.
Spades Bidding
After all of the cards are dealt,
each player is required to make a bid of how many tricks they
believe they will take during the hand. There are a total of 13
tricks per round, but the total of the bids are not required to
equal 13. Each player may bid any number they choose between zero
and 13 and successive bids by the second, third and fourth player
are not required to be more than bids by the previous players.
Once all of the bids are made (there is
only one round of bidding, so the first bid by each player is their
only bid) the bids made by each partner are added together and this
is the number of tricks that partnership must try to win. For
example, if the first partner of team one bids two and the other
partner bids two, then team one is attempting to win four tricks. If
team two bids six and two, then they are attempting to win eight
tricks. A player may bid Nil,
which is a bid that they will not win a single trick. If they don't
win any tricks, their team wins a bonus, while if they do take a
trick or more, their team is penalized. Even if one player bids Nil,
the team is still responsible for winning the amount of tricks bid
by the other partner. Playing a Spades
Hand
Cards are ranked from highest (Ace)
to lowest (two) in each suit. The suit of spades is always trump and
any spade beats any card of the other suits. The first player to the
left of the dealer leads the first card. This lead can not be a
spade. Spades may not be lead until a player "breaks spades" which
is by trumping a trick. Players
are required to follow suit if they are able to do so. If a player
does not have any cards of the lead suit, they may play any other
card in their hand. The winner of each trick leads to the next
trick. This lead does not have to be of the same suit as the
previous trick. After all four
players have played their card on a trick, the trick is awarded to
the player who played the highest card, determined in this order
from highest to lowest.
- The highest trump (spade)
- The highest card of the lead
suit
This process is continued until
all 13 tricks have been completed.
Spades Scoring
Most games of spades are played
to 500, but they can be played to any score that is mutually
agreed on by all players before the game starts. After each hand
or round of 13 tricks, each team compares the amount of tricks
they won against the amount that they bid before the round. If
they won at least as many tricks as they bid, they win ten
points per trick bid plus one point for each trick they took
over the amount they bid. For example, if a team bids five
tricks and actually takes six, they are awarded 51 points. If
they win seven, they are awarded 52 points.
On the other hand, if a team does
not win their number of bid tricks, they lose 10 points per
trick they bid, not just 10 points per trick they were short.
For example, if a team bids five tricks and only takes four,
they lose 50 points.
There is a rule in place, called
a spades sandbagging rule, which keeps teams from underbidding
by too much on purpose. Any time a team wins more tricks than
they bid, they receive one bag for each trick they underbid. For
example, if a team bids five and wins seven, they receive two
bags. Once a team accumulated 10 bags, they lose 100 points. Any
bags that push them over 10 are carried over to start a new
count toward 10 bags.
When a player bids Nil, if they
are successful they win an extra 100 points, and when they do
take a trick they lose 100 points. These points are in addition
(or subtraction) to the points the team receives on the other
partners bid.
Two other card games can be studied
at poker rules,
a site about poker, and
blackjack
rules, about 21.
Spades Variations
Strategy for Spades
Spades
Information
Spades Rules |
