Deal thirteen each
Four players sit in fixed partnerships. Every card in a standard 52-card deck is dealt, leaving each player with thirteen cards.
Partnership trick-taking · 4 players
Spades
Bid with your partner, make your contract, and use the permanent trump suit without collecting too many bags.
Your team
Opponents
NNorth Partner13 cards · bid — · won 0
WWest13 cards · bid — · won 0
EEast13 cards · bid — · won 0
♤ Spades unbroken
YYou13 cards · bid — · won 0
Hand complete
Hand complete
01 How to play
Make the bid.
Mind the bags.
Spades is a partnership trick-taking game. You and North play against West and East, with Spades permanently acting as trump.
Bid your tricks
Each player bids how many tricks they expect to win. Partners’ bids are added to form the team contract.
Open with clubs
On the first trick everyone plays their lowest Club if possible. Without Clubs, play a Heart or Diamond; play a Spade only if your hand contains nothing else.
Follow suit
You must follow the led suit whenever possible. Otherwise, play any card. The highest Spade wins, or the highest card of the led suit if no Spade appears.
Break Spades
A Spade cannot be led until one has been used to trump another suit, unless the leader has only Spades remaining.
Score the contract
Making the bid earns ten points per bid trick, plus one point per extra trick. Missing loses ten points for each trick short.
Nil and bags
A successful Nil adds 50 points; a failed Nil subtracts 50. Nil tricks still count for the team. Every ten overtricks costs 100 points.
Reach 500
The match ends after a hand when a team reaches 500. If both do, the team with the higher score wins.
02 History & variants
An American game from the Whist family.
A young trick-taking classic
Spades was developed in the United States in the 1930s. It simplified ideas familiar from Whist and Bridge: every player bids, there is no auction for trump, and Spades always hold that role. The game spread widely through the armed forces and colleges before online tables introduced it to an international audience.
Partnerships, Nil and bags
Four-player partnership Spades is the standard social form, but cutthroat and two-player versions are also played. Nil and Blind Nil bonuses vary, as do the penalty for accumulating ten bags and the score needed to win. Some groups allow jokers or treat the Two of Spades as the highest trump, changing both the deck and its ranking.