Spades rules: the complete guide

Spades at a glance

If you only remember one thing, remember this: your team’s bid is a promise, and both missing it and beating it by too much will cost you. Spades rewards accurate bidding more than lucky cards.

Setting up the game

Partners sit opposite each other, so the turn always alternates between the two teams. Any method of choosing the first dealer works — many tables have everyone draw a card and the high card deals. After each hand, the deal passes one seat to the left.

The dealer shuffles, offers the deck to be cut, and deals all 52 cards one at a time, face down, clockwise, starting with the player on their left. Everyone ends up with 13 cards. There is no kitty and nothing is turned up.

Pick up your cards and sort them by suit. Spades sit in their own group: they are the trump suit for every hand of the game.

Card ranking

Within each suit, cards rank from Ace (high) down to 2 (low). Any spade beats any card of another suit. The A♠ is the single highest card in the game and is a guaranteed trick.

Bidding

Bidding starts with the player on the dealer’s left and goes clockwise, ending with the dealer. Each player bids once — there’s no second round and no raising other bids. You can bid any number from 1 to 13, or Nil, a promise to win no tricks at all.

Your bid and your partner’s bid are added together into your team’s contract. If you bid 4 and your partner bids 3, your team needs 7 tricks. It doesn’t matter which of you takes them.

How to count your tricks

Experienced players go through their hand suit by suit:

• Spade honors. The A♠ is one trick. The K♠ is usually a trick if you hold at least one other spade to protect it. The Q♠ needs two guards.
• Spade length. With five or more spades, the extra ones tend to win late in the hand, after everyone else has run out.
• Side Aces. About one trick each. A side King is roughly half a trick — worth more if you also hold the Ace.
• Short suits. A void or a singleton in a side suit lets you trump early, if you have spare spades to do it with.

A worked bid. You hold ♠ A Q 8 4 · ♥ K 10 3 · ♦ A 9 6 5 2 · ♣ 7. Count it up: the A♠ is a trick. The A♦ is a trick. The Q♠ with three other spades is about half a trick, and so is the K♥. Your singleton 7♣ means that on the second club lead you can trump with the 4♠ — about one more trick. That’s roughly 4. If you’re unsure whether the K♥ will cash, bid 3 or 4 depending on the score; most players round down when in doubt.

Your partner bids knowing your bid, and the dealer bids last knowing all three. The later you bid, the more you can adjust — if the table has already bid 11, you know tricks will be scarce.

Nil and Blind Nil

A Nil bid says you will take no tricks. Your partner still bids normally, and their contract stands on its own. A Nil that succeeds earns 100 points; take even one trick and it costs 100.

A good Nil hand has low cards in every suit, no Ace of spades, and no more than three spades (preferably small ones). A long side suit with only low cards is fine; a short suit headed by a King or Queen is dangerous.

Blind Nil is a Nil bid made before you look at your cards. It’s worth 200 points if it works and costs 200 if it fails. Because it’s such a gamble, many tables only allow it for a team that’s far behind.

Playing the hand

The player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick. Play goes clockwise, each player adding one card.

1. Follow suit if you can. You must play a card of the suit that was led whenever you have one.
2. If you can’t follow, play anything. You may trump with a spade (also called cutting) or throw away a card from another suit.
3. The highest spade wins the trick. If no spade was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. Cards of other suits never win.
4. The winner leads next. Thirteen tricks later, the hand is over.

Breaking spades

You may not lead a spade until spades have been broken — that is, until someone has played a spade on an earlier trick because they couldn’t follow suit. The one exception: if your hand holds nothing but spades, you may lead one.

Breaking spades only limits leading. If someone leads a club and you have no clubs, you may play a spade on the very first trick, and that play is what breaks spades.

A sample trick. You sit South; your partner is North. West leads the Q♣. North follows with the 3♣, and East plays the A♣. You have no clubs left — you played your only one, the 7♣, earlier — so you may play anything. You play the 4♠, which beats every club. Your team wins the trick, and spades are now broken: from here on, anyone may lead a spade.

Scoring

After the 13th trick, each team compares the tricks it won with its contract.

Bags

Overtricks look harmless at 1 point each, but each team keeps a running count of its bags from hand to hand. The moment the count reaches 10, the team loses 100 points and the count drops back by 10. This is called the sandbag penalty, and it’s what stops teams from bidding low every hand just to be safe.

A worked scoring example. Your team bids 4 + 3 = 7 and takes 9 tricks: 70 points for the contract plus 2 bags = 72. The other team bids 2 + 3 = 5 and takes the remaining 4 tricks. They’re set: −50.

Now suppose your team already had 8 bags going into that hand. Those 2 new bags bring you to 10, so you also lose 100. Your hand total becomes 72 − 100 = −28, and your bag count resets to 0.

Scoring a Nil

The Nil bidder is scored on their own, and the partner’s contract is scored separately. The two scores are then added to the team total.

Nil examples. You bid Nil and your partner bids 5.

• You take no tricks and your partner takes 6. Your team scores 100 (Nil) + 50 (contract) + 1 (bag) = 151.
• You get stuck with 2 tricks and your partner takes exactly 5. Your team scores −100 (failed Nil) + 50 (contract) + 2 bags = −48. Your 2 tricks didn’t help your partner’s bid, but they still counted as bags.

Winning the game

The first team to reach 500 points wins. If both teams cross the line on the same hand, the higher score wins; if they’re exactly tied, play another hand. Many tables also end the game when a team sinks to −200, since there’s no realistic way back.

Rule questions people argue about

Can you play a spade on the first trick? Under standard rules, yes, if you can’t follow suit. A few house rules forbid trumping on the first trick, usually paired with a rule that the 2♣ leads.

Do a failed Nil bidder’s tricks count toward the partner’s bid? Under the most common rules, no — but tables differ. Some let those tricks help the partner; some ignore them for bags. BieGames uses the common rule: they don’t help the partner’s bid, but they do count as bags.

Can both partners bid Nil? Yes. Then the team has no contract, and each Nil is scored on its own.

What’s the lowest bid? One trick, unless you bid Nil. Some tables add a house rule that a team must bid at least 4 between them.

What happens if someone reneges? Failing to follow suit when you could have is a renege. If it’s caught, the usual penalty is that the offending team gives up three tricks to the other side (some tables use two, or a flat points penalty). Online games simply don’t let you play an illegal card.

What if a player is dealt no spades? Under standard rules you just play it. Some groups allow a redeal for a hand with no spades or no face cards — agree on it before you start.

Common variations and house rules

• Jokers. Two jokers are added as the highest trumps (“Big Joker” and “Little Joker”), and two low cards are removed so the deck stays at 52. Some tables also promote the 2♠ to just below the jokers.
• 2 of clubs leads. The holder of the 2♣ leads the first trick, borrowed from Hearts.
• Minimum team bid. A team must bid at least 4 tricks between them.
• Ten-for-two hundred. A team that bids and makes 10 or more tricks gets a bonus (often double points).
• Bidding 13. Sometimes called a Boston; at some tables, making it wins the game outright.
• Blind Nil with a card swap. The Blind Nil bidder and their partner exchange one or two cards before play.
• Suicide Spades. One player on each team must bid Nil every hand.
• Cutthroat Spades. Three players, every player for themselves, with one card removed so each gets 17.
• Two-player Spades. Players build their hands by drawing from the deck, keeping some cards and discarding others, then bid and play as usual. See how to play Spades with 2 players.

If you also play Hearts, our comparison of Spades vs Hearts explains how the two games feel different, and the Hearts rules guide covers its passing and penalty scoring.

Playing Spades on BieGames

On the Spades page you play with a computer partner, June, against Rose and Hank. In Settings you can change:

• Game length: 250, 300 or 500 points.
• Nil bids: on or off.
• Blind Nil: off, only when your team is 100 or more points behind, or always.
• Bag penalty: on (−100 for every 10 bags) or off.
• Computer players: Easy, Normal or Hard.

The game follows the standard rules above: no jokers, no card passing, and Aces always high. A team at −200 loses, and the game can’t let you renege.

Spades terms

• Trick (or book) — one round of four cards.
• Contract — a team’s combined bid.
• Bag (or sandbag, overtrick) — a trick taken beyond the contract.
• Set — a team that misses its contract has been set.
• Nil — a bid of zero tricks. Blind Nil — a Nil bid made before looking at your cards.
• Broken — spades are broken once a spade has been played on another suit.
• Cut (or trump) — play a spade on a trick of another suit.
• Void — having no cards in a suit.
• Renege — failing to follow suit when you could have.
• Boss — the highest card left in a suit, sure to win if led.

Quick questions about the rules

How many cards does each player get in Spades? Thirteen. All 52 cards are dealt among the four players.

Who bids first in Spades? The player to the dealer’s left. The dealer bids last.

Can you change your bid? No. Once everyone has bid, the contracts are fixed for the hand.

How many points is a Nil worth? 100 if you take no tricks, minus 100 if you take any. Blind Nil doubles both to 200.

Is Spades like Bridge? Both are partnership trick-taking games with bidding, but Spades is far simpler: spades are always trump, everyone bids once, and there’s no dummy hand.

Can you play Spades with three people? Yes — Cutthroat Spades. Each player bids and scores alone, and one card is removed so the deck divides evenly.