Spades rules

How to play partnership Spades

Predict exactly how many tricks you will take, then take that many. Spades punishes greed as sharply as it punishes a missed contract, which is what makes the bid the hardest card you play all hand.

At a glance

The Big Mike Games default table

Players: Four, in fixed partnerships
Deck: Standard 52-card deck
Hand: Thirteen cards per player
Trump: Spades, always
Bids: One round; nil allowed
Match: 500 points

Partners, deck, and deal

Partners sit opposite one another. The full 52-card deck is used and ranks Ace high down to 2 in every suit. The dealer gives out all thirteen cards each, one at a time, clockwise. The deal then rotates clockwise for the next hand.

Sources: Pagat: Spades; Bicycle: Spades.

Tournament Spades often calls a trick a book. The two words mean the same thing: four cards, one from each seat.

Sources: World Spades Championship: Spades Glossary.

Bidding is a promise, not an auction

The player left of the dealer bids first, then bidding moves clockwise for exactly one round.
Each player names a number. There is no passing, and your bid does not have to beat anyone else's.
Partners' bids add together. A 4 and a 3 make a team contract of seven tricks.
Zero is a nil bid, a separate promise to take no tricks at all.

This is the biggest difference from most trick-taking games

Nobody wins the bidding. All four bids stand, and the thirteen available tricks are usually over-promised or under-promised by the table as a whole. Your bid is a target you must hit, not a contract you won.

Sources: Pagat: Spades; World Spades Championship: Spades Glossary.

Playing the tricks

The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick. The winner of each trick leads the next.

You must follow the led suit whenever you hold a card of it.
If you are void in the led suit, you may cut with a spade or discard any other card.
The highest spade played wins the trick. If no spade is played, the highest card of the led suit wins.

Breaking spades

Nobody may lead a spade until spades have been broken, which happens the first time a spade is played. Usually that is somebody cutting a trick they could not follow. The single exception is a player whose remaining hand is nothing but spades, who may lead one, and doing so breaks spades for everyone.

Sources: Pagat: Spades; Bicycle: Spades.

Scoring in brief

Result	Score
Contract made	10 points per bid trick
Each trick above the contract	1 point, and one bag
Contract missed	Minus 10 points per bid trick
Nil made	Plus 100
Nil failed	Minus 100
Ten bags accumulated	Minus 100, and the count carries

The first partnership to reach 500 points wins, provided the two scores are not tied. Big Mike also offers shorter matches at 200, 250, and 300.

Sources: Pagat: Spades.

See the complete scoring guide

Where published Spades rules genuinely disagree

Pagat: Spades is the source for the partnership game described here, including the combined contract, nil, and the bag carry. Bicycle: Spades describes Spades for two to five players and scores each player individually, so it never mentions nil or partnerships at all.

The two therefore part company on a missed contract. Bicycle's game simply scores zero for a broken contract. Pagat's partnership rule takes ten points per bid trick away. Big Mike Games uses the Pagat treatment, because a penalty is what makes an inflated bid cost something. Settle this before the first deal rather than after somebody bids five and takes two.

Table options Big Mike supports

Option	Default	Other choices
Match target	500	200, 250, or 300
Nil	Plus or minus 100	Plus or minus 50, or nil switched off entirely
Bag penalty	Ten bags cost 100	Five bags cost 50, or no bag penalty
Failed-nil tricks	Count only as bags	Count toward the partner's contract
Breaking spades	Required	Allow a spade lead at any time

Every option is stored with the match when it starts and cannot change part-way through.

What this version does not mix in

Blind nil, joker and deuce-high decks, New York rules, partnership bidding with table talk, and the Suicide, Whiz, Mirror, Solo, and two-, three-, or six-player versions are all real Spades traditions. Each one changes the deck, the bidding structure, or the information players may share, so Big Mike treats them as separate tables rather than as switches on this one. Blind nil in particular needs a real decision before any card is seen, which a checkbox cannot honestly represent.

Sources: Pagat: Spades; Trickster Cards: Spades rule options.

Quick answers

Spades rules FAQ

Can you lead spades at any time?

Not until spades are broken, which happens the first time a spade is played. The exception is a player holding nothing but spades, who may lead one. Big Mike Games also supports tables that allow a spade lead from the start.

Do you have to follow suit in Spades?

Yes. You must play the led suit if you hold it. Only a player void in that suit may cut with a spade or discard.

What is a nil bid in Spades?

A bid of zero. The bidder promises to take no tricks at all. At the Big Mike Games default table a successful nil is worth 100 and a failed nil costs 100.

What happens if both partners bid nil?

At the Big Mike Games table each nil is settled on its own and the partnership contract for that hand is zero, so the two results can both succeed, both fail, or split. Some tables instead treat Double Nil as a single named bid worth far more, which is a different rule rather than a variation on this one.

Put the rules to work

Play a guided Spades hand

The tutorial teaches combined bids, mandatory follow, breaking spades, and why overtricks are not free.

Play Spades