How to Play Spades
Spades is a team game for 4 players. You and your partner (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.
Quick version: You and your partner guess how many tricks you’ll win together. Spades beat everything. Don’t win too many extra tricks — they add up as “bags.”
What You Need to Know First
- 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 Strength
3
...
A
Any Spade beats any non-Spade card. Among Spades, higher rank wins.
Step 1: Bidding
Each player takes a turn guessing how many tricks they’ll win (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 — huge reward but huge risk
Your team’s target is both bids added together:
Example: You bid 4, your partner bids 3. Your team needs to win at least 7 tricks together.
Step 2: Play Tricks
13 tricks, each one works like this:
- Someone leads — plays a card
- Follow suit — play a card of the same suit if you have one
- Can’t follow suit? — play anything, including a Spade
- Spades beat everything — if anyone plays a Spade, highest Spade wins. Otherwise, highest card of the led suit wins
Spades Must Be “Broken” First
You can’t start a trick with a Spade until someone has been forced to play one in an earlier trick. Once that happens, Spades are “broken” and anyone can lead them.
Example Trick
← no Diamonds, plays a Spade!
Scoring
Your team scores together — you win or lose as a team.
Normal bids
| What happened | Points |
|---|---|
| Team won enough tricks (met or beat combined bid) | +10 per trick bid, +1 per extra |
| Team fell short | -10 per trick bid |
Example: Team bid 7, won 9 → 70 points + 2 extra = 72 points.
Watch Out for Bags!
Those +1 extra trick points are called “bags” — and they’re a trap. When your team reaches 10 bags, you get a -100 point penalty and the count resets.
Warning: Winning too many tricks is actually dangerous. Those little +1s add up to a huge penalty!
Nil bids (bidding zero)
| What happened | Points |
|---|---|
| Nil bidder won 0 tricks | +100 for the team |
| Nil bidder won any tricks | -100 for the team |
Nil is a massive gamble — 100 points either way.
Tips for Beginners
- Bid carefully — winning exactly what you bid is better than winning extras and collecting bags
- Watch your bag count — if you’re at 8 or 9 bags, avoid extra tricks at all costs
- Protect a nil bidder — if your partner bid nil, lead with your strongest cards to win tricks before they’re forced to
- Count the Spades — there are only 13 total. Keep track of which have been played
- Play as a team — you can’t talk strategy, but your card choices send signals