Spades Rules, Scoring and Score Keeper

How tricks work

A trick is one card from each player, played in turn going left. The first card played is the lead, and its suit is the suit everyone must follow. If you have a card of that suit, you must play one. If you have none, you may play anything, including a spade.

The highest spade in the trick wins it. If no spade was played, the highest card of the suit that was led wins. A card of a third suit can never win: if hearts are led and you throw the A♦, it loses to the 2♥. Aces are high, then K, Q, J, 10 down to 2. The winner of a trick collects the four cards, stacks them face down, and leads to the next trick.

Example: West leads the K♥. North plays the 4♥, East has no hearts and plays the 3♠, South plays the A♥. East wins the trick with a three, because any spade beats every heart.

The deal and the bid

1. Deal. Deal the whole deck one card at a time, face down, starting with the player on the dealer's left, so everyone has 13. The deal passes one seat to the left after each hand.
2. Bid. Starting left of the dealer and going around once, each player says how many tricks they expect to take, from 1 to 13, or nil for none. Everyone must bid; there is no passing and no second round.
3. Team contract. Add the two partners' bids. If North bids 4 and South bids 3, the North-South contract is 7, and it does not matter which of them takes the tricks. A nil bidder's partner carries the team bid alone.

Count your sure tricks honestly: aces, a guarded king, and spades. Each high spade is usually a trick, and long spades (five or more) tend to win tricks late in the hand when everyone else runs out.

Leading and breaking spades

The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick, and it cannot be a spade. After that, the winner of each trick leads the next.

Spades are "broken" once someone plays a spade on a trick led in another suit, which they may do only when they cannot follow suit. Until then, nobody may lead a spade, unless the player on lead holds nothing but spades. This rule stops a player with a pile of high spades from pulling everyone's trump on the first few tricks.

Spades scoring

Each team is scored on its own contract after every hand.

Worked examples

• Made with bags. East bids 3, West bids 2: contract 5. They take 4 and 3, so 7 tricks. Score: 50 for the contract plus 2 bags = 52.
• Set. North bids 5, South bids 3: contract 8. They take 7. Score: minus 80. Tricks you take in a set hand earn nothing, not even bags.
• Bags rolling over. A team on 8 bags makes its contract with 3 extra tricks. It scores the contract plus 3, then loses 100 for reaching 10 bags, and carries 1 bag into the next hand.
• Failed nil. South bids nil and North bids 4. South gets stuck with 2 tricks, North takes 3. North's 3 tricks fall short of 4, and South's 2 do not help, so the team scores minus 100 for the nil, minus 40 for the set, and gets 2 bags: minus 138.

Bicycle's rules differ in two places: they score each player's bid separately rather than adding partners' bids, and a missed bid scores 0 instead of losing points. Either works if everyone agrees first; the keeper above can score a missed contract as 0.

Winning

The first team to reach 500 wins. If both teams pass 500 on the same hand, the higher score wins; if they are tied, play another hand. Bicycle and Pagat's main rules have no losing score. Pagat lists a variant where a team at minus 500 loses, and some tables use minus 200 as a house rule to end hopeless games early; the keeper offers both.

Spades for two players

With two people you cannot deal out the whole deck, or each of you would know the other's hand. Instead you build your hands by drawing, which puts a real decision on every card. It is the version we recommend on our card games for 2 list.

1. Shuffle and put the whole deck face down between you. Take turns, starting with the non-dealer.
2. Look at the top card. If you want it, keep it, then look at the next card and put it face down on a discard pile without keeping it.
3. If you do not want the first card, put it face down on the discard pile, then take the next card into your hand. You must keep that one.
4. Take turns doing this until the deck runs out. Each of you ends with 13 cards, and 26 cards sit unseen in the discard pile.
5. Bid and play by the normal rules: follow suit, spades are trump, no leading spades until they are broken. Neither reference says who starts; we have the non-dealer bid first and lead first, the same seat that starts in the four-player game.
6. Score each player on their own bid, with the same points, bags and nil. Set the keeper to 2 players.

Because half the deck sits unseen in the discard pile, you cannot count on any card being in your opponent's hand. The A♠ may never appear, so bid a K♠ as a likely trick only when you hold a spade or two to go with it.

Strategy that follows from the bag rule

• Bid what you will take, not less. Underbidding to stay safe feels clever, but every spare trick is a bag. Three bags a hand means a 100-point penalty every three or four hands.
• Once your contract is made, start ducking. Play low cards under the trick so the opponents win it. If they are close to 10 bags, push extra tricks onto them instead: let them win with a card they would rather not have used.
• Set them or bag them. When the other team bids high, play to set them. When they bid low and you cannot set them, let them take extra tricks and build their bag count.
• Protect a nil partner. If your partner bid nil, take tricks with high cards early and lead suits they are likely to be out of, so they can throw away dangerous cards. A set contract costs less than a failed nil.
• Watch the bag count near 10. A team on 9 bags should treat every extra trick as minus 99 points. The keeper shows each team's bag count so nobody has to remember it.

Variants and house rules

None of these is wrong. Settle them before the first deal.

• Blind nil. Bid nil before looking at your cards, for 200 points either way. Pagat lists it as allowed only for a team behind by 100 or more; the keeper offers that, any time, or not at all.
• Missed bid scores 0 (Bicycle). A set hand scores nothing instead of minus 10 per trick bid.
• Failed nil tricks help the partner (house rule). Some tables let a failed nil bidder's tricks count toward the partner's bid. The keeper has a switch for it.
• Shorter games. Play to 200 or 300 instead of 500.
• 2♣ leads (house rule). Whoever holds the 2♣ leads it to the first trick.
• Ten for 200 (Pagat lists it). A team that bids 10 scores 200 for taking exactly 10 tricks and loses 200 for any other number (some tables accept 10 or more).
• Minimum team bid (Pagat lists it). Some tables require each team to bid at least 4 between them.
• Jokers (Pagat lists it). Add the two jokers as the highest trumps, above the A♠, and take two low cards out so the deal still comes out to 13 each. Tables differ on which two cards come out.
• No spades, no hand (house rule). A player dealt no spades at all may call for a redeal.

The keeper handles blind nil, the missed-bid rule, bag penalties, the failed-nil switch, the target and the losing score. It does not score ten for 200 or jokers.

Spades questions

How many points do you lose for 10 bags in Spades?

In the usual US scoring, a team loses 100 points each time its bag count reaches 10, and the count starts again from whatever is left over. A team sitting on 8 bags that takes 3 more loses 100 and carries 1 bag forward.

Can you lead spades on the first trick?

No. Under the common rules nobody may lead a spade until a spade has been played on another suit, or the player on lead holds nothing but spades. The first lead comes from the player to the dealer's left and must be a heart, club or diamond.

What happens when a nil bid fails?

The nil bidder's team loses 100 points (200 for blind nil). The tricks the nil bidder took do not help the partner make the team bid. They count as bags for the team instead.

Do partners bid together or separately?

Each player bids out loud for their own hand, starting left of the dealer. The team's contract is the two bids added together, and both partners' tricks count toward it. A nil bid adds nothing to the team total.

How do you play Spades with two people?

Take turns drawing from the deck. Look at the top card: keep it and discard the next one unseen, or discard it and keep the next one. Repeat until the deck is gone and you each hold 13 cards, then bid and play as usual, each scoring for yourself.

What score do you play to in Spades?

500 is the usual target. If both teams pass 500 on the same hand, the higher score wins. Neither Bicycle nor the main Pagat rules have a losing score; Pagat lists minus 500 as a variant, and some tables use minus 200 as a house rule. 200 or 300 works for a short game.