Spades

Overview

A partnership trick-taking game for four. Spades are always trump. You bid how many tricks your side will take, and you are punished for falling short and for overshooting.

No governing body publishes rules for this game. This page describes the most common form. House rules vary, so agree them before you start.

1. Setup

Partners sit opposite each other. Deal the full 52-card deck — thirteen cards each. Aces are high, and there is no card exchange.

2. Bidding

Starting left of the dealer, each player states how many tricks they expect to take. A partnership's contract is the sum of its two bids.

Can you bid zero?

Yes — that is a nil bid, and it is the most dramatic play in the game.

Bidding nil claims you will take no tricks at all. Succeed and your side gains 100 points; take even one trick and you lose 100. Your partner's bid is scored separately, so a nil is a side bet on top of the normal contract.

Blind nil — declared before you look at your cards — is worth 200 either way. Many tables only allow it when trailing by 100 or more.

3. Play

The player left of the dealer leads.

You must follow suit if you can. If you cannot, you may play anything, including a spade.

The highest spade wins the trick. If no spade is played, the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner leads the next trick.

Can you play a spade whenever you like?

No — and yes, depending on what you mean.

You may not lead a spade until spades are broken. Spades break when somebody plays one on a trick because they could not follow the led suit, or when the leader holds nothing but spades.

You may play a spade at any time when you cannot follow the led suit. That is how spades get broken in the first place.

Throwing off

Throwing off — discarding a card of another suit when you cannot follow — is legal and often correct.

But you cannot throw off if you can follow suit. If hearts are led and you hold a heart, you must play it. You may not discard a spade, or anything else, to avoid taking the trick.

4. Reneging

A renege is failing to follow suit when you were able to — playing a spade or a discard while holding a card of the led suit.

You cannot force an opponent to renege. It is not a trap you can set; it is purely an error they make.

The standard penalty is three tricks transferred to the other side, applied at the end of the hand. Some tables void the hand entirely. Agree the penalty before you start.

5. Scoring

Make your contract and score 10 points per bid trick.

Every trick beyond the contract is a bag, worth 1 point. Bags are a slow poison: accumulate ten and you lose 100 points, with the bag count resetting.

Miss your contract and you lose 10 points per bid trick, and score nothing else.

Result	Score
Contract made	10 × bid, plus 1 per bag
Contract missed	−10 × bid
Nil made	+100
Nil failed	−100
Blind nil made	+200
Blind nil failed	−200
Ten bags accumulated	−100, bags reset

6. Winning

First partnership to 500 points. If both cross in the same hand, the higher score wins.

7. Variations for other player counts

Three players — deal seventeen each, remove one card, play individually.

Two players — draw from the deck alternately, keeping or discarding, to build a thirteen-card hand before bidding.

Commonly argued

• Bidding zero is nil, worth 100 either way.
• You cannot lead spades until they are broken, but you can play one any time you cannot follow suit.
• You must follow suit. Throwing off while holding the led suit is a renege.
• You cannot force a renege. It is an opponent's error, not a tactic.
• Bags are cumulative and punishing. Overbidding is safer than sandbagging.
• A nil bidder's partner still plays their own contract, and may take tricks freely.