Spades Rules: The Complete Guide to Playing and Scoring
Every Spades rule in one place: the deal, bidding, trick play, spade-breaking, Nil, Blind Nil, bags and scoring — plus the variants you will meet.
Spades is a trick-taking card game for four players in two partnerships. You sit opposite your partner, everyone predicts how many tricks they will win, and then you try to make exactly that number. Spades are permanent trump, which is what makes the game interesting: you can always take a trick if you are willing to spend a spade. This page is the complete reference — every rule, every formula, and every variant you are likely to meet.
- Four players in two partnerships. North and South play against East and West. Partners sit opposite each other, so you never sit next to your own partner.
- A standard 52-card deck, 13 cards each. No jokers in the classic game. Cards rank A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 within each suit.
- Spades are always trump. There is no auction to choose a trump suit and no way to change it. Any spade beats any card of any other suit.
- Play and the deal run clockwise. The first dealer is chosen by a cut; the deal then rotates one seat each hand.
Starting with the player to the dealer's left and proceeding clockwise, each player announces how many of the 13 tricks they personally expect to win — anything from 0 to 13. A bid does not have to beat the previous bid.
Normal bid: 1–13 tricks. Your two bids form one team contract.. Nil (0): Take no tricks at all. +75 if it holds, −75 if you take even one trick (Standard tier).. Blind Nil: Declared before you look at your cards. +150 if it holds, −150 if it fails.. Team contract: If you bid 3 and your partner bids 4, the partnership must win at least 7 tricks.
Bids are a contract, not a wish. You are paid for hitting the number and punished for missing it by the same amount, so accuracy is worth more than ambition.
- The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick; after that, whoever won the previous trick leads.
- Follow suit if you can. If a heart is led and you hold hearts, you must play one.
- If you have no cards of the led suit you may play anything — including a spade, which is called trumping .
- The trick is won by the highest spade played; if no spade was played, the highest card of the led suit wins.
- Spades must be broken. You may not lead a spade until someone has trumped with a spade, or until you hold nothing but spades.
Two consequences drive most intermediate play. Because you must follow suit, a void is a weapon: the second time that suit is led you can trump it. And because spades cannot be led until broken, a player with a long spade suit cannot simply run it — they have to wait.
Bid made: bid × 10 + 1 per overtrick : Overtricks are recorded as bags. Bid missed: −(bid × 10): No partial credit for coming close. Nil made / broken: +75 / −75: Scored as its own line, separate from your partner. Blind Nil made / broken: +150 / −150: Declared before looking at your hand. Ten bags accumulated: −50: Counter resets to zero; the excess carries over. Win condition: first team to the target: The target follows your stake; on a Standard-stake table it is 150. Lose condition: score falls to the negative of the target: In the 2v2 modes only — a Solo player going negative does not end it
The asymmetry is the whole game: making a bid of 4 earns 40 and missing it costs 40. There is no middle outcome, which is why conservative, accurate bidding wins more matches than optimistic bidding.
Solo (Cutthroat) : No partnerships; each player bids and scores alone. Bids of 2–4 are normal.. Solo 3 : Three players, 17 cards each, ♣2 removed. Long suits dominate.. Mirror : No bag system — every overtrick costs −5 immediately. Nil pays 100.. Whiz : Legal bids are only Nil or your spade count. Nil pays 100.. Joker : ♦2 and ♣2 replaced by two jokers ranked above the ♠A. Nil pays 60.. Jokers as 14–15 trump: A house variant where the jokers are simply extra spades, sometimes with both 2s kept.. Minimum bid of 4: A house rule preventing deliberate under-bidding; common in some online rooms.
House rules are real rules at the table you are sitting at. Before a match, confirm four numbers: the Nil value, the Blind Nil value, the bag penalty and the target score. Nearly every "the app scored it wrong" complaint is one of those four. For the published history of the game and the regional variations we have not covered here, see the Wikipedia article on Spades .
- Renege. Failing to follow suit when you can is a revoke; in most rulesets the hand is forfeited. Check your hand before you play.
- Leading out of turn is usually corrected without penalty if caught immediately.
- No table talk about your hand. Communication is limited to the cards you play. Timing, tone and hints are not allowed.
- Score disputes. Resolve with the four formulas above; if a house rule differs, the house rule wins for that session.
Rules make sense fastest when you watch them run. Open a free Partnership table — same deal, same trick rules, same scoring, against three AI opponents. Then work through the bidding guide and the leading guide .
Frequently asked questions
How many players do you need for Spades?
Four, in two partnerships, is standard. There are also three-player (Solo 3) and two-player variants, but the classic game — and every mode on this site — assumes four seats unless stated otherwise.
Can you lead spades at any time?
No. Spades cannot be led until they are broken: either a player who could not follow suit played a spade, or the leader holds nothing but spades. After that, spades may be led freely.
What happens if you cannot follow suit?
You may play any card. Playing a spade is trumping and wins the trick unless a higher spade appears. Playing another suit is a discard and cannot win.
How many points do you need to win?
150 on the Standard tier, 100 on Beginner and 300 on Ranked, varying by mode — Mirror and Solo 3 use 200. The first team to reach the target wins.
What is a bag in Spades?
An overtrick: any trick won above your bid. Each is worth 1 point, and every tenth bag costs the team 50 points on the Standard tier.
Is Spades the same everywhere?
The core rules are stable, but Nil values, bag penalties and target scores vary between apps and house rules. Always confirm those four numbers before you play somewhere new.
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