How to Play Spades

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Spades is a partnership trick-taking game played with a standard 52-card deck. Four players sit in two teams of two, facing their partners across the table. Every round begins with a bidding phase in which each player commits to a number of tricks, and the partnership scores points only if it collectively meets its combined bid. Spades are always trumps, which gives the game its name and a defining tactical tension.

Players love Spades for the balance it strikes between individual judgement and team coordination. You must read your own hand accurately, trust your partner's bid, and decide when to push for overtricks and when to hold back. The game is widely played in homes, clubs, and online, and is particularly popular across North America and in communities throughout the UK.

A little history

Spades is traditionally said to have developed in the United States during the late 1930s, with the University of Cincinnati frequently cited as an early centre of play. It spread through American college campuses and military circles during the 1940s, and by mid-century had become one of the most widely played card games in North America. Its precise origins are unclear, and no single inventor or definitive first publication of the rules has been established. The game draws on the broader tradition of Whist-family trick-taking games that have been popular in the English-speaking world for centuries.

Setting up

1. Seat four players at a square table. Partners sit directly opposite each other. Agree which pair forms Team A and which forms Team B.
2. Shuffle the full 52-card deck thoroughly. Deal all 52 cards clockwise, one at a time, face down, so that each player holds exactly 13 cards.
3. Players pick up and examine their hands without showing them to anyone else.
4. Agree on a target score before play begins. 500 points is standard; some groups use 200 or 300 for a shorter game.
5. The player to the dealer's left will bid first in the opening round. The deal passes clockwise each round.

How to play

1. BIDDING: Starting with the player to the dealer's left and going clockwise, each player states a number from 0 to 13. This is the number of tricks that player personally commits to winning during the round. A bid of zero is called a Nil bid and is scored separately (see Winning). There is no minimum bid and no requirement to justify your number.
2. PARTNERSHIP BID: Once all four players have bid, add each partnership's two bids together. That sum is the partnership's combined target for the round. For example, if you bid 3 and your partner bids 4, your partnership must take at least 7 tricks.
3. LEADING THE FIRST TRICK: The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick by placing any card face up in the centre, except a Spade. Spades may not be led until the suit has been 'broken' (see step 5).
4. FOLLOWING SUIT: Each other player, going clockwise, must play a card of the suit that was led if they hold one. This is called following suit and is mandatory.
5. PLAYING A SPADE WHEN VOID: If a player holds no card in the suit led, they may play any card, including a Spade. Playing a Spade when void in the led suit 'breaks Spades'. Once Spades have been broken, a player may lead a Spade on any subsequent trick.
6. WINNING A TRICK: The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless one or more Spades were played. If any Spades were played, the highest Spade wins. Aces are high; card ranking within each suit is A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.
7. COLLECTING TRICKS: The player who wins a trick collects the four cards, places them face down in front of themselves, and leads the next trick. Partners keep their won tricks grouped together so both players can see the partnership's running total.
8. CONTINUING PLAY: Play continues until all 13 tricks have been played and all 52 cards have been used.
9. SCORING: Each partnership counts its total tricks won and scores accordingly (see Winning). Record both partnerships' scores, then deal a new round. Repeat until one partnership reaches the agreed target.

Winning and scoring

A partnership that wins at least as many tricks as its combined bid scores 10 points per trick bid. For example, a bid of 7 that succeeds scores 70 points. Any tricks won beyond the bid are called overtricks or bags, and each bag scores 1 point. However, accumulating 10 bags across any number of rounds incurs a 100-point penalty, and the bag count resets to zero. This rule strongly discourages overbidding. A partnership that fails to reach its combined bid loses 10 points per trick bid; the tricks won still count as bags in future rounds if the partnership had any.

Nil bids are scored separately. If the Nil bidder wins zero tricks, their partnership scores a 100-point bonus. If the Nil bidder wins even one trick, their partnership loses 100 points. The Nil bid is scored in addition to the partner's individual result. A blind Nil, offered by some groups before looking at one's cards, doubles the bonus and penalty to 200 points. The first partnership to reach the agreed target (commonly 500 points) at the end of a complete round wins. If both partnerships reach the target in the same round, the partnership with the higher score wins.

The fine points

The most common dispute concerns leading Spades before the suit is broken. The standard ruling is that a player may not voluntarily lead a Spade until a Spade has been played on a previous trick as a discard or trump, or until Spades are the only suit remaining in the player's hand. If a player leads a Spade illegally, the card must be taken back and a legal card played instead; if the trick has already been collected, many groups apply a 10-point penalty to the offending partnership rather than unplay the trick. A second frequent edge case involves a player reneging, that is, failing to follow suit when they held a card in the led suit. If a renege is identified before the round ends and can be proven, the standard penalty is to award three tricks from the offending partnership to the opposing partnership and to replay the round from that point; if identified after scoring, a 100-point penalty is common.

Nil bids require the partner to play normally and are not a licence for the partner to throw the game. If the partner of a Nil bidder is suspected of deliberately feeding tricks to the Nil bidder, that is treated as an irregularity. On disputed trick counts at the end of a round, all four players' trick piles are counted before any score is recorded. Scores should be written down at the end of each round; verbal-only tracking leads to nearly all scoring disputes.

How to win more often

• Bid accurately, not ambitiously. Count your near-certain winners: aces, guarded kings in long suits, and high Spades. Only count a card as a likely trick if you can genuinely expect to win it given normal distributions. Overbidding is the most common error among newer players.
• Communicate through your bid. Your partner reads your bid as information about your hand. A bid of 4 tells them you have four reasonably solid tricks; a bid of 1 warns them your hand is weak. Resist padding your bid to look strong.
• Protect a partner's Nil bid aggressively. If your partner has bid Nil, your priority is covering the suits where they may be forced to win a trick. Play high cards to drain dangerous suits early, and overtake their cards when you can do so safely.
• Manage your bags deliberately. If your partnership is sitting on 8 or 9 bags, consider bidding slightly higher than your hand strictly warrants in order to claim borderline tricks as bid tricks rather than bags. Bag penalties can swing a game sharply.
• Lead Spades to flush out high trumps. If you hold several middling Spades, leading the suit early can knock out your opponents' aces and kings, making your lower Spades more powerful later in the round. This is particularly useful when you need to set the opposing partnership.

Variations

Cutthroat Spades

Cutthroat Spades is played by three players, each competing individually. The deck is reduced by removing the 2 of Clubs, leaving 51 cards dealt as 17 each, or alternatively each player receives 13 cards and the remaining card is set aside unseen. Each player bids and scores independently using the same 10-points-per-bid-trick structure. There are no partnerships, and the bag penalty still applies per player at 10 bags.

Blind Bidding (Blind Nil)

This variant, often folded into standard Spades as an optional rule, allows a player who has not yet looked at their cards to declare a Nil bid. The player then picks up and may pass two cards to their partner, who passes two different cards back. A successful blind Nil scores 200 points for the partnership; failure costs 200 points. It introduces a high-risk comeback mechanism and is common in competitive play.

Whiz

In Whiz, each player must either bid the exact number of Spades in their hand or bid Nil. There is no free bidding. This variant removes bluffing from the bidding phase almost entirely and shifts the contest to the play of the hand. It suits players who find standard bidding too unpredictable and produces tighter, more tactical games.

Mirror Spades

Mirror Spades requires each player to bid exactly the number of tricks their partner bids, mirroring it. Partners are not permitted to communicate before bidding. The combined partnership bid is therefore always double one player's number. This format tests how well partners read each other's tendencies over multiple rounds and is popular as a social or tournament variation.

Spades: frequently asked questions