Spades

About Spades

You play with a computer partner against two computer opponents. Choose Easy, Normal or Hard in the toolbar; play speed and blind nil are in Settings. The game is saved after every card.

Spades is the partnership trick-taking game where spades are always trumps. You and your computer partner Bea, sitting across the table, bid how many tricks you will take together, then try to take exactly that many against Rex and Kit. Make your bid to score, fall short and you lose points, and take too many and the bags pile up.

Also called: spades card game.

How to play Spades

1. All 52 cards are dealt, thirteen each. You and Bea (across) are one team; Rex (left) and Kit (right) are the other.
2. Bid: starting left of the dealer, everyone says how many tricks they expect to take, from nil (none) to 13. Use the bid card: − and + to set your number, then Bid. The Hint shows what a careful player would bid.
3. Partners’ bids add together into the team’s contract. The player left of the dealer leads the first trick.
4. You must follow the suit led if you can. If you can’t, you may trump with a spade or throw any other card.
5. The highest spade wins a trick; if no spade was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads next.
6. After thirteen tricks the hand is scored. The first team to 500 points wins.

Rules

• Spades can’t be led until broken: until a spade has been played on an earlier trick, you may not lead one unless you hold nothing but spades.
• A team that makes its bid scores 10 points per trick bid, plus 1 point for each extra trick, called a bag.
• A team that fails its bid loses 10 points per trick bid.
• Every 10 bags a team collects costs it 100 points; the bag count carries from hand to hand.
• A nil bid scores +100 if that player takes no tricks, and −100 if they take any. Tricks taken by a failed nil don’t count towards the partner’s bid; they count as bags.
• Blind nil (off unless you switch it on in Settings) is a nil bid made before looking at your cards, worth +200 or −200.
• The game ends when a team reaches 500 at the end of a hand. If both teams pass it, the higher score wins; if they are level, another hand is played.

Spades tips and strategy

• Count sure tricks when you bid: aces, kings with a small card beside them, high spades, and extra length in spades. Short side suits let you trump in.
• Bid a little under rather than over. A set costs ten times the bid; a bag costs only one point, until ten of them add up.
• Once your team’s bid is made, stop taking tricks you don’t need. Throw high cards under other players’ winners to avoid bags.
• If your partner bids nil, bid a trick or two more and play high to cover their cards. If an opponent bids nil, lead low cards that force them to win.
• Watch the chips on each name plate: they show every player’s bid and the tricks they have won so far.
• Hard computer players count the cards, notice when someone runs out of a suit, and play for sets when your team is close to failing.