Spades Card Games

Spades was invented in the USA in the 1930's and is played quite widely in that country. Until recently it has been little known elsewhere, except in a few places where American troops were stationed, for example in parts of Germany. However, since the mid 1990's Spades has become popular internationally because of its easy availability in on-line card rooms on the Internet. The introduction of of on-line play and tournaments has also led to some standardisation of the rules, and this page has been revised so that the main description conforms to the standard.

Players and Cards

The four players are in fixed partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. Deal and play are clockwise.

A standard pack of 52 cards is used. The cards, in each suit, rank from highest to lowest: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

The Deal

The first dealer is chosen at random, and the turn to deal rotates clockwise. The cards are shuffled and then dealt singly, in clockwise order beginning with the player on dealer's left, until all 52 cards have been dealt and everyone has 13.
The Bidding

In Spades, all four players bid a number of tricks. Each team adds together the bids of the two partners, and the total is the number of tricks that team must try to win in order to get a positive score. The bidding begins with the player to dealer's left and continues clockwise around the table. Everyone must bid a number, and in theory any number from 0 to 13 is allowed. Unlike other games with bidding, there is no requirement for each bid to be higher than the last one, and players are not allowed to pass. There is no second round of bidding - bids once made cannot be altered. Example: South deals; West bids 3; North bids 1; East bids 4; South bids 4. The objective of North and South is to win at least 5 tricks (4+1), East and West try to win at least 7 (4+3).

A bid of 0 tricks is known as Nil. This is a declaration that the player who bid Nil will not win any tricks during the play. There is an extra bonus for this if it succeeds and a penalty if it fails. The partnership also has the objective of winning the number of tricks bid by the Nil's partner. It is not possible to bid no tricks without bidding a Nil. If you don't want to go for the Nil bonus or penalty you must bid at least 1.

Some players allow a bid of Blind nil. This is a nil bid declared before a player looks at his cards. After everyone has bid and before the first lead, the bidder may exchange two cards with partner - the bidder discards two cards face down; partner picks them up and gives back two cards face-down in return. It is usually agreed that Blind Nil may only be bid by a player whose side is losing by at least 100 points.

Features:

Partner players sit across each other. Total bids of partners must be won to get a positive score.
Cards are ordered from 2 to K. Spades always trump other suits.
Player must follow suit of leader, unless unable.
Lead player can't play a spade unless spaces \"have been broken\" (were played before).