Spades Rules: How to Play

Spades is a partnership trick-taking game built around one promise: before a card is played, you predict how many tricks you'll win, and then you have to deliver. Spades are always trump, the Queen of Spades has no special meaning here, and the first team to 500 wins. This page is a complete reference to the rules. To learn by doing, you can play Spades now with a computer partner against two AI opponents.

What is Spades?

Spades is a four-player game played in two partnerships — you and the player across the table versus the other two. It uses a standard 52-card deck, aces are high, and the spade suit is permanent trump. Each hand has 13 tricks, and the heart of the game is bidding: your team commits to a number of tricks and is scored on whether it hits that number.

The deal

All 52 cards are dealt out evenly, 13 to each player. There is no stock and nothing left over. You look at your hand and assess how many tricks it can realistically take.

Bidding

Going around the table, each player announces a bid — the number of tricks (0 to 13) they expect to take. Your team's bid is the sum of both partners' bids; that combined number is your contract for the hand. A bid of nil (zero) is a special promise to take no tricks at all, scored separately and richly rewarded. You bid based only on your own hand, so reading your high spades and side-suit aces accurately is the whole skill.

Spades are trump

The spade suit beats every other suit. If you cannot follow the led suit, you may play a spade to trump the trick and win it. When two or more spades are played to a trick, the highest spade wins. If no spade is played, the highest card of the led suit wins.

Following suit and breaking spades

The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick — with any card except a spade — and after that, the winner of each trick leads the next. You must follow the led suit if you hold a card in it. Only when you are void in the led suit may you trump with a spade or discard. You may not lead a spade until spades have been "broken" — that happens the first time a player, unable to follow suit, plays a spade. After that, spades can be led freely. (You may always lead a spade if your hand contains nothing but spades.)

Scoring

At the end of each hand, score each team:

• Made your bid: score 10 points per bid trick. A team that bid 7 and took at least 7 scores 70.
• Overtricks (bags): each trick beyond your bid is a bag worth 1 point — but they pile up dangerously (see below).
• Missed your bid: if your team takes fewer tricks than it bid, you are "set" and lose 10 points per bid trick — bidding 7 and taking 6 costs you 70.

The bag penalty

Bags are tempting because each is a point, but they accumulate across hands. Every time your running bag count reaches 10, your team is hit with a 100-point penalty and the counter rolls over. That single rule is why you bid honestly: collecting overtricks feels good until ten of them erase a whole game's progress.

Nil bids

Bidding nil means you promise to win zero tricks. Succeed and your team gains 100 points; take even one trick and you lose 100. Your partner still plays their own bid normally and will often try to "cover" you — winning tricks you can't safely duck. A nil is the boldest play in Spades and can decide a game on its own.

How you win

Hands continue until a team reaches the target of 500 points. The team with the higher score at that point wins. Because a set or a blown nil can cost 70–100 points in a single hand, the lead changes hands often and accurate bidding wins games.

Frequently asked questions

Keep going

Now that you know the rules, play a hand of Spades with a computer partner. To bid sharper and set your opponents, read our Spades strategy guide, see how it compares in Hearts vs Spades, try the avoidance game in Hearts, or browse the guides hub.