SPADES
- Game Type: Rummy
- Age: 12+
- Players: 2+
- The pack: 52 card deck
OBJECT OF THE GAME
Belonging to the same family as Bridge and Hearts, Spades is an exciting trick-taking game that can be played solo or with teams. In either format, you can expect a highly competitive experience. The objective of the Spades game is to bid the number of tricks needed to win and succeed in the game.
The traditional way of playing Spades is to sit down with your team and opponents and have a showdown. However, the Spades card game online is also available on various websites and mobile applications, allowing you to play the game anytime, anywhere.
This blog explains how to play Spades card game:
What is Spades card game?
Spades is a trick-taking game that keeps all players hooked until the end. It requires you to bid on the number of tricks you can win the game. For instance, if you bid to win 5 tricks and successfully achieve that, you emerge as the undisputed winner.
You can play the Spades game with a standard deck of cards comprising 52 playing cards. The Ace card holds the highest value in the Spades playing cards. The Ace is followed by the King, Queen, Jack, and the number cards. When it comes to suits, the Spade suit always trumps above all.
How does a deal in the Spades card game work?
The following pointers illustrate how a deal in the Spades card game works:
- A draw is made to decide the first dealer of the game.
- The card player who draws the highest-ranking card is declared the dealer.
- After the first dealer is chosen, the players turn to deal clockwise.
- The entire deck is dealt one at a time, starting from the dealer’s left.
- The cards are placed face-down so that no one can see them.
- Once all cards are dealt, each player picks up their hand and arranges their cards by suit.
How does bidding take place in the Spades game?
Bidding is a large and important part of the Spades game. Hence, knowing the nuances of bidding is necessary to play the Spades game. Let’s dive into the details:
- In bidding, each player states how many tricks they think they can win.
- The player to the dealer’s left starts the bidding.
- Only a single bidding round occurs, meaning each player can make just one bid.
Note: Every player must make a bid; no player is allowed to pass.
- The lowest bid a player can make is 1 trick.
- The bid does not involve a suit, as spades are always the trump suit in this game.
How to play the Spades game?
The following pointers help you learn to play Spades:
- Playing the Spades card game is very simple if you get its basics right.
- As established, the game's objective is to bid the number of tricks you expect to win the game in.
- The card player on the dealer’s left makes the first lead.
- Note: Lead means playing the first trick in the hand. The card player who does so is called the leader.
- Once the lead is made, all players must follow the suit of the card led, provided they have the card.
- If a player doesn't have a card in the suit led, they can play a Trump card (Spades) or discard a card.
- A card player can win a trick in two ways:
- One way, the card player plays the highest Trump card.
- The other way is that if no Trump is played, the player plays the highest card in the suit that was led.
- Whichever card players win, the current trick leads to the following one.
- Each hand consists of 13 tricks, all of which are played accordingly.
- The play continues until all players have no cards left.
Note: Spades cannot be led unless They have already been played in the previous trick or the player to lead has only Spades left in their hand.
How do you keep scores in Spades?
One card player is designated as the scorer and writes down the bids and scores. The bids are written down before the start of a hand. After the hand concludes, the scores of the winning tricks are calculated and written down for transparency.
Here’s a simple breakdown of how you can keep scores in Spades:
- Each player earns 10 points for each trick they bid.
- If the player wins fewer tricks than they bid, their score for that hand is 0.
- When a card player wins more tricks than they bid, the extra tricks are called overtricks.
- A card player earns 1 point for every overtrick.
- Overtricks are sometimes called "bags."
- If a player accumulates 10 bags (overtricks), they lose 100 points.
- Note: If there is a tie in the game, all players play one rounder to break the tie.
- The card player must reach a certain number of points to win.
- The points required to win a short game is 200 points, while to win a large game is 500 points.
Wrapping it up
Spades is a very engaging trick-taking game that can be played solo or with a team. It uses a standard deck of playing cards. It requires you to bid the number of tricks in which you can win the game. You win points for every trick you win. These points are totalled at the end of the game to determine the winner. If you are playing a shorter game, you need to have 200 points to win. If you are playing a longer game, you need to have 500 points to win.


