How to play
Spades rules
Spades is a partnership card game for four players. You bid how many books your team will win, and spades are always trump. Here is everything you need for your first hand.
The rules at a glance
- 4 players, 2 teams, working together.
- Rank order (high to low): A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
- Everyone plays one card. Highest wins the book.
- Predict how many books you'll win.
Players, partners and the deck
Four players form two teams of two. Partners sit across from each other, so play goes around the table alternating between the teams.
You use a standard 52-card deck. In every suit the Ace is high and the 2 is low, and any spade beats any card of another suit.
A book in progress: everyone follows the suit that was led, and the highest card wins.
Card order in every suit: Ace high, 2 low.
Dealing
The dealer shuffles and deals all 52 cards one at a time, clockwise, so each player gets 13. The deal moves one seat to the left after each hand.
On ClubSpade the cards are dealt for you, and the player who leads the first book is picked at random.
Bidding
After looking at their cards, each player bids the number of books they expect to win. Partners add their bids together, and that total is the team's target for the hand.
Count your sure winners: high spades, Aces and Kings in long suits, and short suits you can cut with a spade. On ClubSpade each player bids between 1 and 13 books.
Nil and blind nil
Bidding nil means you promise to win no books at all. Your team earns 100 points if you pull it off and loses 100 if you win even one. Your partner's bid is scored separately.
Blind nil is the same promise made before you look at your cards, usually worth 200 points either way. Nil and blind nil are not offered in ClubSpade games at the moment.
Playing a book
The first player leads any card. Everyone else must follow the suit that was led if they can. If you have no card of that suit, you may play any card, including a spade.
The highest spade wins the book. If no spade was played, the highest card of the suit that was led wins. The winner of each book leads the next one.
Any spade beats any card of another suit, even an Ace.
Breaking spades
You can't lead a spade until spades are broken, which happens the first time someone plays a spade because they couldn't follow suit.
The one exception: if your hand holds nothing but spades, you may lead one.
Books and winning
Each round of four cards is a book, and a hand has 13 books. After the last book, each team scores its bid. See the scoring guide for exactly how points are counted.
At a kitchen table, teams usually play hand after hand until one reaches 500 points. A ClubSpade game is a single hand: the team with the higher score after 13 books wins.
Questions players ask
How many players do you need for Spades?
Four players in two partnerships. On ClubSpade you can play alone: the computer fills the other three seats.
Can you lead with a spade on the first book?
No. Spades can't be led until a spade has been played on another suit, unless you have only spades left in your hand.
What happens if you can't follow suit?
You can play any card. Playing a spade usually wins the book unless someone plays a higher spade.
What is a book in Spades?
A book is one round of four cards, one from each player. There are 13 books in a hand, and the highest card wins each one.
Try it at the table
Play a hand against the computer now, or let the tutorial walk you through one card by card.