Spades

Play the classic card game Spades online. Spades is a Trick taking card game for four players. The game involves teamwork, strategy, and a splash of luck.

Rules

Teams

The four players are divided into 2 teams, each player on a team with their opposite player. The team wins or loses together.

The Deck

Spades is played with a standard 52-card deck with four suits: Spades, Diamonds, Clubs and Hearts. Each player is dealt 13 cards. The cards are valued highest-to-lowest: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

Bidding

Each player, in turn order, bids how many "tricks" they can win. There are a total of 13 tricks. A trick is a round of 4 cards, one from each player.

Special Game Rules

In Spades, the Spades suit is always trump which means that a Spade card will always beat any other suit, regardless of value. A Spade can not be used to lead a trick unless a Spade has already been played or the player has no other choice.

Game Play

The first player opens the trick by playing a card from their hand of their choice, following the special game rules. All other players must try to follow the suit of the card played. If they cannot, they can instead play any card, including a Spade. After all four players have played a card the highest trump card, if any, wins. If no trump cards were played, the highest card of the suit that lead the trick wins.

Scoring

After all 13 tricks have been played, each team counts their tricks won and compares their wins to the team's combined bids. If the wins equal or exceeds the amount bid, the team is awarded 10 points for each point bid and 1 point for each trick taken over the bid amount. The amount over is called a "bag".

If a team doesn't make their bid, they lose 10 points for each point bid.

Game Over

Once a team reaches a set number of points, by default 250, the game is over. The team with the highest point total wins.

If you like Gin Rummy, Speed, Euchre, Pinochle, Cribbage, Nertz, or Solitaire you will love Spades.

Spades JD