How do you play Spades?
Spades is a game where four players in two partnerships hold 13 cards each, bid before the round how many tricks their team will take, and then try to take exactly that many. Making the team bid scores bid ×10 points, missing it loses the same amount, and the first team to 500 points wins.
You sit at the bottom and Noa across the table is your partner. Mia on the left and Leo on the right are the opposing team. Play goes to the left, and if you hold the suit that was led you must follow it. Only when you are out of that suit may you play anything else, and a spade played then is trump and wins the trick. When several spades appear, the highest spade wins.
What are the official rules used here?
This version uses the full partnership rules: bidding from the dealer's left, nil and blind nil, breaking spades, team bid ×10, ten bags for -100 and a game to 500.
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Bidding | Starting left of the dealer, each player bids 0 to 13. The team bid is the sum of both partners' bids. The deal passes to the left every round. |
| Nil | A bid of 0. Taking no trick scores 100, taking any trick loses 100. The partner's bid still stands, and tricks taken by a broken nil count toward the partner's bid. |
| Blind nil | Only available when your team trails by 100 or more, and only before looking at your cards. It scores 200 or -200. |
| Lead | The player left of the dealer leads the first trick. The winner of each trick leads the next. |
| Trump | Spades always beat the other suits. You may only play a spade when you cannot follow suit, and among spades the highest wins. |
| Breaking | Spades may not be led until somebody has discarded a spade on another suit, unless a hand holds nothing but spades. |
| Scoring | Making the team bid scores bid ×10; missing it loses bid ×10. Each extra trick is a bag worth 1 point, and every ten bags cost 100 points. |
| End | The game ends when a team reaches 500 or falls below -200. The higher score wins; a tie plays another round. |
How do you count a bid?
A bid is a count of the tricks you are fairly sure to win. The ace and king of spades are nearly a trick each, an ace in another suit is one trick, and a king in a suit of two to four cards is worth half a trick to one. Every spade beyond four adds about half a trick. The bid panel shows a hand estimate, so start from that number at first.
| Holding | Trick value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ace of spades | 1 | The highest trump always takes a trick. |
| King and queen of spades | 1 · 0.5-1 | Nearly certain with three or more spades, catchable by the ace with fewer. |
| Five or more spades | +0.5 each | Once the others run out of spades even your low ones win. |
| Ace in another suit | 1 | Usually wins the first round of the suit, but a suit of six or more gets trumped. |
| King in another suit | 0.5-1 | In a two to four card suit it wins after the ace is gone. A singleton king rarely does. |
| Void or singleton | +0.5-1 | With two or three spades you can trump that suit when it is led. |
When should you bid nil?
Bid nil when you hold three spades or fewer, all of them 7 or lower, no ace or king and at most one queen. A successful nil is worth 100, the same as a ten trick bid, but a single trick costs 100, so any strength at all in the hand is a reason not to try.
| Factor | Safe to bid nil | Do not bid nil |
|---|---|---|
| Spades | 0 to 3, all 7 or lower | A jack or higher, or four or more spades |
| High cards | No ace or king, at most one queen | Any ace or king (it wins when its suit comes round) |
| Long suits | A suit with five or more low cards | Every suit evenly spread in twos and threes |
| Partner's bid | Partner bid 3 or more and can cover you | Partner bid 1 or 2 and nobody takes tricks |
| Score | Trailing by 100 or more and you need a swing | Leading, with no reason to take the risk |
The nil bidder's partner has one job: cover. Win tricks with high cards early so the nil player can shed low cards safely, and whenever the nil player is forced to play a high card, play a higher one over it to steal the trick. The Hard computer partner does this cover on its own.
Why are bags dangerous?
Bags are tricks taken beyond the bid. Each is worth 1 point, which looks like a gain, but the moment ten of them pile up the team loses 100. The bag counter in the team panel at the lower right turns red at seven, and from then on you should avoid tricks.
Once the bid is made, play the highest card that still loses so your winners are gone before the end. The reverse also works: if the opponents sit on nine bags, feed them a trick and watch them lose 100.
How do the computer levels differ?
There are three levels and your partner Noa plays at the same level. Easy bids roughly and plays at random, Normal evaluates the hand to bid and uses basic technique, and Hard counts every spade played and covers its partner's nil.
| Level | What it does |
|---|---|
| Easy | Adds noise to the hand estimate when bidding and picks a random legal card. It at least plays low when it has bid nil. |
| Normal | Bids from the hand evaluation in the table above and only bids nil on a safe hand. Wins with the cheapest card when tricks are still needed and ducks once the bid is made. |
| Hard | Remembers the spades played and each player's void suits, leads only sure winners, draws out the remaining trumps, covers a partner's nil with high cards and feeds low cards to an opponent's nil to break it. When 200 or more behind it will even try blind nil. |
How do you win?
- Bid one trick low. A set loses the whole bid ×10, a bag costs 1. Do not count the tricks you are unsure of.
- Empty your short suits first. Lead a singleton on your first lead and from the second round of that suit you can trump it.
- Check whether spades are broken. The spade in the top left strip turns gold when they are. Until then nobody can lead spades, so your high cards in other suits are safe.
- Do not overtake your partner. A king on top of your partner's ace buys one trick with two cards. Throw your lowest card instead.
- Count the spades. Knowing how many of the 13 spades are gone tells you when your low spades start winning.
- Plan the last few tricks. If the bid is made and only winners remain, bags are unavoidable, so unload the high cards earlier.
Controls
- Mouse: hover a card to lift it, click to play it. Cards that cannot be played are dimmed.
- Phone and tablet: tap a card once to select it and again to play it, or flick it upward. In portrait your hand sits at the bottom, your partner at the top and the opponents on either side.
- Bidding: when it is your turn a panel appears in the centre. Press a number button or a 0-9 key; the red nil button or the N key bids nil. When you trail by 100 or more you may choose blind nil before looking, and tapping a card reveals the hand.
- Keyboard: ← → select a card, Enter or Space plays it. M toggles sound. Enter on the score panel starts the next round.
The score panel appears after every round and shows bids, tricks, round points, bags and totals for both teams. Records and the computer level are stored only in this browser. The card art and sound effects are drawn and synthesized in code, so nothing is downloaded.