Spades is typically played with a standard 52-card deck.
Players form two partnerships, with partners sitting across from each other.
Each player is dealt 13 cards, one at a time, face down.
Gameplay:
Bidding: The auction phase begins where players bid to determine the number of tricks their partnership will take.
Bidding starts with the player to the dealer’s left and proceeds clockwise.
Players bid the number of tricks they believe their partnership can win, starting with zero and going up to 13.
The total number of tricks bid by both partnerships cannot exceed 13.
Playing the Hand: The player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick. Players must follow suit if possible; otherwise, they can play any card, including a spade (if spades have been broken).
The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, and the player who wins the trick leads the next one.
Spades cannot be led until a player has played a spade (breaking spades).
Scoring: After all tricks have been played, each partnership counts the number of tricks they won compared to their bid. If they made their bid, they score 10 points for each trick bid plus one point for each extra trick. If they did not make their bid, they score zero points, and the bid is subtracted from their score.
Winning: The game continues with subsequent hands until a predetermined score limit is reached (often 500 points or another agreed-upon value). The partnership with the highest score at the end of the game is the winner.
Additional Notes:
A key element of Spades is the concept of “nil bids” where players can bid to take zero tricks. If successful, they earn 100 points, but if they take any tricks, they lose 100 points.
Strategy in Spades involves communication between partners through bids and card play to maximize the number of tricks won while accurately predicting bids.
Players must follow suit if possible but can play any card if they cannot follow suit, except in the first trick of the hand where they cannot play a spade or a heart.