ThereCare > How to play Spades

SPADES

The basic game is partnership. Spades is played with four players. Your partner sits opposite you. What affects you affects your partner. You must play as a team.

All 52 cards are dealt - 13 to each player. There are 13 tricks to take in each round. Count the bid if you are the last to bid, to make sure all the bids, including yours, do not exceed 13.

Each player looks at his hand and decides how many tricks he thinks he will make.

Spades are always trumps, but can only be led once any player has cut a card in any suit in which he has none.

A Spade card always takes the trick unless a higher Spade is played.

Spades can also be led for the first time if a player has no other suit to lead.

BIDDING

Deciding how many tricks you think you will make, is probably one of the more difficult parts of the game. If you are a beginner, I suggest you try "bidding your Aces and Kings" and add one trick for every spade that you have over 3, unless they are all the smallest ones. The 2, 3, and 4 of spades, if that is all you have it is very unlikely to take a trick unless you have no cards in one suit.

Since the Queen is third down on taking a trick, it is generally not counted in bidding. This is because it is usually trumped when played.

That means if you have 2 Aces, 2 Kings and five Spades, then bid 6. That is 4 tricks for the Aces and Kings and 2 more for the extra Spades. However, life is not that simple! You will have to learn to make allowances for very long or short suits and also for the general 'feel' of the hand. This only comes with experience. As an example, if you had 8 Clubs including the Ace and King, you would be very unwise to assume more than 1 Club trick. Obviously someone would be cutting the second round - or even the first!

Making the right bid only comes with experience.

A player can bid nil if he thinks he will not take a trick at all. Your partner will protect you and try and help you from winning a trick, while your two opponents will try and make you win a trick.

The There Spade table rules allow you to ask your partner if they can cover a nil. Not all players like to be asked if they can cover a nil bid, so it is always best to ask your partner and your opponents what they prefer. Talking during bidding is considered 'table talk' and it is not courteous to do so. (That goes for secret IM's too ;) )

Never bid NIL with an Ace of Spades. It will always take a trick. It is very risky to bid a nil with any other high Spade in your hand. A safer nil bid would be to go nil with no more than three small Spades in your hand; the smaller and less Spades the better.

You will not make a nil bid if you have a short suit with high cards. If you have several cards in one suit, including an ace or a king, you will need several small cards to play until you can slough off the Ace or King when you are out of another suit.

If you have bid nil, your partner will lead with their highest card of any suit when in the lead. They will throw a low card out if it's obvious the other team has played a card to protect you. You will play your highest card under any card played. Remember, you do not want to take any tricks when you have bid nil.

It is very common that a player of each team to bid nil at the same time, and it is often successful for both to get their nil bid, because they both have protection from their partners.

It is very important to check what rules you are playing before you start a game!

Each player has one bid only.

PLAYING

After the bidding is over, the player to the left of the dealer leads the first card. Remember that Spades cannot be led at this stage. Any other card can be led. You must follow suit if you can. If you have none of a suit left, then you may play a Spade.

Never lead a King unless you know where the Ace is or you will lose it as a count (off your bid).

Try not to take a King or an Ace trick from your partner because those are always tricks they have counted on to make their bid count. If you take their trick they will generally be unable to make their bid, and you must try to help them by taking a trick for them. If you cannot, then you will be "set".

You do not have to take a trick with a Spade if you are out of a suit. You simply play a card you know will not use from a different suit, other than Spades. This is good to do when YOU are out of a suit but your partner leads an Ace or King, or when your team wants to give bags to the other team.

It is a good idea to try to remember what high cards have been played. Good players remember what Spades have been played.

SCORING (‘’’yay! We let the hamsters do it in There!)

The usual scoring is as follows. For each trick bid you score 10 points. For each extra trick you make (called a 'bag'), you score 1 point. However, when you have accumulated 10 bags, you lose 100 points. In other words 100 points are deducted from your score. Remember it is a partnership game. If you bid 4 and your partner 3, then it doesn't matter which of you wins the tricks. As long as you make 7 tricks between you, that is all that matters. If you fail to make your bid then you lose 10 times the number of tricks you bid. For example, if you and your partner bid a total of 7 tricks and you make less than that, then you lose 70 points, which is deducted from your score. If you make a Nil you score 100 points but if you fail to make the Nil (viz. you make 1 or more tricks) then you lose 100 points. Double Nil scores 200 points if made and loses 200 points if you take a trick. The winners of the game are the first team to get to 500 points or more. There are many scoring variations, so make sure you know what you are playing!

TACTICS

Basically, it is more important to make your bid than to worry about bags. There are times when underbidding and trying to give extra tricks as bags to your opponents is the right tactic. However, as a general rule, bid your hand!

Should you try and set (or defeat) the opponents bid or should you try and avoid the bags? If the total tricks bid are 12 or 13, then always try and set them. If fewer tricks are bid, then you have to use your judgment and watch what partner is doing.

CONCLUSION

I hope that the above notes help you to understand what the game is all about. Spades is a very easy game to learn, but a difficult game to play well. The main thing to remember, it's a game! Enjoy yourself!

COMMON SPADES TERMS

BAG Abbreviation of "sandbag." An additional trick which has not been bid. Each bag scores 1 point, but when 10 bags are accumulated, the partnership loses 100 points.

BID To 'bid' is to state the number of tricks that a player thinks that he will make.

BLIND NIL A bid of zero tricks which is made before looking at your cards.

BREAK The first spade played on a hand 'breaks spades.' Spades can only be broken when you have no cards in another suit, (when you can cut) or you only have spades in your hand.

COVER When your partner bids nil or double nil, you have to try and 'cover' him. That is help to prevent him from taking a trick.

CUT 'Cut' is the most often used Spades term for playing a spade when another suit is lead in which you have no cards. Other words used are 'ruff' or 'trump'.

HAND Refers to the 13 cards dealt to a player, but can also refer to all the cards dealt (which is really four hands!)

NIL A bid of 'nil' means that a player intends to take no tricks at all.

OVERBID A player 'overbids' if he has bid more tricks than he can reasonably expect to make.

SANDBAG Same as "bag"

SET If a player fails to make a bid then he is 'set' - ie. he has taken one or more tricks in a Nil or Double Nil, or has failed to make the number of tricks required for other bids.

SINGLETON Holding one card only in a suit.

TABLE TALK Discussing tactics on the hand being played, this may influence your partners bidding or play. This is illegal. At best this shows ignorance and at worst it is cheating.

TRICK One card played by each player makes a 'trick'.

TRUMP All the spades are called 'trumps'. The term 'trump' can also mean the same as 'ruff' or 'cut'.

UNDERBID A player 'underbids' if he has bid less tricks than he could reasonably expect to make. Sometimes this is done intentionally to try and bag the opponents.

VOID If you are 'void' in a suit, then you have no cards in it.

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN SPADES PLAY