Spades
Spades lives or dies on the bid. You and your partner each guess how many tricks you will take, and the whole hand is then spent trying to be exactly right — taking too many is nearly as bad as taking too few, because the bags pile up and eventually cost you a hundred points. Nil is the dare: bid zero, take nothing, and collect a bonus that can swing the match, assuming your partner can cover you. Boxless deals four players on their own phones, so nobody can read your hand over your shoulder, and fills empty seats with bots when your fourth cancels.
- Players
- 4
- Playing time
- 35 min
- Ages
- 10 to adult
- Shared screen
- Optional
How it's played
Spades is a game about keeping your word. You promise a number of tricks before a single card is played, and then spend the whole hand trying to be exactly right.
The bid, agreed before a card is played
- You
- 4tricks
- Your partner
- 3tricks
- Your team owes
- 7tricks
Or promise nothing at all
Bid zero and take not one trick, and it is worth +100. Take a single one and it is −100. Your partner still bids normally, and spends the hand trying to cover you.
Spades are trump. Always.
Nothing is called and nothing is turned up — the suit is decided before the game begins, every hand, forever.
Then thirteen tricks
Follow the suit that was led
If you hold it, you must play it. Out of the suit, you may play anything — including a spade.
A spade beats everything
Any spade takes the trick from any other suit. The highest spade takes it from the rest.
Spades have to be broken
Nobody may lead a spade until one has already been played on some earlier trick.
Count as you go
Only your team's total matters. Four and three is seven, however the seven gets split.
Every extra trick is a bag
Take more than you promised and you still make your contract — each extra trick is worth one point. They also stack up on a counter that does not reset between hands, and the tenth one is a hundred points back.
First partnership to 500
You are not playing four people, you are playing two teams. Partners sit across from each other, scores are kept by team, and the bag counter carries from hand to hand until it goes off.
Ten bags cost the winning team a hundred points in hand six, and Them led by ninety-one after hand seven — then got set once. Every hand's tricks add to thirteen, because they have to. Illustrative scores.