About Spades
Accurate bidding is essential. Make your bid and you score points; fall short and your team loses points. Winning more tricks than you bid may seem helpful, but those overtricks become bags. Bags accumulate across multiple hands and eventually trigger a points penalty, so taking every available trick is not always the best move.
Nil and Blind Nil bids can dramatically change a game. Nil challenges a player to take no tricks for a 100-point bonus, while Blind Nil is declared before seeing the hand and is worth 200 points. In this version, Blind Nil is only offered when your partnership is significantly behind. You will team up with an AI partner and face two AI opponents in a race to 500 points.
How to play Spades
All 52 cards are dealt, giving each player 13 cards. Each player bids the number of tricks they expect to take.
Your bid and your partner’s bid combine to make your team contract. If you bid 4 and your partner bids 3, your team needs at least 7 tricks.
Bid Nil if you expect to take no tricks yourself. Nil is an individual commitment scored separately from the team contract.
Blind Nil is available only when your team is at least 100 points behind. You must declare it before seeing your cards.
Follow the suit led if you can. If you cannot, you may play any card, including a spade.
You cannot lead spades until they have been broken. Spades are broken when someone plays a spade because they cannot follow the suit led.
A spade beats any card of another suit. Otherwise, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick.
Make your team contract and score 10 points for each trick bid. Each trick beyond the contract is a bag worth 1 point. Miss the contract and your team loses 10 points for each trick bid.
Collect 10 bags and your team loses 100 points. Any excess bags carry forward. Bags belong to the partnership.
Successful Nil scores 100 points; failed Nil loses 100. Blind Nil doubles both amounts. The first team to reach 500 points wins.
Spades strategy and tips
Bid from likely winners
Count your high spades, particularly the Ace and King, then look for strong cards in other suits. A short suit can also help if it lets you trump a later trick.
Keep an eye on bags
Once your partnership has made its bid, try not to take tricks you do not need. Extra tricks earn a point each, but too many bags eventually cost your team 100 points.
Choose Nil carefully
Nil is most promising when you have few cards likely to win. Low cards and ways to play beneath stronger cards help, while high spades and isolated high cards can be difficult to avoid winning with.
Support your partner
If your partner bids Nil, try to win tricks that might otherwise force them to play a winning card. If they bid high, avoid taking tricks they are well placed to win. Save your stronger cards for moments when the team needs them.
Spades FAQs
Is Spades always trump in this game?
Yes. Spades are trump in every hand and beat any card of another suit. Players do not choose a trump suit during bidding.
What is a Nil bid?
Nil is a bid to take no tricks during the hand. Taking no tricks scores 100 points, but taking even one trick loses 100 points.
What is Blind Nil, and when can I use it?
Blind Nil is a bid to take no tricks, declared before you see your cards. It scores 200 points if successful and loses 200 if it fails. By default, it is offered only when your partnership is at least 100 points behind.
What are bags, and why do they matter?
Bags are tricks your partnership takes beyond its combined bid. Each extra trick adds 1 point, but bags accumulate across hands. Reaching 10 bags costs your partnership 100 points.
How many players play Spades?
Spades has four players in two partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. In this version, you play with a computer partner against two computer opponents.
How do I win the game?
Your partnership aims to reach 500 points before the opposing team. Making bids, managing bags and choosing Nil carefully can all affect the result.