Play Spades card game for free in your desktop or mobile browser. Playing Spades After all of the bidding is done, the player to the dealers left begins by playing any card EXCEPT for a spade. It can be any heart, diamond or club, but no spades. Then, again in clockwise, each player lays down a card (trick) face up.

Spades is a casual card game developed in the 1930's in the USA. Spades is played with a basic set of 52 cards and card value ranks from 2, the lowest, to Ace, the highest. The version of 24/7 Spades is the most popular and is played with four Spades players in a team format, where players across the table are considered teammates. Spades is a game of trumps, where all spades are the best cards in the game and will beat all other suits.

Each hand begins with all 52 cards being dealt to the players. The table then enters into the bidding phase where they estimate the number of tricks they can take with the hand they have been dealt. If you bid a Blind Nil, you must bid a 0 without seeing your cards. The payout will be higher if you achieve it, but the loss even greater if you don't - so bid this at your own risk! Teams must reach the total number of tricks they have bid together in order to get a positive score.

The Spades game begins gameplay with the player to the left of the dealer, who can play any card other than a Spade. Moving clockwise, each player plays a card to follow suit, unless they do not have the suit, in which they can play any card in their hand. If a trick is played without a spade, the highest lead suit card takes the trick. If a trick contains a spade, the highest spade wins. The winner of the trick leads the next trick. Spades cannot lead a trick until they have been broken in another trick or if that is the only suit the lead player has left in their hand.

Once the full hand has been played, the game is scored. If the bid for a team is met, each trick counts 10 points, with any additional tricks (sandbags) worth 1 point. If a bid is not met, each trick in the bid is worth -10 points. If a nil is bid and met, the team gets an additional 100 points. A won double nil gets 200 points. When either of these are not met, the team will get -100 and -200 points respectively. Once 10 sandbags are reached, the team looses 100 points and starts over with 0 sandbags again. Once the score is tallied after each hand, another deal begins. The first team to 500 points wins!

• Be sure to protect your Spades partner if they bid a nil or double nil.
• Play your Aces first to try to take Spades tricks early before other players run out of that suit.
• Try to bid as accurately as possible to avoid scoring Spades Sandbags.
• If the other Spades team bids a nil or blind nil, be sure to try everything to get them a trick.

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Spades is a trick-taking card game devised in the United States in the 1930s and became popular in the 1940s. It is a partnership card game that, like Bridge, is descended from the old English game of Whist. In general, the goal of each Hand of Spades is to predict or Bid on how many Tricks you will take during that hand.

Basic Rules

Spades is a trick-based card game for 4 players. Players sitting across from each other are partners on the same team. The object of this game is to be the first team to reach 300 or 500 points.

The layout

Each player is dealt a hand of 13 cards from a 52 card deck. The hand is sorted by suit, then rank: Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts. Cards that are out of play are darkened.

Bidding

Starting with the dealer, each player in turn bids the number of tricks she expects to win. Possible bids are from Nil to thirteen. The sum of partnership bids are called the contract. If a player bids Nil, (meaning they expect to win no tricks), then they may, depending on the rule settings, be allowed to exchange up to four cards with their partner once everyone else has bid.

How to play Spades

The game begins with all cards being dealt. Each player plays one card and together they are called a trick. To start you must estimate how many tricks you think you can take with your hand. Your bid and your partners are then added together and this is the number of tricks your team must take. Play begins with the player to the dealer's left leading a card. The highest card in that suit wins the trick. Now for the tricky part and the reason the game is calls Spades. If you are out of the lead suit, you can play any card you like. If you play a Spade and no one else does, you win the trick. So Spades are trump cards. In this case the highest Spade wins.

The game does not allow ties for first place. In the case of a tie for first, the game will continue until there is a clear winner. This is true of both games ending at a point value and timed games.

Scoring

Tricks count ten points each for a partnership if the contract is made, and ten against if it is set. Bags, or tricks won in excess of the contract, count as one point each. This isn't a bad thing per se, but if you gather 10 bags you will deducted 100 points. Not all Spades games use bags, but ours does. You can opt to bid nothing which (Nil bid), if successful, will reap your team extra 100 points. -100 if you fail. For Blind Nil, these values are doubles (200 points).

About this Spades game

When playing Spades it is important to always remember your partner. By paying close attention to what cards fall early in the game you can play to your partner’s strength and they can play to yours. At its best, both you and your partner’s hands will be stronger than they ever could be individually and this strength is both satisfying to grasp and the secret to success in the game of Spades.

2 Player Spades Online

You can play classic Spades online on our website. And it's free! No download, no login required, simple gameplay! Also this free online game is available in mobile browser across all your Android, iOS and Windows devices. Good luck and have a good time!