Rules to Spades

How to play  Spades 

Four player  Spades 

The four players are in fixed partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. Deal and play are clockwise.

Rank of Cards using a standard pack of 52 cards. The cards, in each suit, rank from highest to lowest: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

How to Deal

The first dealer is chosen at random, and the turn to deal rotates clockwise. The cards are shuffled and then dealt in clockwise order beginning with the player on dealer’s left, until all 52 cards have been dealt and everyone has 13.

How to Bid

All four players bid a number of tricks. Each team adds together the bids of the two partners, and the total is the number of tricks that team must try to win in order to get a positive score. The bidding begins with the player to dealer’s left and continues clockwise around the table. Everyone must bid a number. Unlike other games with bidding, there is no requirement for each bid to be higher than the last one, and players are not allowed to pass. There is only one round of bidding.

A bid of 0 tricks is known as Nil. This is a declaration that that the player who bid Nil will not win any trix during the play. There is an extra bonus for this if it succeeds and a penalty if it fails. The partnership also has the objective of winning the number of tricks bid by the Nil’s partner. It is not possible to bid no tricks without bidding a Nil. If you don’t want to go for the Nil bonus or penalty you must bid at least 1. Some players allow a bid of Blind nil. This is a nil bid declared before a player looks at his cards. The bidder may exchange two cards with the partner . The bidder discards two cards face down and the partner picks them up and gives back two cards face-down in return.

Playing the Hand

The player to dealer’s left leads any card except a  spade  to the first trick. Each player, in turn, clockwise, must follow suit if able; if unable to follow suit, the player may play any card. A trick containing a  spade  is won by the highest  spade  played; if no  spade  is played, the trick is won by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of each trick leads to the next.  Spades  may not be led until either a player has played a  spade , or the leader has nothing but  spades  left in hand. Playing the first  spade  is known as “breaking”  spades . Scoring A side that takes at least as many tricks as its bid calls for receives a score equal to 10 times its bid. Check out http://www.allcardgame.com for full info!