Spades is partnership bidding game played with two or more players. Players are dealt from a 52-card deck in a clockwise direction. The cards are ranked with 2 being the lowest and Ace being the highest. The object of the game is to win the number of tricks you or your team bets. A trick is a round of cards played, one from each player’s hand.)

Each player or team (if playing Partnership Spades) is dealt 13 cards. After noting the cards dealt, players decide how many tricks they believe they can win with their cards. Starting with the person to the dealer’s left, they declare how many tricks between 1 and 13. Players may bid nil if they believe they can’t win a single trick.

The player to the dealer’s left plays first, placing any card down except for a spade. Each player in turn, going clockwise, must place a card down of the same suit. If the player does not have that suit, they may play a Diamond or a Heart.

When a spade is played, the person with the highest spade wins the trick. (A spade wins no matter how low it is – meaning, if a 2 of spades is the only spade played, it automatically wins). If a spade is not played, like during the first round, the trick is won by the highest card of the suit that was placed down first. The winner of each trick starts the next round of cards. A spade may not be placed down first (led) until either another player has played a spade or the person leading the card has nothing but spades left in their hand. Playing the first spade is known as “breaking” spades. In case of a tie, the order from low to high is usually Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades. Play until all players are out of cards.

After all cards are eliminated, players add up their tricks. The sandbagging rule comes into play if a player (or team) has more tricks than they previously bet. To tally the final score, players multiply the amount of tricks they have accordingly. Players that take as many tricks as they bid, or more, score 10 times their bid plus one extra point for each additional trick. If a player has zero tricks and previously bet nil, they score 50 points. If a player did not get as many tricks as they bid, deduct 10 points for each trick taken. Deduct 50 points for a failed nil bid.

The object of the game is to score the most points. The end of the game comes when one player or team reaches 500 points.

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