How to Play Spades: Bidding, Nil, Bags and Scoring

Spades was invented in the USA in the 1930s and it's a cousin of whist, with one big change: you have to say how many tricks you'll take before you play. That single rule turns a simple trick game into a game of nerve, partnership and careful counting. Here's the standard four player version, the one most online card rooms use.

Spades setup for four players

What you need	Standard spades
Players	4, in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite
Deck	One standard 52 card deck, no jokers
Card ranking	A (high), K, Q, J, 10 down to 2 in every suit
Trumps	Spades, always
Cards each	13, dealt one at a time clockwise
Winning score	500 points (Bicycle suggests 200 for a short game)

Bidding your tricks, including nil

Starting with the player on the dealer's left, everyone says a number of tricks they expect to win. There's only one round, nobody can pass, and bids don't have to go up like they do in Bridge. You add your bid to your partner's, and that total is your side's contract. If you bid 4 and your partner bids 3, your partnership needs 7 tricks.

A bid of zero is called nil. It's a promise that you won't win a single trick. Pagat.com is clear that you can't bid zero casually: if you don't want the nil bonus or penalty, you must bid at least 1. Some tables also allow blind nil, declared before you look at your cards, usually only for a side that's losing by at least 100 points.

Breaking spades and playing each trick

1. The player on the dealer's left leads any card except a spade.
2. Everyone else plays one card clockwise, following suit if they can.
3. If you can't follow suit, you can play any card, including a spade to trump it.
4. The highest spade wins the trick. With no spade in it, the highest card of the suit led wins.
5. The winner leads next. Nobody can lead spades until a spade has been played on another suit, called breaking spades, unless the leader has nothing but spades left.
6. After 13 tricks, compare each side's tricks with its bid and score the hand.

The spades scoring table

What happened	Score
You made your bid	10 points for each trick bid
Each trick over your bid (a bag)	1 point
You fell short of your bid	Minus 10 points for each trick bid
Nil made	Plus 100 for your side
Nil failed	Minus 100 for your side
Blind nil made or failed	Plus or minus 200
Every 10 bags collected	Minus 100 points

So if your side bids 6 and takes 8 tricks, you score 62. If you bid 6 and take 5, you lose 60. One note: Bicycle's rules score a missed bid as zero rather than a minus, so check which version your table plays before the first deal.

Bags: why overtricks come back to bite

This is the rule that surprises new players. Overtricks feel like a bonus, and for one hand they are. But pagat.com explains that once your side collects ten bags over several hands, you lose 100 points, and any extra bags carry over towards the next ten. That's why it's called the sandbagging rule, and why good players aim to make their bid exactly rather than grabbing every trick going.

A neat trick from pagat.com: you don't need to track bags separately. If your score is positive, its last digit is the number of bags you're carrying. A score of 357 means you've got 7 bags and you're three away from a penalty.

There's one more catch with nil. When a nil fails, the tricks the nil bidder won don't count towards their partner's bid, but they do count as bags. A failed nil can hurt you twice.

House rules you'll meet at other tables

• Jokers in: some groups add two jokers as the highest trumps and take out two low cards, so there are still 52.
• Partnership bidding: partners talk about how many sure tricks they have and agree a joint bid.
• Minimum team bid of 4, or a rule that the two sides' bids can't add up to 13.
• Passing three cards to your partner before the bid.
• A misdeal called by a player with no spades, with the hand thrown in and redealt.
• Moon or Boston: a bid to win all 13 tricks for a big bonus.

None of these are wrong. Agree them out loud before the first deal, because a dispute over whether jokers count is the fastest way to end a family game.

Spades with two, three or six players

Spades is built for four, but pagat.com gives versions for other numbers, so nobody has to sit out.

Players	How it changes
2	No deal. You take turns drawing from the stock: keep the first card and discard the second, or discard the first and keep the second. When the stock runs out you each hold 13 cards, then bid and play as normal.
3	Everyone plays alone with one 52 card deck. Deal 17 cards each and set the last card aside unseen.
6	Three teams of two, with partners opposite, using a 102 card deck made from two standard decks. If two identical cards land in the same trick, the second one wins.

The two player draw is clever because you're choosing your hand card by card, so you know roughly what you've thrown away. It makes a good warm up while you wait for the other two players to arrive.

What I'd tell a new spades partnership

Spades suits teenagers and adults who like a bit of strategy and a lot of table banter. For a first game, play to 300, skip blind nil, and keep the bags penalty, because that's where the real skill sits. The mistake to avoid is overbidding to look brave. Count your aces, kings and long spades, bid what you're sure of, and let your partner do the same. If you enjoy it, Hearts is the natural next game, and my guide to trick taking games shows how Spades compares with whist and its cousins.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards do you deal in spades?

All 52 cards are dealt one at a time, so each of the four players gets 13 cards.

Can you lead spades on the first trick?

No. The first lead can be any card except a spade, and spades can't be led until one has been played on another suit or the leader holds only spades.

What are bags in spades?

Bags are tricks won over your bid. Each is worth 1 point, but collecting ten bags costs your side 100 points.

What does nil mean in spades?

Nil is a bid of zero tricks. Make it and your side gains 100 points, but win even one trick and your side loses 100.

What score do you play spades to?

The standard target is 500 points. Bicycle suggests 200 points for a shorter game.