How to Play Spades? – Complete Card Game Rules to Play Spade
“Okay, I’m bored in the house.. I’m in the house bored.” If this is the case with you, then why not play spades? Spade is a famous card game played by two players or two partnerships. It is a trick-taking game that was invented in the 1930s and became highly popular in the 40s. Now, you must be thinking about how to play spades? Here is an article with all you need to know about spade card game rules.
How to Play Spades Card Game?
Spade is a simple trick game that is usually played by two or four players. It is one of the best fun card games. However, there are also versions of two, six, or three players. Here are spade card game rules for how to play spades.
Deck
Before understanding how to play spades, let’s understand what all is needed to play this game. In order to play a spade card game, you would need a standard 52-card deck. In this game, the ace is high, and 2 is low.
Players
Four players in partnerships of two are needed to play spades. Some other versions of the game also include two, three, or six players.
Setup
In the spade card game, the partners sit across the table. They choose a dealer who shuffles the deck and gives 13 cards to each player.
Objective of the Game
The main objective of the game is to be the first partnership to attain 500 points.
Bidding
How to play spades? The game starts with the bidding. First of all, the player present on the left of the dealer bids. Each player has to look at his/her cards and bids. It will render a number of tricks. The bids of partners are added, and the total number of bids is equal to the number of tricks that the player must win in order to score points.
A legal bid for each player includes a number from 0 to 13. Players are not allowed to pass in the spade card game. Moreover, the bids do not increase with each player. One important spade rule to remember is that there is only one round of bidding.
Example – Ross and Rachel are partners; Joey and Phoebe are partners. Ross bids 4. After him, Joey bids 2, Rachel bids 2, and Phoebe bids 2. Now, Ross and Rachel need 6 to win; Joey and Phoebe need 4 to win.
Bidding Nil
The player who bids nil or zero claims that he or she won’t win any trick during the game. In case the player is successful, his/her partnership gets a bonus of 100 points. Nevertheless, if the player wins any tricks, the partner gets a penalty of 100-points.
In case a player bids Nil, but his/her partner bids a number, then the partner should try to win the number of decided tricks.
Pro Tip – Both the partners are allowed to bid nil. If they are successful, the partnership gets a bonus of 200 points. Moreover, in case of failure, they get a penalty of 200 points. In case one plate successes while the partner fails, then they receive o points as a bonus and penalty wipe each other out.
Double Nil
A player can bid Double Nil before seeing his/her cards. It is known as blind Nil or Double Nil. After bidding Blind Nil, the player checks the cards and exchanges three cards with the partner. If the player is successful, his partnership gets a bonus of 200-points. Moreover, in case of failure, the partnership receives a penalty of 200 points.
Pro Tip – Both the partners are allowed to bid Double Nil. In this case, no-cards are exchanged. If they are successful, they get a 400-point bonus. In case of failure, they get a penalty of 400-points. Moreover, if one partner fails and the other succeeds, then they get 0 points as a result of a wipeout of bonus and penalty.
Gameplay
First of all, the player present on the left of the dealer plays. The player is not allowed to lead with a spade unless he/she does have a hand of spades only. Moreover, if a player has no choice left, spades should not be let until the suit of the game is broken.
The game continues clockwise. Each player should follow suit if possible. The player who plays the highest rank in the suit led wins the trick. Nevertheless, if one or more players are playing the game, the player who plays the biggest rank of spades in the game wins the trick.
When a player wins the trick, he/she sets the trick so that it becomes easy to guess how many tricks have been won by each player.
Breaking Spades
When a player is not able to follow suit, if he/she opts to play a spade, then spades are broken. In case a player can not follow suit, he/she should opt for playing spades, but is it not necessary.
Pro Tip – If a player has no choice and decides to lead with spades, then also spades are broken.
Scoring
In a bid, each trick counts for 10 points in case the partnership is able to meet its bid. Tricks that are won more than the bid are worth one point each. In case a partnership is not able to meet the bid, it gets ten minus points for each trick that it has bid.
The scoring in the case of Nil and Double Nil is as mentioned above. In case the plate who bids Nil fails, the trick won by the player does not include making the partner’s bids. However, they are considered as bags for partnerships.
Sandbagging
A partnership should try to win more tricks as compared to its bid. Every time a partnership gets 10 bags, the team gets a penalty of 100-points.
Winning
The partnership that gets 500 points first is declared as the winner. In case both the partnerships can get 500 points in the same hand, then the partnership with the highest score wins the game. In case of time, the partnerships can play another hand.
Final Words
Spades is an interesting trick card game. It is best to play with your friends and family members whenever you are bored. Now that you know how to play spades card games, what are you waiting for? Enjoy the game, and do share your experience with us by dropping a comment.
