Play Spades online with friends

How to play Spades

Spades is played by four people in two partnerships, sitting across from each other. The whole deck is dealt, so everyone holds 13 cards. Spades are always trump.

Before any cards are played, each player bids how many books (tricks) they expect to win. Partners’ bids are added together into the team’s contract. A player can also bid nil — promising to win no books at all — for a bonus if they pull it off.

The player to the dealer’s left leads the first book (some tables have the 2♣ lead). Everyone must follow the suit that was led if they can. If you can’t, you may play any card — including a spade, which beats every card of the other suits. Spades can’t be led until one has been played on another suit (“spades are broken”), unless you hold nothing else.

Scoring

• Make your contract: 10 points per book bid, plus 1 point for each extra book.
• Extra books are bags — many tables call them underbids, since you bid under what you took. Collect 10 bags and your team loses 100 points.
• Fall short of your contract (get “set”) and you lose 10 points per book bid.
• Nil is worth +100 if the bidder takes no books, or −100 if they take any. Blind nil — bid before looking at your cards — doubles that.
• The first team to 500 points wins (many tables also end the game if a team sinks to −200).

Why play Spades on spades.live

• Everyone is on live video at their seat, so table talk and trash talk feel like game night at the kitchen table.
• The server deals and enforces the rules — no reneging, no miscounted books, no arguments about the score.
• Short a player? A bot fills the chair and steps aside the moment a friend sits down.
• Nothing to install. It runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers.

Spades house rules you can turn on

• Format Partners (2 v 2) · Cutthroat (every player for themselves)
• Play to 150 points · 250 points · 300 points · 500 points
• Mercy rule — A side that sinks this far below zero loses immediately. Off · Lose at −200 · Lose at −300 · Lose at −500
• Nil bids — Bid to take zero books for a bonus (or penalty).
• Nil worth 50 · 100
• Blind nil — Bid nil before looking at your cards, for double the value.
• Blind nil allowed Any time · Only when down 100+ · Only when down 200+
• Bags (underbids) — Books over your bid are bags — also called underbids. Each is worth 1 point, but collect too many and you pay. 10 bags = −100 · 7 bags = −100 · 5 bags = −50 · No bag penalty
• Failed-nil books count as bags
• Spades must be broken — No leading spades until one has been played on another suit.
• Jokers & deuces — Big Joker › Little Joker › 2♦ › 2♠ › A♠ are the top trumps. 2♣ and 2♥ are removed.
• First book Player left of dealer leads anything · Lowest club (2♣) leads
• Minimum team bid None · Board of 4 · Board of 5
• 10 for 200 — Bid 10 or more books as a team and make it for double points (fail and lose double).

Spades FAQ

Guides

• Spades Strategy: How to Bid and Play Better
• Spades House Rules: Nil, Blind Nil, Jokers & Bags

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