The player to the dealer's left plays first ("leads"). He may not lead with a spade unless his hand only includes spades. In fact, unless a player has no option, spades may never be led until the suit is "broken" (see below).
In some cases, reneging results in a three-trick penalty, meaning the team may still make contract but must take three additional tricks to do so. It does not matter if the player reneged on purpose. The bags still count against the opposing team and will go against their points.
It's not to fix something that's doesn't quite work, it's part of the game--there is a penalty for overbidding--being set, there is a penalty for underbidding--sandbags. It even fits into the scoring method--1 point for each bag, if you reach 10, drop back -100 points.
The player who wins the trick leads next. Play continues until none of the players have any cards left. Each hand is worth 13 tricks. Spades cannot be led unless played previously or player to lead has nothing but Spades in his hand.
The minimum bid for each team is 4 and the maximum is 10. There are no Nil bids. A partnership which is losing by a margin of at least 100 points may choose not to look at their cards, but bid "blind". The minimum blind bid is 6 tricks.
The game is scored by hands, and the winner must make a certain number of points, which is decided before the game begins. Five hundred points is common, but 200 points is suitable for a short game.
Blind Nil: If a player who bids blind nil takes no tricks then his/her team will receive 120 points (in games played to 300) and 200 points (in games played to 500). If a blind nil bidder takes at least one trick then his/her team will lose 120 points (in games played to 300) and 200 points (in games played to 500).
2, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. Note that for the purpose of following suit, the jokers and the two of diamonds count as spades. The dealer shuffles, the player to dealer's right cuts, and 13 cards each are dealt.
Bonus points (1 or 10) are awarded for winning the last round with any Ace. 20 points for winning with the Ace of Spades. Bonus points, usually one-fifth of agreed nil value, are awarded for making a nil bid and playing an ace on the last trick.
The most common blind bid, the player bids that they will not take a single trick during play of the hand. If either or both players take tricks, however, there is no penalty. Passing. Passing, or the exchanging of cards between players, is optional and rare in Spades.
In the example above, the team is award 1 additional point for taking 8 tricks when they bid only 7. These single points are referred to as “bags.” If a team collects 10 bags across hands, a penalty of 100 points is subtracted from their score.
Take your tricks early, and take tricks with only the cards you intend to. taking extra tricks usually result in bags. However, if someone trumped your king of diamonds, you better win another trick. If you don't have the Ace of Spades, but have the King and/or Queen, try to force the player with the Ace to play it.
The four cards played constitute a unit of play called a trick. The objective of Spades is for your partnership to accurately estimate the strength of your hands in the bidding, and then in the play to take as close to your estimate of tricks as you can. The cards rank from ace (high) down to 2 (low).
Can only go blind-nil if the team is 100 points behind. Suicide: one person on each team MUST go nil. Minimum bid 4 (even if you first say 2 and your partner's bid is nil, your team-bid is 4). You only score your nil if your team makes its bid.
The act of playing the first spade in a hand is known as "breaking spades", derived from its parent rule, "breaking hearts". When a player leads with a spade after spades has been broken, the other players must follow suit.
Related to Whiz, each player must bid the number of spades in their hand. Players do not have the option to go Nil unless they have no Spades and must bid Nil if this is the case. Bags are counted as normal. In this variant, each player must bid a minimum four tricks unless going nil, blind nil or Wheels (10 for 200).
Spades is commonly played with a standard 52-card deck, 2 through Ace of each suit. Ace is high and Spades is always the trump suit.
Spades are broken when a player cannot follow suit and chooses to play a spade. When a player cannot follow suit, he may choose to play spades, but is not required to. Note: Spades are also broken if a player has no option and leads with spades.
Standard 52-card deck. Spades may also be played with one or two Jokers or with predetermined cards removed. Spades are always trump. Other suits have no intrinsic value during play, but a card of the suit led in the current trick will beat a card of any other suit except a Spade.
WHAT IS THE OBJECT OF SPADES? The object of the game is to take at least the number of tricks that were bid before play of the hand began. Before the game begins, each player decides how many tricks he/she will be able to take. Adventurous players can decide to bid nil or blind nil.
