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Spades Rules in Plain Words

These are the standard published rules, rewritten in plain words. Spades has one famous disagreement between rule books — what a missed bid costs — so this page prints both versions, labeled.

What the game is

Spades is a trick-taking game for two teams of two. Before each hand, every player bids — promises — how many of the 13 tricks they will win. Spades are always trump: any spade beats any card of another suit. Your team scores only if you win at least as many tricks as you bid together.

Players: 4, in two fixed partnerships; partners sit across from each other. Ages: 10 and up.

What you need: one standard 52-card deck, and paper for scoring. Cards rank Ace high down to 2 low.

Setting up and bidding

Deal 13 cards to every player.
Starting with the player to the dealer's left and going clockwise, each player bids the number of tricks they expect to win — any number from 1 up to 13. There is one round of bidding only, and a bid cannot be changed.
Add the two partners' bids together. That total is your team's contract — the number of tricks you must take.
A bid of zero is not a normal bid. Bidding zero means bidding Nil, a separate promise described below. If you do not want Nil, you must bid at least 1.

How a hand is played

The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick — any card except a spade.
Going clockwise, you must follow suit if you can. If you cannot, you may play any card, including a spade (a trump).
The trick is won by the highest spade played; if no spade was played, by the highest card of the suit led. The winner leads the next trick.
Spades cannot be led until they are "broken" — until a spade has been played on a trick of another suit because a player could not follow suit — or until the player leading holds nothing but spades.
Play all 13 tricks, then score the hand.

Scoring

Made the contract: score 10 points for each trick bid. Tricks won beyond the contract — "overtricks" or bags — score 1 point each.
The bag penalty: bags carry over from hand to hand. Every time a team's total bags reach another 10, that team loses 100 points. (That is why a team's bag count is just the last digit of its score.)
Missed the contract ("set"): here the books disagree — see the box. It is either a minus or a zero, and tables must settle it before the game.
Nil: a player who bids Nil and takes no tricks at all wins their team a 100-point bonus. If they take even one trick, the team loses 100 points — and any tricks the Nil bidder took still count toward the partner's contract.
Winning the game: the first team to reach 500 points wins. Bicycle notes 200 points makes a good short game. If both teams pass the target on the same hand, the higher score wins.

Official rule or house rule?

What a missed bid costs — the big Spades disagreement: Pagat's rules (the standard modern reference) score a broken contract as minus 10 points for each trick bid — bid 5 together and get set, you lose 50. Bicycle's published rules score a broken contract as zero — no points for the hand, but no minus either. Neither is a misprint; they are two printed traditions. Agree on one before the first deal, because it changes how boldly people bid.

Blind Nil (labeled variant): a Nil bid declared before looking at your cards. Where it is allowed, it scores 200 instead of 100, good or bad, and most books allow it only to a player whose team is losing by at least 100 points. Some tables also let the blind-Nil bidder pass two cards to their partner and receive two back. All of this is an agreed extra — the plain game has Nil only.

Nil worth 50 instead of 100: Some older printings score Nil at 50 points (and games to 250 halve it too). The 100-point figure is the common modern one, printed by pagat and most current books. Check the book your table uses.

Spades with Jokers (Bicycle's own labeled variant): Bicycle publishes a version played with both jokers in the deck as the two highest trumps — the full-color "Big Joker" above the one-color "Little Joker," above the Ace of Spades — with two low cards removed to keep the deal even. It is a different, named game, not standard Spades.

Table talk: Partners may not discuss their cards or signal during play. That is a rule everywhere, not a house choice.

Common questions

My partner bid Nil. Does my bid change?

No. You bid your own tricks as usual, and your contract stands beside the Nil. You must still make your own bid for your team to score for it.

If the Nil bidder takes a trick, is the Nil the only thing lost?

The Nil bonus turns into the 100-point penalty, but that trick still counts toward the partner's contract — it can help make the bid even while it breaks the Nil.

Can I lead a spade if spades have not been broken and I have other suits?

No. Holding any other suit, you must lead one of those. Only a hand of nothing but spades may lead one early.

Do bags from last game carry into a new game?

No. Bags are counted within one game only, and they are already inside the score — each full set of 10 has had its 100 points deducted.

Sources: pagat.com (John McLeod), "Spades" rules and scoring; Bicycle Cards, "Spades" (bicyclecards.com), including its Jokers variant. Read in full and rewritten in our own plain words. Where the two disagree — the cost of a missed contract — both versions are printed above with their sources named.