Spades for Beginners
Five rules get you playing. The rest you pick up at the table.
Play Spades free
Spades for beginners comes down to five rules: four players in two teams, 13 cards each, follow suit when you can, spades beat every other suit, and before each hand you bid how many tricks you'll take. Bid 4 and take 4 and your team scores 40; take only 3 and you lose 40. That's enough to sit down and play. The full rules, scoring tables and FAQ are on how to play Spades.
Easy Spades: the five rules that matter
- Four players, two teams. The player opposite you is your partner. You share one score.
- Everyone gets 13 cards, and there are 13 tricks. A trick is one card from each player. The highest card of the suit that was led takes it, unless someone played a spade.
- You must follow suit. If hearts are led and you have a heart, you play a heart. If you have none, you can play anything, and a spade will win it.
- Spades are always trump. Any spade beats any card of the other three suits. A higher spade beats a lower one.
- You bid before the hand. Say how many of the 13 tricks you expect to take. Make it and you score; fall short and you lose what you bid.
Your first hand, step by step
1. Count your sure winners. Aces nearly always win. So does the K♠ if you hold another spade with it. Treat everything else as a maybe.
2. Add your long spades. With four or more spades, the ones past your third usually win late in the hand, once the big trumps have gone.
3. Say that number. Two aces and four spades? Bid 3. A bid of 2, 3 or 4 is normal for an ordinary hand. It doesn't mean your cards are weak.
4. Play. Follow suit when you can. Play a spade when you can't follow and you want the trick.
5. Stop winning once your side has made its bid. Extra tricks are called bags, and ten of them cost 100 points.
What to bid when you have no idea
| Your hand | Bid |
|---|---|
| No aces, two or three low spades | 1 |
| One ace, three spades | 2 |
| Two aces, or one ace and four spades | 3 |
| Two aces and four or five spades | 4 |
| Two spades or fewer, no aces, no kings | think about nil |
A bid is a promise you can help keep. If you bid 3 and you've taken 3, start losing on purpose.
How the score works
- Make your bid: 10 points per trick you bid. Bid 4, take 4, score 40.
- Miss your bid: lose 10 points per trick you bid. Bid 4, take 3, score −40.
- Extra tricks (bags): 1 point each, but every tenth bag costs 100. Bid 4, take 6, score 42 and bank 2 bags.
- Nil: bid zero and take no tricks for +100. Take one and it's −100.
- First team to 500 wins. In our app, Quick Match plays to 250.
Your bid and your partner's are added into one team bid, so it doesn't matter which of you takes the tricks. Bid 3 while they bid 2, and your side needs any 5.
Six mistakes new players make
- Bidding on pretty cards. Three queens are often worth nothing. Count aces and spades.
- Bidding low to be safe. Underbidding every hand piles up bags, and the tenth one costs 100. Bid what you counted.
- Winning tricks you didn't need. Once your side's bid is made, every extra trick is a bag. Throw your losers.
- Trumping your partner's winner. If their ace is already taking the trick, your spade is wasted and becomes a bag. Look at who's winning before you play.
- Wanting to lead spades too early. You can't lead one until spades are "broken", meaning someone has already played a spade on a trick they couldn't follow. Save them.
- Forgetting your partner. Their bid is part of yours. If they bid 5, you don't need to do anything spectacular.
Practising in our app
Our app has a Learn section: six short hands, each built around one idea (bidding, following suit, trumps, cutting, nil and bags). After that, play the bots on Easy and move up through Medium, Hard and Expert. Once the basics feel automatic, the two habits that help most are counting the spades, since there are only 13 and knowing when they're gone makes your other cards safe, and learning when nil is safe, because a made nil is worth 100, more than a bid of 4 or 5 pays.
Other Spades pages
- How to Play Spades: one full hand, then the complete rules.
- Spades Bidding Guide: counting a hand properly.
- Nil in Spades: the biggest swing in the game.
- Spades vs Hearts: if you already know Hearts.
- How to Play Spades with 2 People: two-hand rules and the draw.
- How to Play Spades with 3 People: cutthroat and other variants.