How to Play Spades

Spades is the definitive American partnership card game — born in the 1930s, raised in barracks and college dorms, and still the game families argue over at the kitchen table. Two teams, one trump suit, and a bidding system that makes every hand a promise you have to keep. This guide covers the full classic rules: dealing, bidding (including nil and blind nil), trick play, bags, and scoring, plus the strategy that wins matches.

Objective

Spades is played by four players in two partnerships, partners seated across from each other. Each hand, both teams bid the number of tricks they expect to win. Your goal is to make your team's bid — and stop the other team from making theirs — until one team reaches the agreed target score, traditionally 500 points.

Setup

Use a standard 52-card deck. Deal all the cards, one at a time — 13 cards to each player. Spades are always trump: any spade beats any card of any other suit. Within a suit, cards rank Ace (high) down to 2.

Bidding

Starting left of the dealer, each player bids the number of tricks they personally expect to win, from 0 to 13. A partnership's contract is the sum of the two partners' bids — if you bid 4 and your partner bids 3, your team must win at least 7 of the 13 tricks.

Nil and blind nil

A bid of zero is a nil: a declaration that you will win no tricks at all. A successful nil earns a 100-point bonus; a failed nil (winning even one trick) costs 100. The daring can declare blind nil — committing before looking at their cards — for ±200. A nil bidder's partner still plays their own bid, so the team fights on two fronts at once.

Playing the Hand

The player left of the dealer leads the first trick. Play proceeds clockwise under three rules:

• Follow suit if you can. If a heart is led and you hold hearts, you must play one.
• If you cannot follow suit, play anything — including a spade, which trumps the trick.
• Spades cannot be led until they are broken — until someone has played a spade on an earlier trick because they couldn't follow suit. (If your hand is all spades, you may lead them.)

The highest spade played wins the trick; if no spade was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The trick's winner leads the next one, and the hand continues until all 13 tricks are played.

Scoring

• Making the bid: 10 points per trick bid. Bid 7 and take at least 7, and you score 70.
• Failing the bid (getting "set"): lose 10 points per trick bid — bid 7, take 6, lose 70.
• Bags (overtricks): each trick beyond your bid scores 1 point — but when a team accumulates ten bags, it immediately loses 100 points and the bag count restarts.
• Nil: +100 made, −100 failed. Blind nil: ±200.

Winning the Game

Hands are played until a team reaches the target score — 500 in the classic game; Double Eagle Apps: Spades offers targets of 200, 350, or 500. If both teams cross the line in the same hand, the higher total wins.

Strategy & Tips

• Count sure tricks, not hopes. Aces and protected kings are bids; queens and long-shot finesses are not. When in doubt, bid one less than you think — bags hurt, but a set hurts more.
• Bid as a team. Your bid tells your partner what you can do. A combined contract of 11+ needs a plan; a combined 4 or 5 invites the opponents to run wild.
• Long spades are gold. Every spade beyond the third in your hand is a likely trick — trump length wins hands that high cards can't.
• Void yourself early. Dumping a short side suit lets you trump that suit the rest of the hand. A void plus spades is worth more than a handful of face cards.
• Cover your partner's nil. When your partner bids nil, your job changes: win tricks aggressively, overtake their high cards, and take every trick they might otherwise be forced to win.
• Attack a nil ruthlessly. Lead low cards and force the nil bidder to eat tricks — one trick converts their +100 into −100, a 200-point swing.
• Manage bags deliberately. If your bid is already made and the extra trick helps nobody, duck it. Dumping tricks on the opponents can push them toward the ten-bag penalty.
• Remember what's fallen. Track the spades above yours and the aces gone by. Knowing your king of clubs is now the best club left turns a guess into a certainty.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to bid nil?

Nil is a bid to win zero tricks: +100 points if you pull it off, −100 if even one trick lands on you. Blind nil, declared before seeing your cards, doubles the stakes to ±200. Your partner still plays their own bid alongside yours.

What are bags, and why do they matter?

Every trick beyond your team's bid is a bag, worth one point — but ten accumulated bags cost your team 100 points. The rule exists to punish lazy underbidding, and managing bags is half the art of good Spades.

When can spades be played?

You can always play a spade when you can't follow the suit led. You may not lead spades until they've been broken — played on an earlier trick — unless spades are all you have.

Does my AI partner cheat?

Not in Double Eagle Apps: Spades. Your partner and both opponents bid and play only from what a human in their seat could see — their own hand, the bids, and the cards already played. No difficulty level peeks; the five levels from Beginner to Expert just reason better. That includes a partner you can actually trust to bid honestly and cover your nil. The game is 100% offline, ad-free at launch, and has a seeded daily deal — the same cards for every player in the world.

More Game Guides

Master the rest of the classics with our other guides:

• How to Play Klondike Solitaire
• How to Play Poker — Texas Hold'em & Five Card Stud
• How to Play Hearts
• How to Play Backgammon
• How to Play Chess & Checkers
• All Double Eagle games