Rules

How to play Spades

Updated October 2026 · 4 players · About 45 minutes

Spades is a game for four players in two teams of two. Everyone plays one card, and whoever played the best card picks up all four cards. That is called a round. Before the first round, each player guesses how many rounds their own cards will win. Teammates add their two guesses together, and the team promises to win at least that many. Keep the promise and you score. Miss it and you lose 10 points for every round you promised.

What you need

You need four players in two teams of two, and a full 52-card deck. Teammates sit across from each other. Cards rank from ace (highest) down to 2 (lowest).

Spades are always the strongest suit. Any spade beats any card of another suit: the 2 of spades beats the ace of hearts. Nobody has to choose the strongest suit, which makes Spades quick to teach.

The deal

Any fair method can decide who deals first. One common way is to spread the deck face down, and each player takes one card. The highest card deals. The dealer deals the whole deck, 13 cards each. Everything played with one dealing of the cards, from the first card to the last, is called a deal.

After each deal, the dealer's job passes to the player on the left. Play always moves clockwise, to the left.

If the cards come out uneven, or a card is turned face up while dealing, the deal does not count. The same dealer shuffles and deals again. Neither team loses anything.

Guessing how many rounds you will win

Look at your 13 cards, then guess how many of the 13 rounds your own cards will win. Not sure what to guess? Start with a rough count: add 1 round for each ace, 1 for each king that is not your only card of its suit (in a suit of five cards or fewer), and 1 for each spade after your first three. The practice page has a fuller count, and shows how close it comes to what the cards really win.

The player to the dealer's left guesses first, then guessing goes clockwise. Everyone must guess. Nobody can pass or raise a guess: one number each, and it cannot change.

Teammates add their two guesses together. That total is what your team promises to win. If you guess 3 and your teammate guesses 2, your team promises to win at least 5 rounds. Rounds won by either teammate count toward the promise. There is one special case: if a player's guess of 0 (nil, explained next) fails, groups differ on whether that player's rounds still count. See When a nil fails.

Nil: a guess of 0

A guess of 0 is called nil. It promises that you will win no rounds at all. So you play low cards and try to lose every round. Your teammate still guesses normally, and tries to protect you: if your card would win a round, your teammate can try to win it with a higher card instead.

A nil is scored separately from your teammate's guess. Win no rounds and your team scores plus 100, in addition to whatever your teammate scores. Win even one and your team scores minus 100, even if your teammate wins as many rounds as they guessed. If both teammates guess nil, each is scored on its own. The rounds won by a player whose nil failed are a special case, explained under Scoring in When a nil fails.

Playing the rounds

The player to the dealer's left plays the first card of the first round. Each other player then plays one card, going clockwise. The first card is the starting card, and its suit is the starting suit.

• If you have a card of the starting suit, you must play one. It can be high or low.
• If you have none, you may play any card, including a spade.

The highest spade wins the round. If nobody played a spade, the highest card of the starting suit wins. The winner picks up all four cards, keeps them to count later, and plays first in the next round. Play all 13 rounds, then score.

Scoring

After the 13th round, each team adds up the rounds won by both teammates and compares that with its promise. (A nil that fails is handled separately. See When a nil fails, below.)

When a nil fails

A failed nil costs your team 100 points. What happens to the rounds the nil player won depends on the rules your group plays by, so agree on one before the first deal.

• The usual rule: the nil player's rounds do not count toward the teammate's guess. Each one is a bag instead.
• Another rule, used by some groups: the nil player's rounds are added to the teammate's rounds, and count toward the teammate's guess. Only the rounds beyond the teammate's guess are bags.

Bags, and why they matter

A bag is a round your team won beyond its promise. One bag is worth 1 point, which sounds harmless. But bags add up from deal to deal, and every tenth one costs 100 points.

Because of bags, winning as many rounds as you can is not the goal. Guessing accurately matters as much as playing well. Guess too low and you collect bags. Guess too high and your team can fall short, which costs 10 points for every round it promised. Keep the bag count written down where both teams can see it.

How the game ends

The game ends after the deal in which a team reaches 500 points. Score the whole deal first, including any 100-point bag penalty, and only then see who has reached 500. If both teams pass 500 in the same deal, the higher score wins. If they are tied, play another deal, and keep going until the tie is broken. Many groups also end the game when a team drops to minus 500 (some say minus 200), and that team loses. Some play to 300 for a shorter evening. Agree on the targets first.

If someone plays the wrong suit

Sometimes a player plays another suit when they could have played the starting suit. If someone notices before the deal is scored, that player's team is penalized. Groups differ on the penalty. Common ones are:

• The team is scored as if it fell short: minus 10 for each round it promised, whatever it won.
• The team's promise goes up by 3 rounds, so it must win 3 more rounds to keep it.
• Three of the rounds the team won are taken from it and given to the other team, and then the deal is scored as usual. Agree what to do if the team has won fewer than three.

Agree which penalty you use before you start. If nobody notices before the score is written down, the score stays as written.

Practice judging your Spades hand

Everything in Spades rests on judging your hand accurately, and accuracy is a trained skill rather than a rule you can read. The practice page deals you a hand, asks for your guess, and then shows what the hand actually takes — with a beginner's quick count to check yourself against.

Three things beginners get wrong

Guessing low to feel safe

Guessing 4 when you can see 6 rounds does not protect you. It hands your team 2 bags, and eventually a loss of 100 points. Guess what your cards can really win.

Starting rounds with spades too early

Besides being against the rules until a spade has been played, starting rounds with spades early wastes them. Later you will want a spade to win rounds in suits you have run out of. With fewer than six spades, keep them in your hand and let the other team play the first one.

Forgetting your teammate's nil

When your teammate guesses nil, your job changes. Your teammate must lose every round, so you try to win the rounds that their cards could otherwise win. Start rounds with your high cards. Whoever has a card of the starting suit must play one, your teammate included, and a high card from you makes theirs lose.

Here is an example. Your teammate's only heart is the queen. If an opponent starts a round with a low heart, your teammate must play the queen, and it may win the round. But if you start a round with the ace of hearts, your teammate must still play the queen, and now it cannot win, because your ace is higher. Also win any round your teammate would otherwise win. A nil that works is worth more than an extra round or two on your own guess.

Questions people ask

With none of the starting suit, can I play a spade before one has been played?

Yes. With none of the starting suit, you may play any card, including a spade. That is usually how the first spade of a deal gets played. The rule only stops you from starting a round with one.

Can a round start with a spade in the very first round?

No, unless you hold nothing but spades. The rule applies to the whole deal, not just the first round. See the spade rule under Playing the rounds.

If our team falls short, do the rounds we won still count as bags?

No. A team that falls short only loses points. The rounds it won are not bags on top of that. The one exception: under the usual rule, the rounds won by a player whose nil failed are still bags. See When a nil fails.

Do you have to guess nil without looking at your cards?

No. Only in the blind nil variation do you guess nil before looking, for double the points. See Common variations below.

Is Spades always played to 500?

500 is the traditional target. Some groups play to 300, and many also stop at minus 500 (or minus 200).

Common variations

• Blind nil — guess nil before looking at your cards, for double the points: 200 instead of 100, won or lost.
• Jokers as the top spades — add both jokers as the two highest spades, above the ace. Take out the 2 of clubs and the 2 of hearts (some groups take out the 2 of diamonds instead), so the cards still divide evenly: 52 cards, 13 each.
• Ten for 200 (also written 10-for-200) — a team whose guesses add up to exactly 10 scores 200 points instead of 100 if it wins exactly 10 rounds, and loses 200 points if it does not. Groups differ on the details, such as whether winning more than 10 also earns the bonus, so agree them first.
• Failed-nil rounds count toward the teammate's guess — some groups play this way. The usual rule counts them only as bags. See When a nil fails.
• The 2 of clubs starts — whoever holds the 2 of clubs plays it to start the first round, instead of the player to the dealer's left. Some groups also let nobody play a spade in that round, even a player with no clubs. Others let a player with no clubs play one.
• Cutthroat Spades — three players, no teams. Take out the 2 of clubs, so the 51 cards left deal evenly, 17 each. Each deal then has 17 rounds. Everyone plays for themselves: your own guess is your promise, scored the way a team's is, and you collect your own bags.
• Whiz — every player must guess nil or exactly the number of spades in their hand, nothing in between.
• Mirror — every player must guess exactly the number of spades in their own hand. A player with no spades has to guess nil, and nobody else may.
• Suicide — one teammate on each team must guess nil, whatever cards they hold, and the other guesses a number as usual. Usually the teammate who guesses first decides: if they guess nil, their teammate must guess a number. If they guess a number, their teammate must guess nil. Some groups also require that number to be at least 4.