After the main description, there is a collection of numerous variations , which are still common in face to face social games. Spades is a plain-trick game in which spades are always trumps. It is most often played as a partnership game by four players, but there are also versions for three , two or six players. The four players are in fixed partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. Deal and play are clockwise. A standard pack of 52 cards is used. The cards, in each suit, rank from highest to lowest: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
The first dealer is chosen at random, and the turn to deal rotates clockwise. The cards are shuffled and then dealt singly, in clockwise order beginning with the player on dealer's left, until all 52 cards have been dealt and everyone has In Spades, all four players bid a number of tricks.
Each team adds together the bids of the two partners, and the total is the number of tricks that team must try to win in order to get a positive score. The bidding begins with the player to dealer's left and continues clockwise around the table. Everyone must bid a number, and in theory any number from 0 to 13 is allowed. Unlike other games with bidding, there is no requirement for each bid to be higher than the last one, and players are not allowed to pass.
There is no second round of bidding - bids once made cannot be altered. A bid of 0 tricks is known as Nil. This is a declaration that the player who bid Nil will not win any tricks during the play. There is an extra bonus for this if it succeeds and a penalty if it fails. The partnership also has the objective of winning the number of tricks bid by the Nil's partner. It is not possible to bid no tricks without bidding a Nil. If you don't want to go for the Nil bonus or penalty you must bid at least 1.
Some players allow a bid of Blind nil. This is a nil bid declared before a player looks at his cards. After everyone has bid and before the first lead, the bidder may exchange two cards with partner - the bidder discards two cards face down; partner picks them up and gives back two cards face-down in return. It is usually agreed that Blind Nil may only be bid by a player whose side is losing by at least points.
The player to dealer's left leads any card except a spade to the first trick. Each player, in turn, clockwise, must follow suit if able; if unable to follow suit, the player may play any card.
A trick containing a spade is won by the highest spade played; if no spade is played, the trick is won by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of each trick leads to the next. Spades may not be led until either. A side that takes at least as many tricks as its bid calls for receives a score equal to 10 times its bid.
Additional tricks overtricks are worth an extra one point each. Sandbagging rule : Overtricks are colloquially known as bags. A side which over several deals accumulates ten or more bags has points deducted from its score. Any bags beyond ten are carried over to the next cycle of ten overtricks - that is if they reached twenty overtricks they would lose another points and so on. Note: it is not necessary to keep track of overtricks separately as the cumulative number of overtricks taken appears as the final digit of the team's score, if positive.
Example: Suppose a team whose score is bids 5 tricks. If they win 7 tricks they score 52, taking their score to If they win 9 tricks they score 54 and lose , bringing their score to If a bid of nil is successful, the nil bidder's side receives points.
This is in addition to the score won or lost by the partner of the nil bidder for tricks made. If a bid of nil fails - that is, the bidder takes at least one trick - the bidder's side loses points, but still receives any amount scored for the partner's bid.
The usual rule is that when a nil fails, the tricks won by the nil bidder do not count towards making the partner's bid, but do count as bags for the team. A bid of blind nil scores twice as much as an ordinary nil - it wins points if successful and loses points if it fails. The side which reaches points first wins the game.
If both sides reach points in the same deal, the side with the higher score wins. Dennis J Barmore, who used to run a mailing list for information about Spades, Bid Whist and Pinochle clubs and tournaments in the USA, contributed the following description of a variant which is widely played by African Americans. The rules are as in basic spades above , but with the following differences:.
Christian A. Baxter contributed the following variation, which is popular in New York City. Two jokers are included and the 2 and 2 are removed from the deck. The rank of trumps from high to low is: big red joker, small black joker, 2, 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.
Redd reports that many players keep the 2 as the lowest club and instead remove both red twos, and many count the black joker as the highest trump followed by the red Joker, so that the top trumps are big black joker, small red joker, 2, 2, A, K , The dealer shuffles, the player to dealer's right cuts, and 13 cards each are dealt.
Occasionally a "French Cut" is used, which works as follows. After the dealer has shuffled, the player to the right divides it into four face-down stacks and flips over the top card of each stack. One of these cards is given to each player - the cutter decides who gets what card. Then the deck is reassembled by stacking the four smaller decks without the four top cards and without shuffling again.
These cards are dealt one at a time in the normal way, beginning to dealer's left and ending with the dealer, so that everyone has 13 cards, and each player has one card that is known to everyone. Partnership bidding is used, beginning with the dealer's opponents. Partners may tell each other how many "tricks" or "books" sure tricks they think they can make and how many "possibles" extra tricks that may or may not be made they have.
Based on this, they agree on a bid for the partnership. When the non-dealing team has bid, the dealer's team agree their bid in a similar way. All conversations are heard by all players, so the dealer's team may also be influenced by the nondealers' discussion. The minimum bid for each team is 4 and the maximum is There are no Nil bids. A partnership which is losing by a margin of at least points may choose not to look at their cards, but bid "blind".
The minimum blind bid is 6 tricks. A blind bid scores double if successful but only singly if lost. After agreeing on a blind bid, the partners pick up their cards and look at them. If they think they can win at least 10 tricks, they may "come out" of their blind bid and bid 10, but in this case they only win singly rather than for a bid of The player to dealer's left leads to the first trick.
Spades may not be led in the first three tricks unless they have been "broken" by a player trumping a lead of another suit with a spade. From the fourth trick onwards any card can be led. For a normal non-blind bid from 4 to 9 to succeed, the team must win the number of tricks bid, and may win one or two overtricks sandbags , but not more than that.
For a successful bid they win 10 times the number bid, with nothing extra for overtricks. If the team wins fewer tricks than they bid, or wins three or more sandbags, they are set and in this case they lose 10 points per trick bid. For a non-blind bid of 10, the team scores points if they take 10, 11 or 12 tricks.
If they bid 10 and win all 13 tricks they win the whole game. If they take fewer than 10 tricks they lose A team that takes all 13 tricks, known as a Boston , also gains "bragging rights". That is the case even if they bid less than 10, in which case they are set and score minus their bid for taking too many overtricks. For a blind bid, the team scores double the amount for the corresponding non-blind bid if they take at least as many tricks as they bid, and there is no limit on sandbags.
This a successful blind 10 wins , though a team that bids blind and then comes out for a non-blind bid of 10 scores only A blind bid fails if the team takes fewer trick than they bid, and in this case there is no double - they lose just 10 points per trick bid for a blind bid of 6 to 9, or for a failed blind The first hand of a new game is normally played without any bidding.
The teams just play to win as many tricks as possible and score 10 points per trick. If a team is set twice in succession "shot back to back" , they lose the whole game , irrespective of the scores. If both teams are set on two consecutive deals, the team with the higher score wins.
Redd reports that in some groups, a team survives two consecutive sets but loses the whole game if they are set three times in succession. If the game is not ended by a Boston or a team losing twice in a row, the first team to score or more points, or the team with the higher score if both achieve this on the same deal, wins the game.
If there is a tie at or more points, further deals must be played until the tie is broken. Here are some further variants, mostly contributed by Theodore Hwa. In some versions of Spades, some or all of the four twos are elevated to the top of the spade suit, are ranked in some specified order, and are considered to be spades. The rest of the cards rank as in normal. Spades can also be played with a 54 card pack - the standard pack of 52 plus 2 distinguishable jokers.
In this case the two jokers are elevated to be the top two cards of the spade suit, with a particular order of the jokers specified. If jokers are used and no cards are eliminated, then there will be two cards left over at the end of the deal, and these are given to the dealer.
Having looked at all 15 cards, the dealer discards any two cards face down. Some play that the two extra cards are given to the holder of the two of clubs, rather than the dealer.
Some play that the discard takes place after the bidding. Jeffrey Jacobs reports a variant "Widow Spades" which uses a pack with two jokers, but in this case the two cards remaining at the end of the deal are set aside unseen - no one may look at them until after the play. This adds an element of uncertainty, since sometimes a high trump is unexpectedly out of play.
Michael Mitchell reports a variation with 54 cards in which the two cards remaining after the deal are taken by the team that bids the greater number of tricks. They may agree to take one card each, or for one player to take both cards. If the teams bid equal numbers of tricks - for example six each - then each team gets one of the remaining cards - they decide between themselves which member of each partnership should take it.
In either card, the player s who have taken the extra cards discard unwanted cards face down to bring their hands back to 13 cards before the play begins. Some play that before the bidding, each player passes three cards face down to partner.
The cards are passed simultaneously - players must decide what to pass before knowing what cards they will receive. Some play that instead of the players bidding strictly in turn, each partnership agrees on a bid, through a process of discussion. First the non-dealer's side agrees on a bid. Each partner on that side communicates the amount of tricks they expect to take, based on their cards.
The remaining undealt cards are placed in a face down stack with the turned trump on top of it. The bidding in each hand begins with the player to the left of the dealer, then continues clockwise, back around to the dealer, who bids last.
Each bid is a number representing the number of tricks that player will try to take. Everyone must bid - it is not possible to pass, but you can bid zero, in which case your object is to take no tricks at all. A bid may be changed only if the next player to the left has not yet bid. Remember the hook : the dealer may not bid the number that would cause the total number of tricks bid to equal the number of tricks available; a hand will always be "over-bid" or "under-bid".
Keep in mind when bidding that not all cards in the deck are in play in any hand. The play begins with the player to the dealer's left, who leads the first card.
The lead may be any suit including trump. Play follows clockwise. Each player must follow the suit led, if he can. If not, he may play any other card in his hand, including trump. The player who has played the highest trump card, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led, wins the trick. That player then leads to the next trick. Continue until all tricks have been played and won. The scorekeeper is designated prior to each game according to house rules.
The scorekeeper, needless to say, has a distinct advantage, and should be monitored closely for "inadvertent" errors. The designated scorekeeper notes each bid and resulting scores on a score sheet. There are many different ways to score Oh Hell! In the simplest version, a player who wins the exact number of tricks bid scores 10 plus the number of tricks bid 10 points for zero tricks, 11 for 1 trick, 12 for two tricks, etc. Players who take more or fewer tricks than they bid score nothing. This method has the advantage that the scorekeeper, having written down the bids at the start of the play, can simply write a figure "1" in front of those that were successful and delete those that are not.
The game with this scoring method is often known as Blackout or Blob , because the scorer obliterates or blacks out unsuccessful bids, so that they become black blobs on the score sheet. Perhaps the most widespread scoring method is to award 1 point for each trick won plus a bonus of 10 points for players who win exactly the number of tricks they bid.
So for example a player who bid 2 would score 12 points for winning exactly 2 tricks, but only 1 for 1 trick and 3 for 3 tricks. This gives a player whose bid fails a slight incentive to win as many tricks as possible. Some other scoring methods are given in the variations section below. Whatever method is used, the score keeper keeps a cumulative total of each player's score.
The final cumulative scores determine the result. If the game is played for money, players pay or receive amounts corresponding to the difference of their scores from the average.
Several people have produced preprinted Oh Hell score sheets and applications , reflecting various scoring methods. There are a lot of variations of this. Some people start from 1 card each, go up to the maximum number of cards and then back down to 1. Some just go from the maximum down to 1 and then stop, or vice versa. Some people go from the maximum down to 1, then from 1 up to the maximum, so playing two 1-card hands in the middle, or from 1 to the maximum to 1 with two maximum hands in the middle.
If there are four people the maximum number of cards dealt may be 13 rather than 10, with three people you can go up to Some people go up to some other maximum, such as 7 cards, irrespective of the number of players. Dan Strohm describes a version, called Devil's Bridge , in which the hand size increases and then decreases.
On the final 1 card hand, the players must each hold their card on their forehead, so each player can see all the other player's cards but not their own. Bryce Francis reports that in Australia, when playing Bust with 5 players, they add 13 low cards from a second pack to make a 65 card pack, so as to deal 13 cards each on the first hand as with 4 players. When there are six players they add a further 13 low cards, so that the bottom half of the pack is duplicated.
If duplicate cards are played to a trick, the second played beats the first. A 3-player game is also possible, removing 13 low cards from a single pack. Some sequences include hands in which all cards are dealt for example 13 cards each to 4 players. There is of course then no card left to determine the trump suit. These hands are played without trumps. Some play the largest deals without trumps even if not all the cards are used.
Instead of turning up a card, some people go through the possible trump suits in a fixed sequence. This sequence may or may not include "no trumps". Brad Wilson describes a version called "Oh Shit!
Jean-Pierre Coulon reports a variation in which after the appropriate number of cards have been dealt to the players, the next card is turned face up.
If the rank of the turned up card is from 2 to 6, there are no trumps for the deal; if it is 7 or higher, the suit of the turned up card is trumps. Some people play without the hook rule, so the dealer is allowed to bid in such a way that everyone can win. There was a lively discussion in rec. Some think that hands where the bids add up are too easy; but others say that forcing the bids not to add up removes a tactical option from the dealer.
Some play with simultaneous bidding. When the players are ready to bid, they put a fist on the table. When everyone's fist is out, the group says "One, Two, Three" while bouncing their fists on the table.
On Three, everyone must stick out some number of fingers possibly zero to indicate how many tricks they will try to take.
Of course, with this method, there's no restriction against the total number of bid tricks being equal to the number of cards dealt. Since players cannot adjust their bids based on the other players' bids, the total tricks bid can be wildly different from the tricks available - for example it is not uncommon for three or four players to bid "one" when only one card was dealt.
Several correspondents report that in Australia, most groups use simultaneous bidding rather than bidding in turn. David Wuori of Maine, USA reports a variation in which a player who has no card of the suit led must trump. Only if you have no cards of the suit led and no trumps can you discard from a different non-trump suit. Although this is rule is uncommon in English speaking countries, it is actually the usual way of playing La Podrida the Spanish equivalent to Oh Hell played in Latin America and in Spain as well as the equivalent Romanian game of Whist.
Mark Brader suggests a variation in which two jokers are included, to make a card deck. These jokers are a suit of their own containing just two equal cards. If a joker is led it wins the trick unless trumped.
If a joker is turned up the other joker is the only trump. Dick Atkinson reports a version of Blackout for 5 or 6 players, played in Northeast England in the s. Two jokers are added to the pack, and if there are 5 players the four deuces are removed leaving 50 cards.
With 5 players the deal is always 10 cards each and with 6 players 9 cards each. The trump suit rotates from deal to deal in the order hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades. The dealer could not make the bid total equal the number of cards dealt. Jokers could not be led unless the player had no other cards and could not be played in the first trick.
Apart from that, a joker could be played to any trick even if the player could have followed suit. The first player of a joker could nominate it as either "high", automatically winning the trick or "low", automatically losing. The player of the second joker had no choice: it would be low if the first joker was high and high if the first was low.
If a player was forced to lead a joker, the first suited card played determined the suit of the trick. A version of Oh Hell! In the variation offered there:.
Andi Beben describes the four-player variant 7-truf played in Indonesia with a card pack ranking from high to low A-K-Q-J in each suit. There are 22 deals as follows:. Players bid in turn.
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