Card Game · Trick-Taking
Spades
Play four-player partnership Spades free online, try heads-up two-player Spades, or challenge a real opponent online. Bid your tricks, combine your contract with your partner, and rule every hand with the ever-trump spade suit. First team to 500 points wins. No download or sign-up.
Overview
Spades is a four-player partnership trick-taking game. You and your partner sit across from each other and play as a team against the other two. The spade suit is always trump, and the heart of the game is bidding: before each hand every player predicts how many tricks they will take, and your team must win at least the number you jointly promise. The first team to reach 500 points wins. Besides the partnership table against computer opponents, you can play a two-player game against the computer or a real opponent online.How to play
The full 52-card deck is dealt out, thirteen cards to each player. Starting to the dealer’s left, each player bids the number of tricks they expect to win. The two partners’ bids are added together into a single team contract, so reading your own hand accurately matters for both of you. You may instead bid Nil — a claim that you will win no tricks at all.Trick play and trump
Play goes one trick at a time and you must follow the led suit whenever you can. Because spades are trump, a spade beats any card of another suit; if you cannot follow suit you may cut in with a spade to win. You may not lead spades until they have been ‘broken’ by being played on another suit. When no spade is played, the highest card of the led suit takes the trick.Scoring and bags
Make your contract and you score ten points for every trick you bid. Each trick beyond your bid is a ‘bag’ worth one point — but bags are a slow trap, because every ten your team collects costs you 100 points. Fall short of your bid and you lose ten points per bid trick. A successful Nil is worth +100 and a failed one -100; Blind Nil, declared before you even look at your cards, is worth plus or minus 200.Strategy and tips
Bid what your hand can actually deliver — most games are won by making contracts, not by overbidding. Count your likely winners: high spades, Aces, and protected Kings. When your side has already won a trick, hold your high spades back for later. Cover your partner’s Nil by playing high so opponents cannot dump losers onto them, and avoid scooping up needless overtricks that turn into costly bags.Two-player Spades
Heads-up Spades has no deal. The full deck becomes a face-down stock, and the top card is turned up for whoever is drawing. Keep it and the next card is burned face down; pass on it and it is burned instead, and you take the next card sight unseen. You take turns until the stock runs out, leaving each of you thirteen cards. The non-dealer bids first and each player bids only for themselves. Nil is still worth +100 or -100, but there is no Blind Nil, because you have already seen every card you drew. Trick play, bags and scoring otherwise follow the four-player game, and the first player to 500 wins.Play Spades online
Choose Play Online to join the Spades lobby and see who else is waiting. Challenge a player and, when they accept, the match starts straight away using the two-player rules. Your opponent may be playing in a browser or on the Hearts & Spades app for Android, which shares the same lobby. You appear under the name you set in Settings, or as a guest until you choose one, and Invite sends a friend the link.Controls
From the menu choose 2 Players or 4 Players against the computer, or Play Online. In two-player Spades, tap Keep or Pass for each card turned up. When prompted, choose your bid number or Nil. On your turn, tap a card and tap Play; the game enforces following suit and the spades-breaking rule. On a phone held upright, drag your hand sideways to reach every card. Use the menu to start a new game.
