Here’s the whole game of Spades boiled down to a single page cheat sheet you can keep beside you at the table. It’s the quick version, made for settling a question mid-hand or handing to someone who’s just learning. Print the page as it is, or read it through once before you deal. For the full explanation behind any line of it, the Spades rules page has the complete walkthrough.
The Basics at a Glance
- Players: 4, in 2 partnerships, partners sitting across from each other
- Deck: standard 52 cards, jokers removed
- Deal: all 52 cards dealt out, 13 to each player
- Card rank: A (high), K, Q, J, 10, down to 2 (low)
- Trump: spades are always trump, so any spade beats any other suit
- Goal: win as close as possible to the exact number of tricks your team bid
How Bidding Works
- Going clockwise from the dealer’s left, each player names how many tricks they expect to win
- No passing, and your bid doesn’t have to beat anyone else’s
- Your bid and your partner’s are added together into one team total
- A bid of Nil is a promise to win zero tricks, for a big bonus or a big penalty
More on reading a hand and choosing your number is on the Spades bidding page.
How a Trick Is Won
- The player to the dealer’s left leads first, and may not lead a spade
- You must follow suit if you can; if you can’t, play any card, including a spade
- The highest spade wins the trick; if no spade is played, the highest card of the led suit wins
- You can’t lead a spade until spades are “broken,” which happens the first time someone plays one because they couldn’t follow suit
- The winner of each trick leads the next
Scoring Cheat Sheet
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Make your bid | 10 × tricks bid |
| Each overtrick (bag) | +1 each — but 10 bags = −100 |
| Miss your bid (set) | −10 × tricks bid |
| Nil — success / fail | +100 / −100 |
| Blind Nil — success / fail | +200 / −200 |
| Game is won at | 500 points (first team there) |
The worked examples behind every line are on the Spades scoring page.
Five Things Beginners Forget
- You score for hitting your bid, not for winning the most tricks
- Once you’ve made your bid, stop winning — extra tricks become bags
- You can’t lead a spade until spades are broken
- Any spade beats any high card in another suit, even the two of spades over an ace
- Watch your bag count — ten of them quietly cost you 100 points
Keep this page handy for your first few games and you’ll spend a lot less time arguing about the rules and a lot more time playing.