Spades

Spades

Spades can be played by three people, but four is ideal. The goal is to score as many points as possible by collecting “tricks”.

To begin, the entire 52-card deck is dealt evenly to each of the players. If there are four players, each will have 13 cards. The first round is begun by whoever has the 2 of clubs, which is laid in the center of the table. The player to his or her left then must lay down any card of the same suit. The next player does likewise, and the next, till each has laid a card. The highest card wins the trick. (Aces are played high in spades; 2 is the lowest).

If a player doesn’t have a card in the suit that is being played, he or she may trump the trick by playing a spade. However, if any of the following players in that round also has no cards in the original suit, he or she may “trump the trump” with a higher spade. (No one may open with a spade until spades have been “broken” – that is, played as a trump.)

The winner of the book plays the next card, and the round continues till all 13 books have been played.

Scoring is what makes spades challenging. Each trick is worth 10 points. After a hand is dealt, players must make a bid on how many tricks they expect to get based on the strength of the cards that were dealt.

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Because each player in a four-person game has 13 cards, there are 13 possible tricks (130 points). A player who found among his or her 13 cards a couple of Kings, some Queens, and several spades of any value, would rightly feel justified in making a high bid because those cards are all likely to make a trick. The catch: If a player has a strong hand and so bids, say, 6 tricks, that player must make at least those 6. If not, he or she will instead lose 60 points (-10 points for each trick bid).

On the other hand, if the player makes over the amount bid, say 7 tricks instead of the 6 bid, he or she receives only a single point for each extra trick – in this case 61 points. Another catch: if a player receives more than 10 of those extra single points, he or she loses 100 points. This is called sandbagging.

A player who is behind by more than 100 points may bid “blind six” a bid of six made before the cards are even dealt. If the six are made, the players receives 100 points; if not, the player loses 100 points.

Players can play as many hands as they like to a preset score. About 500 points is a good goal for a satisfying evening