The goal
Make your team's contract hand after hand and be the first team to reach the target score, which is 500 or 250 points, as chosen by the host.
Players, teams and deck
There are four players in two teams, with partners sitting across from each other. You use the full 52-card deck, and each player gets 13 cards. Aces are high in every suit, followed by king, queen, jack, 10 and so on down to the 2. Play moves to the left, clockwise.
The deal
On the first hand, the host deals. Cards go out one at a time, starting with the player to the dealer's left, until everyone has 13. With each new hand, the deal passes to the player on the left.
Bidding
Before the first trick, each player says how many tricks they expect to take:
- The player to the dealer's left bids first, then the others in turn, moving to the left.
- Everyone bids once: from 1 to 13 tricks, or Nil, a promise to take no tricks at all.
- All bids are visible to the whole table, so later bidders know what the others said.
- A team's contract is the sum of both partners' bids. A Nil bid is left out of that sum.
There is no Blind Nil: everyone bids after looking at their cards.
How a trick is played
- The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick.
- Each player puts one card on the table, moving to the left.
- If you hold the suit led (the suit of the first card), you must play it. This is called following suit.
- If you have none of the suit led, you may trump with a spade or discard any other card.
- The highest spade takes the trick. If nobody played a spade, the highest card of the suit led takes it.
- Whoever takes the trick collects the four cards and leads the next one.
Each hand has 13 tricks, until the cards run out.
Breaking spades
You can't lead spades, that is, start a trick with a spade, until spades are broken. They break as soon as any spade is played in the hand, which usually happens when someone can't follow suit and trumps.
A player holding nothing but spades may lead one anyway.
Scoring
At the end of the hand, each team compares the tricks it took with its contract:
- Making the contract
- 10 points per trick bid
- Each trick over the contract
- 1 point, and it counts as a bag
- Getting set (fewer tricks than bid)
- Lose 10 points per trick bid
- Making Nil (no tricks taken)
- 100 points for the team
- Failed Nil (took at least one trick)
- Lose 100 points. The tricks that player took don't count toward the partner's contract: they become the team's bags
- Every 10 bags
- The team loses 100 points, and the bag count starts over from whatever is left
Example: a team bids 4 and 3, a contract of 7, and takes 9 tricks. It scores 70 for the contract and 2 for the bags, 72 in all, and adds 2 bags to its count.
End of the game and who wins
Scores are checked at the end of every hand. When a team reaches or passes the target (500 or 250 points), the team with more points wins. If the two teams are tied, you play another hand.
A team that ends a hand at −200 points or lower loses the game on the spot. If both teams fall to −200 on the same hand, the higher score wins; if they're tied, you play another hand.
A player who resigns or leaves mid-game loses the game for their team. If the table waits more than 48 hours on someone to bid or play, the other team can end the game, and the missing player's team loses.
Revoking
To revoke is to not follow suit while holding the suit led. At the tables on Selminha.com, the player who opens the table decides how revokes are handled:
- Revokes allowed (the default)
- You may revoke at your own risk. During the hand, until someone taps NEXT HAND, any player can call a revoke on an opponent, and the table checks the plays of the hand. If the revoke happened, the revoking player's team loses the game; if it didn't, the accuser's team loses.
- Revokes blocked
- The game only lets you play legal cards, so nobody can revoke.
Either way, nobody leads spades before they're broken.
The table on Selminha.com
Spades on the site is played by invitation: the host sends the link, and the first three people to open it take a seat. Anyone who arrives later watches. The host chooses:
- Game to
- 500 points, the classic game, or 250 points when time is short.
- Teams
- Once all four are seated, the host picks a partner, and the other two make up the other team. For a rematch, the teams can be kept or swapped.
- Revokes
- Allow them or Block them, as explained above.
- Deck
- Each player picks the deck design they see on their own screen. It only changes the look, never the rules.
- Bots
- Before the match starts, the host can fill empty seats with bots. They only see their own cards and never revoke or call a revoke.
The table lives on the site: the four of you don't need to be online at the same time, and the game tells you when it's your turn.
Tips for beginners
- Only bid the tricks you have a good chance of taking: aces, kings with another card of the suit to protect them, and high spades. Getting set is expensive.
- Check your partner's bid before you bid: the contract belongs to the team, and you make it together.
- Once your contract is made, avoid taking extra tricks. Each bag is worth just 1 point, but ten of them cost 100.
- Only bid Nil with low cards and no high spades. If your partner bid Nil, play high to cover their cards.
- If an opponent bid Nil, lead low cards and try to force them to take a trick.
Variations of Spades
Spades has plenty of house rules. Some tables allow Blind Nil, a Nil bid made before looking at your cards; at others the first trick must open with the 2 of clubs, the target is different or the bag penalty changes. The tables on Selminha.com use what's on this page: no Blind Nil, the player to the dealer's left leads the first trick with any card they like (following the spades rule), 10 bags cost 100 points, and the host chooses the target (500 or 250), their partner and the revoke rule.