Spades Game

A standard pack of 52 cards is used ranked from highest to lowest: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.

The four players are in fixed partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. The first dealer is chosen at random, and the turn to deal rotates clockwise. The cards are shuffled and dealt clockwise.

All four players bid a number of tricks. Each team adds together the bids - number of tricks that team must try to win in order to get a positive score. Everyone must bid a number. Players are not allowed to pass and bids once made cannot be altered. A bid of 0 tricks is known as Nil. This is a declaration that 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.

The player to dealer's left leads any card (except a spade). 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 some player has played a spade, or the leader has nothing but spades left in hand.

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. The side which reaches 500 points first wins the game.