SPADES The Ultimate Start Up: Rules, Strategies, and Tips for Winning

Today we're going to play one of the greatest card games of all time: Spades. Spades is a trick-taking game played with four players in two teams of two. The object of Spades is to be the first team to reach a final score, usually 500 points. Points are won by accurately predicting the number of tricks you and your partner can win each round. The suit of spades is always the trump suit, giving the game its name. The strategic element, combined with the bidding process and the touch of team coordination, makes Spades one of the greatest card games of skill and strategy.

Errors and Easter Eggs:
Whoops made a mistake at 1:11… team on left should have a combined score of 7 not 6. Sorry, so sorry, sorry, my bad, really sorry about that friend, darn, what a mistake, sorry. All mistakes and errors are just Easter Eggs for super smart views to catch and note in the comments. This video has 28 Easter Eggs, find them all!

Back to Spades:
You'll need a standard 52-card deck and a pen and paper to keep score. Players sit around the table with partners sitting opposite each other. You will win or lose with your partner, so choose wisely. Communication with your partner about strategy is not allowed. Shuffle the deck and deal all the cards, giving each player 13 cards. Each player, starting with the player to the left of the dealer, bids the number of tricks they expect to win. Bids can range from zero (nil) to 13. Players' bids are added together, and this is the total number of tricks each team must win to score.

The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick and can play any card except spades. Players must follow suit if they can. If they cannot, they may play any card, but not spades on the first trick. The player with the highest card in the lead suit wins the trick. Spades can be played on subsequent tricks if a player cannot follow suit. The player who wins the trick leads the next one.

If a team meets or exceeds their bid, they score ten points for each trick they bid. If a team fails to meet their bid, they lose ten points for each trick they bid. If you have a terrible hand, you can bid nil. If successful, your team gets 100 points, but if you win just one trick, you score -100 points. The game continues until a team reaches 500 points. The team with the highest score at the end of the game wins.

00:00 Spades
00:08 Object
00:31 Set Up
00:52 Bidding
01:32 Gameplay
02:17 Scoring
02:44 Bidding Nil
03:15 Ending Game
03:27 Other Rules
03:45 Strategy
04:15 Variations
04:34 Just Play Spades!

Other rules include penalties for not following suit and strategies for bidding and gameplay. Variations like Blind Nil and Ten for Two add more excitement. Spades is a culturally significant game that fosters community and competition. Now that you know how to play, gather some friends and enjoy!

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By Christopher Cannucciari

All Rights: Dynamic Range

[NickFox-idxr]

My absolute favorite. Solid video.

A couple things to know, especially if playing in the South:

1) If one team wins all 13 tricks in one hand it’s called “going to Boston” and if this happens to you (unless your team was doing a double-nil) and you lose all 13 tricks, the game is over and you have to leave the planet. At the very least you can never play spades within a 500 mile radius of the people you lost to because everyone will know and you will have brought shame upon your family.

2) if you accuse someone of not following suit (known as a renege), have receipts, because any Spades player worth their salt will deny a renege until the day they die (which is what I would have done if I’d ever been in that situation which I most certainly have not, your honor). This cannot be stressed enough. Doesn’t matter if you are right. They will make you point out which trick it was and tell from memory which cards were played. I threatened to call the U.N. When I got accused. (It worked….also I was right). So be prepared, because if you can prove your opponent reneged, you can hold that over them for life.

3) house rules vary, so know it’s good to know modes like joker-joker-deuce-deuce, joker-joker-ace, and so on. Easy to look up.

4) Spades is the greatest game in the universe.

[LinseyKnerl]

The best explanation yet. Why doesn’t this have more likes? ❤

[WaxBadger]

Good explanation of the game, but one thing that wasn't brought up I noticed was the overtrick or "bag" penalty, where the additional points you take for every overtrick is to account for how many you have taken over your bids in each round and once you take your tenth overtrick the team loses 100 points at that moment. Usually as a reminder of this people playing this game will either count the overtricks separately from their score or use chips, but often times a score of 238 will suffice as the eight at the end warns the team that they got to bid as accurate as possible to not take more than one more overtrick.

[kindadumbkindastrong]

Learned to play this game in jail betting food on the outcome of games

[D_H_M_]

very good video, are you going to make more whist like card games videos?

[saidsalim]

Are you going to talk about how to play Contract Bridge next?

[verimation]

nice video👍, also there is a similar game to this that we call it "HOKM"

[mohdameruddin]

I played this game on phone, but I don't know how to precisely determine how much to bid. Ended up losing so many times >< and how to know if other players are cheating?

[Unknown-ztek]

1-7 (Lucky number 7) ways of plays spades 300 to 500 points, most points wins easy, we all know that, wins it all. 13 cards only. Regular

2-7 (Lucky number 7) another way expert mode is my way to see it is 7 games most points wins 300 to 500 points, you can call out if you believe your deck is not sufficient to be the last card, set a side your decks of cards if you believe your hand is not enough, last player’s to be the last card in your hand wins.