The bidding begins with the player to dealer's left and continues clockwise around the table. Each team adds together the bids of the two partners, and the total is the number of tricks that team must try to win in order to get a positive score. In Spades, all four players bid a number of tricks. The cards are shuffled and then dealt singly, in clockwise order beginning with the player on dealer's left, until all 52 cards have been dealt and everyone has 13. The first dealer is chosen at random, and the turn to deal rotates clockwise. The cards, in each suit, rank from highest to lowest: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Deal and play are clockwise.Ī standard pack of 52 cards is used. The four players are in fixed partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. Spades for Four Players Players and Cards I am grateful to Theodore Hwa, Dennis J Barmore, Szu Kay Wong, John Hay, Daniel Hines, and many others who have contributed information on variations. It is most often played as a partnership game by four players, but there are also versions for three, two or six players. Spades is a plain-trick game in which spades are always trumps. After the main description, there is a collection of numerous variations, which are still common in face to face social games. The introduction of of on-line play and tournaments has also led to some standardisation of the rules, and this page has been revised so that the main description conforms to the standard.

However, since the mid 1990's Spades has become popular internationally because of its easy availability in on-line card rooms on the Internet.

Until recently it has been little known elsewhere, except in a few places where American troops were stationed, for example in parts of Germany. Spades was invented in the USA in the 1930's and is played quite widely in that country.

Free online spade card game