The basic rules and principles of Spades are relatively simple.
Please refer to the next section if you are familiar with these bare essentials.
THE PLAYERS
The standard casino game is four-handed with two sets of partnerships playing opposite each other. There is also a three-handed variation in which each person plays individually. Finally, a four-handed option exists with each person playing individually although this form of the game is relatively obsolete. Although each person in the individual games plays for himself, two or more players may team up as a temporary partnership if this is advantageous for them.
THE PACK
A standard 52-card deck is used. There are four suits and the cards of each suit rank as follows:
Ace (high), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, and so forth down to the deuce.
Spades are always trump and outrank the other three suits. The terms major and minor are used for quick identification only. Major suits are hearts and spades; minor suits are diamonds and clubs. The Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and 10 are called "honor" cards; the deuce to the nine are called "spot" cards.
THE OBJECT OF THE GAME
Each partnership strives to win the highest score which is usually 500 points. This is accomplished by capturing tricks, setting or defeating the opponent's contracts and avoiding the accumulation of overŽtricks. The standard game limit for partnership variation is 500 points. Individual games have a limit of 300 points. There are penalties for defeated contracts, as well as the accumulation of overtricks (bags). In tournament play, the game limit is ten hands. This is designed to control the time, as well as length of each round.
SCORING
Each successful contract scores 10 points for every trick bid and made as well as one point for every additional trick. For example, if you bid seven (combined partnership) and make nine (tricks) you score 70+ 2 for a total of 72 points. If you are unsuccessful in making your bid (set) your team loses 10 points for every trick bid. Using the above example, if your team was defeated in the contract of seven tricks the result would be minus 70 points.
Remember, partnership bids are combined and the total made or set is the basis of the scoring. Successful nil bids score a premium of 100 points. Defeated nil bids have a penalty of minus 100 points. Please note that a nil is an individual contract and the partner of the nil bidder has his or her score calculated separately. In this article For example, if I bid nil and my partner bids three and we are both successful, we score plus 130 points. If my partner is set and I still make my nil bid, we score plus 70 (l00 minus 30).
Any tricks taken by a nil bidder do not count toward the total of the other partner's bid. Successful blind nlls have a premium of 200 points, and a defeated blind nil is penalized 200 points Bags are a penalty for over-conservative bidding. Every additional trick (over trick) in a successful contract counts as one bag. An accumulation of 10 bags results in a penalty of 100 points. It is quite possible to "sit" on a total of nine bags, and not incur a penalty. Bags are sometimes called sandbags.
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