Game rules Spades

Spades Rules

The game has four players, divided in two teams, sitting on alternate positions

• Players - 4.

• 52 Cards.

• Distribuition - 13 cards for each of the 4 players.

• Object - The team that scores 100 points first is the winner.

Definitions

• Trick – a hand won

• Hand - a sequence of 4 rounds, in which each player plays a card, and the winner (who discard the highest card) wins a trick.

• The highest card - the highest card of the suit. The order of the cards is as follows, from the lowest to the highest: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K,A. The spade suit is always trump.

• Follow the suit - play a card of the same suit from the first card of the hand..

• Bid - the number of tricks a player intends to get

• Contract - the bid agreed by the team.

• Bags - any hand won by a team that wasn't in the contract.

• Nil - A Bid to win no tricks at all in any hand. This bid is worth 100 points

• Double Nil – It's the same than nil, it is worth 200 points. One player, having not yet looked at his cards, may choose to bid . These cards will be revealed once the bid is made.

The Game

13 cards are dealt to each player one by one, clockwise. After the distribution of cards, 13 hands are held. The player on the dealer's left makes the opening lead by playing a single card of any suit, except Spades. Players in clockwise fashion then play a card of their choice; they must follow the suit led by the first player. If any player doesn't have a card of this suit, they may play any card. Cards of spades can only be led after the first hand and after a player who is not able to follow the suit lays one card of spades. In the final hand, the winner is the one who have played one or more cards of spades, the highest card of spades is the winner. If the suit of spades has not been led, the highest card of the first suit that has been led is the winner card. The winning player of the hand wins a trick. This player starts the next hand. After 13 hands, players have no cards remaining on their hands, then the points are counted. If no team has reached 100 points, 13 cards are dealt to each player again and each player from every team must make new bids in order to start a new game. The game proceeds normally up to a team reaches 100 points. So, this team will be the winning team.

Scoring and Penalties

If the contract is fulfilled by the team, this team receives 10 points for each trick won and 1 point for each bag. If the team can't get the the amount of tricks they've bet (contract), they receives the amount of tricks of the contract multiplied by -10 (minus ten), adding so a negative score. When a team reaches 10 points of bags, they receives a penalty of one hundred points and the points of bags are reset.