Spades

How to play

Four players in two partnerships, sitting across from each other. You and the player at the top of the table are one side; the two at the sides are the other. Thirteen cards each, aces high.

Before a card is played, everybody says how many tricks they will take, going round from the dealer’s left. You and your partner’s numbers are added together — it does not matter which of you takes them, only that the two of you get there between you.

Then it is an ordinary trick game with one difference: spades are trumps. Everybody must follow the suit led if they can; if they cannot, they may play anything, and any spade beats any other suit however low it is. You cannot lead a spade until somebody has played one on another suit — unless your hand is nothing but spades, which would otherwise be unplayable.

Scoring

• Make your side’s combined bid and score 10 a trick.
• Miss it and lose 10 a trick for the whole contract — being set costs the same whether you were one short or six.
• Every trick beyond the bid is a bag, worth 1 point. Bags carry between hands, and on your 10th your side loses 100.
• Nil — a claim to take no tricks at all — is 100 if you keep it and 100 against you if you do not, with the tricks you took counting as bags on top.
• A match runs until a side reaches 500, and the highest total wins.

Modes

Match to 500

Hands until a side reaches five hundred. Bags carry over, so a hand you win badly can still cost you a hundred.

Five-hand set

Five hands, scored and totalled. The quickest way to see a whole game of it.

Bid practice

Your hand is broken down into what it is actually worth before you bid, and a hint is always there. Nothing is recorded.

Daily deal

Four hands, one from each dealer, and everyone gets the same cards today.

The opponents — and your partner

All three computer players run the same code at the same strength, your partner included. They value a hand by its trump length, its high cards and its short suits, they keep track of who failed to follow which suit, and they know what their side still needs from the tricks that are left. When somebody is on a nil they play to it: covering a partner’s, and trying to force a trick onto an opponent’s.

Casual

Bids roughly what its hand looks worth, never risks a nil, and often plays the second-best card rather than the best.

Steady

Bids from its trump length and its high cards, will bid a nil when nothing in the hand can be forced to win, ducks it properly, and covers a partner's nil while trying to force a trick onto an opponent's.

Sharp

Everything Steady does, played the same way every single time — it never takes the second-best option to keep you guessing.

The levels differ in how consistently they act on what they work out — measured, not asserted. With the tested pair filling both seats of one partnership and every deal played twice with the sides swapped, Steady scores about 18.6 points a hand more than Casual, and Sharp about 6.9 more than Steady. Two identical opponents come out level, which is how those numbers are known to mean anything. They never differ in what they are allowed to see.

A few things worth knowing

• Count your bid from what you will actually win: your high spades, your aces and guarded kings, and a trick or two from a short suit you can trump in. A void is worth nothing without spades to ruff with.
• When your contract is already safe, stop taking tricks. A trick you do not need is a bag — and it is often a trick the opponents needed, so ducking it can set them for ten points against your one.
• A partner on a nil is the one time to take everything you can. Every trick you win over them is a trick that cannot fall on them.
• Watch what people fail to follow. That is free information, it is the same information the computer players are using, and against a nil it tells you exactly which suit to lead.

Privacy and local play

Your hand, your settings and your record are stored on this device and nowhere else. There is no account, no sign-in and no gameplay request to any server. The reset button clears this game’s data and leaves every other Zerdly tool alone.

Questions

Can my partner see my cards?

No — and neither can the opponents, and it is the same mechanism for both. The only thing any computer player is ever given is one seat's view of the table, and that object has no field for anybody else's hand: not an empty one, no field at all. That matters most for your partner, because a pair who could see each other's cards would play beautifully and would look like nothing more than good luck. Everything they know about your hand they worked out from the bids, which are public, and from cards played in the open.

What is a bag, and why did I just lose a hundred points?

Every trick you take beyond your bid is a bag, worth 1 point. They look harmless and they carry over between hands, and on your 10th your side loses 100 points. So bidding four and taking eight is not a triumph — it is four bags and half a penalty. Overbidding is punished immediately and underbidding is punished three hands later, which is most of the game.

What happens if I bid nil and take a trick?

Your side loses 100 instead of gaining it, and the tricks you took still count as bags on top. Your partner's bid is unaffected — it stands on its own, and they have to make it without you, because you are busy ducking everything. Protecting a partner's nil is the part of Spades that takes the longest to learn.

Which house rules does this table use?

10 a trick for a contract made, and the same lost for one missed, however far short you fell. 1 a bag, carried between hands, with −100 every 10. Nil is 100 either way. Blind nil is off by default; where it is on it is worth 200. Spades cannot be led until one has been played on another suit, unless your hand is nothing but spades. Aces are high, there is no joker and no cutting, and a match runs to 500 with the highest total winning.

Can I reload to get a better hand in the Daily?

No, and not because it is forbidden. Each hand of the Daily is dealt from the UTC date and that hand's number, so hand three is the same fifty-two cards however you arrive at it. The Daily is four hands because the deal rotates four ways — the seat to the dealer's left bids and leads first, which is a real advantage, and four hands gives every seat it exactly once.

Is anything sent to a server?

No. The rules, the shuffle, the opponents, the sounds and your saved hand all run in your browser. There is no account, and clearing this game's data leaves every other Zerdly tool untouched.

More Zerdly Interactive

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• Dou Dizhu — Two against one, and the pairing changes every hand.
• Texas Hold'em Poker — Ring-game poker with equity worked out at the table.