Spades is a four-player trick-taking game. You and the player across from you are a team. The other two players are the opposing team. A standard deck is dealt completely, so every player starts with thirteen cards and every hand contains thirteen tricks, usually called books.
How one book works
The player to the dealer’s left leads the first card. Play moves clockwise. If the first card is a club, every player who has at least one club must play a club. A player with no clubs may play any card, including a spade.
If nobody plays a spade, the highest card in the suit that was led wins the book. If one or more spades are played, the highest spade wins. The winner collects the four cards and leads the next book.
Suppose the lead is the nine of diamonds. The next cards are the king of diamonds, the three of diamonds, and the ace of clubs. The king of diamonds wins because clubs were not led and the ace of clubs is not a trump card. Replace that ace of clubs with the two of spades and the two of spades wins.
What “follow suit” means
Following suit is not optional. If hearts were led and you hold a heart, you must play a heart. Playing from another suit while still holding a heart is called reneging. Online games prevent it by making illegal cards unavailable, but at a physical table the players are responsible for catching it.
When you cannot follow suit, you have a choice: discard a card from another suit or use a spade to try to take the book. That choice is the center of Spades strategy. A trump card can win now, but keeping it may give your team more control later.
When can spades be led?
Spades normally cannot be the first suit led in a hand until they are “broken.” Spades become broken when a player cannot follow the suit that was led and plays a spade instead. From the next book forward, a player may lead a spade.
One exception matters: if your hand contains only spades, you may lead one even if spades have not been broken. You cannot be forced to play a card you do not hold.
How partners work
Your team owns its books together. It does not matter which partner collected them. That makes your play visible to the person across the table. Leading a low card, covering a book with a high card, or refusing to spend a spade can all help your partner understand the shape of the hand.
You cannot see your partner’s cards, and you should not use chat or coded signals to describe them. Legal partner play happens through the cards themselves: which suit was led, which ranks have appeared, when a player ran out of a suit, and who spent trump.
How the score works
Scoring varies by table. Traditional versions often use bidding, bags, and nil bids. Spades Tourneys uses a quicker no-bid format: every book your team wins is worth ten points, and a normal game ends when one team reaches 300 with the higher score.
Since all thirteen books have value, the hand distributes 130 points between the teams. A team that wins eight books earns 80 points while the other team earns 50. If both teams cross the target on the same hand, the higher total wins. An exact tie plays another hand.
The easiest way to improve
At first, do not try to remember all fifty-two cards. Track four things: the suit that was led, the highest card in that suit, whether anyone is out of that suit, and how many spades have appeared. That is enough information to stop many avoidable mistakes.
After each book, ask one question before the next card is led: who can still follow each suit? When a player shows they are out of diamonds, every future diamond lead gives that player a chance to trump. That fact can matter more than the exact low cards still hidden.
Try a complete game
Spades Tourneys plays two against two on the web, iPhone, and Android. The game enforces follow-suit rules, shows the score and books, and keeps partners opposite each other. You can bring someone you know or be matched with another player.