Bid and take tricks to reach 500
Spades is a four-player partnership game. You sit at the bottom with an AI partner opposite you (North), playing against two AI opponents, West and East. Each player is dealt 13 cards, and before play the three AI players bid automatically and their bids are shown at their seats. You then choose your own bid from 1 to 13 — the number of tricks you expect to win. Your bid and your partner's are added together to form your team's contract. There are no nil bids in this version.
You lead the first trick of the first hand, and the opening lead passes clockwise each hand after that. Spades may not be led until one has been played on an earlier trick, unless the leader has only spades left. Players must follow the suit led if they can; otherwise they may play any card. Spades are always trump: the highest spade wins any trick it appears in, and otherwise the highest card of the led suit wins. A team that makes its contract scores 10 points per trick bid plus 1 point for each extra trick, called a bag; every 10 bags cost 100 points. A team that falls short loses 10 points per trick bid. The first team to 500 ends the game, as does a team dropping to −200, and the higher score wins; if the scores are level, another hand is played.
This table plays partnership Spades: you and your AI partner, North, against West and East. The three computer players bid before you and their numbers appear at their seats, so you always choose your own bid of 1 to 13 knowing what the rest of the table expects. Your bid and North's combine into one team contract, scored at 10 points per trick bid, 1 point per overtrick, minus 100 for every 10 bags, and minus 10 per trick bid if you fall short. You lead the first trick of the first hand, and the opening lead then passes clockwise each hand. Spades cannot be led until one has been played on an earlier trick, unless the leader holds nothing but spades, and there are no nil bids. The game ends when a team reaches 500 or drops to -200; if the scores are level, another hand is played.
On Easy and Medium the AI players bid by counting likely winners in their own hand: each of the ace, king and queen of spades counts as a full trick, lower spades as roughly a third of one, side-suit aces as most of a trick and side kings as half. Medium follows suit with its highest card, trumps with its lowest spade when void, and leads its highest card outside spades. That style is simple to read once you know it: low leads flush out three high cards at once, and a low ruff is an invitation to overtrump. Hard counts tricks more carefully, including spade length and short side suits it can trump, and plays as a partnership.
Easy adds random noise of up to a trick either way to its bids and plays a random legal card, so contracts are often missed by both sides. Medium bids straight from its trick count and plays by fixed rules: highest card when following, lowest spade when trumping, highest non-spade when leading, with no thought for its partner or for bags. Hard remembers every card played and which players are void, will not overtake a partner who is already winning, covers when the partner is losing, ruffs with the cheapest spade that wins, cashes cards that are sure winners, and once both contracts are settled it ducks to avoid bags. None of the levels look at your cards. In simulated games, a Hard partnership beat a Medium one about nine times in ten. AI Training simulates the rest of the hand before every card: it deals the cards it cannot see in ways that fit the voids it has seen, plays each deal out with Hard's rules for all four seats, and plays the card that gives its team the best average score for the hand, bags included. It bids from the same kind of simulation, picking the bid with the best average result. A Training partnership beat a Hard one 11-4 in testing.
For the complete rules, the deeper strategy and the history of the game, read the full Spades guide, or browse guides for all 33 games.