♠️ Spades Guide

What Is Spades?

Spades is a partnership trick-taking game that grew up in the twentieth-century United States and remains a fixture of kitchen tables and online card rooms. It shares its bones with Whist and Bridge — four players, two partnerships, thirteen tricks — but replaces Bridge's elaborate auction with a simple bid: each player names how many tricks they expect to win. The fixed trump suit and the scoring for overtricks make it a game about accuracy rather than greed.

On PlayVersusAI you play in the South seat with an AI partner opposite you and two AI opponents on either side, at four difficulty levels.

The Rules

Each player receives 13 cards. You and North form one team; West and East form the other. Cards rank from 2 up to ace, and spades are always trump.

• Bidding - the three AI players bid first, and their bids appear beside their seats. You then pick a bid from 1 to 13. Your bid and North's are added together into your team's contract. There are no nil or blind nil bids on this table.
• Leading and following - you lead the first trick of the first hand, and the opening lead moves one seat clockwise each hand. Spades may not be led until one has been played on an earlier trick, unless the leader holds only spades. Everyone else must follow the suit led if they can, and may play any card if they can't.
• Winning tricks - if any spades are played, the highest spade wins. Otherwise the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner leads the next trick.
• Making the contract - if your team wins at least as many tricks as it bid, it scores 10 points per trick bid, plus 1 point for every extra trick. Those extra tricks are bags, and each time a team's bag count reaches 10 it loses 100 points.
• Going set - a team that wins fewer tricks than it bid loses 10 points per trick bid.
• Winning the game - the game ends when a team reaches 500 points or falls to −200, and the higher score wins. A tie means another hand.

Core Strategy

Count your tricks honestly

Start with the cards that win almost regardless of what happens. The A♠ is a certain trick, the K♠ nearly so, and the Q♠ is worth a trick if you hold at least two other spades to protect it. Side-suit aces usually win, though an ace in a very long suit may be trumped. Kings are roughly half a trick each. Then add length and shape: a fourth or fifth spade usually wins something late in the hand, and a short side suit lets you trump once it runs out.

Take a hand of A♠ K♠ 7♠ 4♠, A♥ 8♥ 3♥, K♦ 6♦, and Q♣ 9♣ 5♣ 2♣. The two top spades and the A♥ are three tricks. With only two diamonds, a low spade will probably win a trick by trumping a third round of diamonds. The K♦ and Q♣ might add one more between them. That is a solid 4, possibly 5.

Use the bids you can see

Because the AI bids first, you know three-quarters of the table before you commit. Add up all four bids including yours. If the total is around 10 or less, there are spare tricks floating around and bags are likely; bidding the top of your range costs little. If the total reaches 13 or more, at least one team will go set, and every trick matters — bid what you are confident of and play to stop the opponents.

Exploit how the AI follows suit

On Medium, the computer players always follow with their highest card in the suit, whether or not it can win. That makes low leads unusually effective. Lead the 2♣ and you will often see West, North and East each throw their top club; the trick goes to the best of them, but the king and queen that fall are gone for good, and your jack may now be the highest club left. It also means opponents will drop the K♠ or Q♠ under your A♠ if you lead it, so cashing the ace early can strip them of their big trumps.

Overtrump cheaply

A Medium AI that is out of the led suit trumps with its lowest spade; Hard uses the cheapest spade that wins. If West ruffs your partner's winner with the 3♠, a 6♠ from you takes the trick back. Keep a few middle spades for exactly this purpose instead of spending them early.

Work around your partner

On Medium, North plays its highest card even when you are already winning the trick, and trumps your winners when void. Leading your ace into a suit where North holds the king wastes a winner, so lead low and let North's high card win instead. On Hard, North stays low when your card is safe, covers when you are losing, and leads into suits it knows you can trump.

Manage bags across the game

A single bag is worth a point, but the tenth costs a hundred. If your team is sitting on seven or eight bags, it is worth deliberately losing tricks you don't need once your contract is safe: throw your highest losers under opponents' winners.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Bidding in a vacuum. The three bids already on the table tell you how contested the hand will be. Use them.
• Spending the A♠ to beat a low ruff. The AI ruffs low, so a modest spade usually does the job.
• Cashing winners into your partner's honours. Two of your team's high cards on one trick means one fewer trick later.
• Collecting tricks you didn't bid. Once your contract is made, extra tricks bring you closer to the 100-point bag penalty.

Playing Against Our AI

On Easy and Medium the computer players bid by counting likely winners: the ace, king and queen of spades count as one trick each, lower spades as about a third of a trick, side-suit aces as most of a trick and side-suit kings as half, rounded with a minimum of 1. Medium then plays by fixed rules: highest card when following suit, lowest spade when void, and when leading, the highest card of its first side suit in the order hearts, diamonds, clubs. It ignores its partner and its contract.

Hard values spade length, protected honours and short side suits it can trump, and it remembers every card played and who is void. It plays for the team contract, then tries to set the opponents, then ducks to avoid bags. None of the levels can see your cards.

Difficulty	What to expect
Easy	Adds up to a trick of random error to each bid and plays a random legal card, so both teams frequently miss or overshoot their contracts.
Medium	Bids straight from its trick count and plays by the fixed rules above. Predictable, but it punishes loose bidding.
Hard	Bids more accurately and plays as a partnership: no overtaking a winning partner, cheap ruffs, sure winners cashed first, and fewer wasted bags.
AI Training	Simulates the rest of the hand many times over, dealing the cards it cannot see in ways that fit the voids it has seen, and plays the card that gives its team the best average score, bags included. It bids from the same simulations. A Training partnership beat a Hard one 11-4 in testing.

Because Medium opponents lead hearts whenever they hold any, players run out of hearts sooner than other suits, so expect heart tricks to be trumped from about the third round onward.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I bid nil or blind nil?

No. Bids run from 1 to 13, and the AI players always bid at least 1 as well. Every hand is a straightforward team contract.

Can spades be led on the first trick?

Only if you hold nothing but spades. Spades must be broken first, which happens when someone trumps a trick with a spade. After that, leading your top spades is a good way to pull trumps from the opponents.

How do bags work?

Every trick your team wins beyond its contract scores 1 point and adds a bag. Bags carry over between hands, and whenever your total reaches 10, you lose 100 points and the count drops back by 10.

What happens if both teams pass 500 in the same hand?

The game ends at the end of that hand and the team with the higher score wins. If the scores are exactly level, one more hand is played.