Scoring in Spades Explained: A Beginner’s Guide

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posted on 7 months ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Spades is a really fun trick-taking game for 4 players, and how you earn points depends on how many cards your team thinks they’ll win during a round. Meeting your bid exactly gives you a big bonus, but missing your bid may result in penalties like losing points from your score. While the scoring rules may seem a little tricky at first, they’re pretty easy to understand and we’ll walk you through exactly how to calculate your score. Keep reading for how bids affect your score, how many points you need to win, and a quick refresher on the game’s rules.

Things You Should Know

Earn 10 points per trick for reaching your team’s bid, and gain 1 point for any additional trick you won over your bid.
Score 0 points for the round if you win fewer tricks than your bid.
Score 100 or 200 points respectively for making a Nil or Blind Nil bid and winning 0 tricks. Lose the same amount of points for these bids if you win a trick.

Spades Scoring Rules

Score 10 times your bid amount if you win that many tricks. Look at the combined total bid for you and your teammate, and compare it to how many tricks you’ve won. If you won a number of tricks equal to or more than the bid, also known as “making your contract,” then multiply your bid by 10 to score that many points. Example: If your team bid a combined total of 8 and together you win 8 tricks, then you’ll score 80 points for the round.

Gain 1 point for each trick you win over your initial bid. If you won enough tricks to meet your bid and a few extra, still multiply your bid by 10 for reaching it. Then, each additional trick, or “bag,” is worth 1 extra point. Example: If your team bid 5 and you win 7 tricks, then you will earn 50 points for making your contract. Then, add 2 points for the 2 additional tricks for a total of 52 points for the round. Keep track of how many bags you earn throughout the rounds of the game. Each time your team accumulates 10 bags, you lose 100 points from your total score.

Earn no points if you win fewer tricks than your bid. If your team isn’t able to win enough tricks to meet the combined bid, then you earn 0 points for the round. Example: If your team has a combined bid of 5 tricks but you only win 3, then your team under-bid and doesn’t receive any points. Variation: For a more challenging game, lose points equal to 10 times your bid if you aren’t able to reach it. For example, if you bid 3 but only win 2 tricks, then your team loses 30 points for the round.

Score 100 points if you make a Nil bid and win no tricks. A Nil bid means you think you won’t be able to win any tricks with your hand and is a separate bid from your teammate. If you made the Nil bid and didn’t win any tricks, add 100 points to your team’s score. If you made a Nil bid, your teammate can still make a bid for how many tricks they think they’ll win individually. If they win enough tricks to reach their bid, they score the points as normal in addition to the 100 points from your Nil bid. If you made a Nil bid and won 1 or more tricks, then your team loses 100 points instead.

Win 200 points for making a Blind Nil bid and winning 0 tricks. A Blind Nil bet is when you independently bid 0 tricks without looking at your cards first. After other players make their bids, you’re able to swap 2 cards from your hand with your teammate. If you don’t win any tricks for the round, then your team earns 200 points in addition to whatever your teammate scores for their bid. If you made a Blind Nil bid and won 1 or more tricks, then your team loses 200 points instead.

How many points do you need to win Spades?

500 points After each round of the game, add the points your team earned from the round and add them to your total. If a team reaches or goes over 500 points at the end of a round, then they’re the winners. If both teams cross 500 points during the same round, then whoever has the highest score wins. Variation: For a shorter game of Spades, play until a team reaches 200 or 300 points instead.

Game Overview

Split into teams of 2 and deal 13 cards to each player. Play spades with 4 players divided into 2 teams. Sit around a table so you’re across from your teammate. Choose a dealer to shuffle a deck of cards excluding the jokers. Deal the cards out to each player so each person has 13 cards in their hand. Keep your cards secret from other players, including your teammate.

Make a bid based on how many tricks you think you’ll win in the round. Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each person makes a bid for how many tricks they can win based on the cards they have in their hand. Your team must reach the combined total of what you and your teammate bid (unless one of you bid Nil or Blind Nil). A trick is another name for a single turn in the game where each person plays 1 card from their hand. Spades are the most powerful suit in the game (also known as the “trump”), and aces and face cards have the highest values in each suit. If you have a lot of spades or high-valued cards, then consider making a larger bid.

Play 1 card from your hand to the trick on your turn. The player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick by choosing a non-spade card from their hand and playing it to the middle of the table. When it’s your turn, play a card from your hand that matches the led suit if you’re able to. If you don’t have a card in the led suit, then you may play any card from your hand. For a better chance of winning the game, play higher-valued cards if you want to win the trick and lower-valued cards if you don’t want to win it. Save your spades, aces, and face cards because they’ll have a better chance at winning tricks later in the round.

Win the trick for playing the highest value card. After each player places 1 card into the current trick, check the values of the cards. If anyone played spades into the current trick, the highest value spade wins the turn. If no one played spades, then the highest card in the led suit wins the trick. The winner takes all the cards from the trick and places them in a face-down pile in front of them. Example: The lead card of the trick is a king of diamonds. If the other cards in the trick are a 4 of diamonds, ace of diamonds, and 6 of diamonds, the player who puts the ace down wins because it has the highest value. Example: The lead card of the trick is an ace of clubs. If the other cards played are the queen of clubs, 2 of spades, and 4 of hearts, then the person who played the 2 of spades is the winner because it is the trump suit.

Continue playing tricks until players run out of cards. The person who won the previous trick plays the first card into the next trick. Keep playing tricks and awarding them to the player who put down the card with the highest value. Once everyone plays all the cards from their hand, the round ends. Unless you only have spades in your hand, you can not lead with spades until another player places one into a trick on a previous turn.

Tally scores and deal new hands if no team has won. Calculate the scores for your team based on your combined total bid and how many tricks you earned together. If a team hasn’t crossed 500 points yet, collect all of the cards, reshuffle them, and deal them out to the players again.