What Cards to Take Out in Spades

Learning how to play Spades with four people is simple, especially with help from Spades.co’s ultimate guide to Spades rules. A four-player game of Spades constitutes a regular game, which is played by two teams of pairs.

In this scenario, you don’t need to take out any cards in a deck except the Jokers; the game is played with the remaining fifty-two cards. But with fewer or more players and in some variations, some cards–such as the two of Hearts and two of Diamonds or all four deuces in Spades with Jokers–are taken out.

The Basics of Spades

Spades is a classic card game that requires a good mix of luck, strategy, and skill. Here’s a quick overview of the basics of the game:

Objective

The objective of Spades is to accumulate a predetermined score, usually set at 500 points. Players get points by 'making a contract' or playing the same amount of tricks as they bid at the start of each round.

A ‘trick’ is a part of the game in which each player plays one card, with the highest-ranking card of the led suit or any played Spade winning the trick. A ‘bid’ is a prediction made by each player about the number of tricks they aim to win in a round.

The total of the team members' bids becomes the team's target. For instance, if a player bids three tricks, they must win three times in a round (or a few times more than that, within limits) to make all three contracts.

Setup

A regular game of Spades is played using a fifty-two-card deck (a regular deck without the Jokers). In a two- or four-player game, every player is dealt thirteen cards. In a three-player game, players are given seventeen cards each. In a five-player game, everyone gets ten cards.

Card distribution may also differ depending on the variation of Spades played. Spades with Jokers is one of the more common versions. In this game, the two Jokers–namely the Big Joker or the Full-Color Joker, and the Little Joker or the One-Color Joker–are added into play.

To accommodate the additions, the two of Hearts and two of Diamonds are removed in two- and four-player games and all four deuces are removed in five-player games. In these games, each player is dealt thirteen cards each.

In three-player games, no cards are removed and everyone is given eighteen cards for the play. Which Joker is higher in Spades? In this variation, the Big Joker outranks the Little Joker, which outranks all other cards in the Spades suit.

Gameplay

To play Spades, players first make a bid at the start of the round. The first player then leads with a suit, with all other players required to follow suit, i.e. play a card from the same suit.

If a player can’t follow suit, they must play a trump card (a Spade) or discard. Once a Spade is played, other players may also play a Spade. But what if you don’t have a trump card–can you play Spades with no Spades in your hand? In this case, you’ll likely have to bid zero.

Every time a player makes a contract, they are awarded ten points. Overtricks or bags, which are tricks made above the declared bid, are given one point each until a certain number. For example, if a player bids three and wins five tricks, they receive thirty-two points. If a player has too many overtricks or bags, they may be penalized with negative points.

Learn More About Spades

Spades.co has the ultimate guide to Spades to help you boost your game. Check out our site today to learn more about the basics of this fun card game–or to play a round yourself!