Spades — Play Free Online
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Spades here is a single-player version of the classic partnership trick-taking card game, published by the HTML5 studio MarketJS in 2019. You sit at a table of four with three computer players. Your partner Bill sits across from you, and together you play against the team of John and Lisa. The first team to reach five hundred points wins the game.
How a round works
- Bid. After the deal, the game asks "What is your bid?" and you pick how many tricks you think you can take from the row of number buttons. Your bid and Bill's are added together into a combined team bid.
- Play. When it says "Your turn!", click a card to play it. The highest card of the suit that was led takes the trick, unless someone plays a spade, because spades always beat the other suits.
- Score. At the end of the round a score board lists each team's bid, tricks taken, bags and nil results, then you continue with Next Round.
The rules the game enforces
- Cards rank from 2 up to King, with the Ace highest in each suit.
- You must follow the suit that was led if you have it. The game stops you with a message if you try anything else.
- You cannot lead a spade until spades have been "broken", meaning a spade has already been played earlier in the round.
- A team only scores its bid if the two partners together win at least that many tricks.
- Extra tricks above the bid are called bags. They pile up from round to round, and every 10 bags costs the team a hundred points.
- A bid of zero, called Nil, earns a bonus if that player takes no tricks at all and a penalty if they take even one.
- Blind Nil doubles both the bonus and the penalty of an ordinary Nil.
All of these rules can be read in the game itself from the Rules button.
Controls
Everything is done with the mouse: click a number to bid and click a card to play it. On a touch screen you tap instead. There is a pause button, and menus to start a new game or reset the score.
Tips
- Count your sure tricks before bidding. Aces, high spades and a long spade suit are the cards that win tricks most reliably.
- Do not over-win. Every trick above the team bid adds a bag, and ten of them cost a hundred points.
- Only bid Nil with a hand full of low cards, since a single trick turns the bonus into a penalty.
- Keep an eye on your partner's bid as well as your own. The team bid is what counts, so Bill's tricks help you reach it.
Questions about Spades
Who are the players in this Spades game?
You play with a computer partner named Bill against the computer team of John and Lisa, so the table always has four players.
How many points do you need to win Spades?
A game ends when one team's total score reaches five hundred, and that team is the winner.
What are bags in Spades?
Bags are tricks your team takes beyond its combined bid. They build up over rounds, and every 10 bags costs a hundred points.
What is the difference between Nil and Blind Nil?
Both are bids of zero tricks. Blind Nil carries twice the bonus and twice the penalty of an ordinary Nil bid.
