Spades Scoring: Rule, Examples, & Score Sheet Download

Spades is a trick-taking card game, typically played with four people who partner in pairs, where spades is always the trump suit. That means a card that is a spade beats any other card that isn’t a spade regardless of rank. Played with a standard 52-card deck, the game of spades hinges on how well you estimate how many tricks you can win.

Spades scoring is based on the combined bids between you and your partner and how many combined tricks you actually win. Teams gain or lose points depending on whether you underbid, overbid, or meet your bid, and the first team to reach 500 points wins.

If you want to play Spades and win, this post explains spade scoring and how best to make your bid so your team earns maximum points.

Quickstart Gameplay Rules

The game rules for Spades are simple, but spades scoring is based on the bids you make at the beginning of each hand. Two players team up against the other two players, and scoring is based on each team’s ability to meet their combined bid. So you need to understand how the game works to get your bid right and maximize your team’s score.

Like playing Hearts, this game uses tricks, where a player leads with a card and each player plays one card into the middle, following suit, if possible. So each round consists of 13 tricks. But there are significant differences between Hearts and Spades.

For example, with a Spades card game, spades is always the trump suit. So if a jack of hearts leads and then players play an ace of hearts, five of hearts, and a three of spades, the person who played the three of spades wins the trick because they trumped the suit that led. All cards of all suits, including spades, follow their rank with aces high and twos low.

The following overview can give you a better understanding of how to play Spades.

• Make your bid. After the dealer deals all the playing cards in the deck (13 to each player), each player takes turns bidding on the number of tricks they think they can take.
• Play 13 tricks.
• The person to the left of the dealer leads the first trick, but a spade cannot lead this first hand.
• For each trick, all players must follow suit, if possible. If they can’t follow suit they can play any other card. If a player can’t follow suit and plays a spade, then spades are broken.
• Once spades are broken any suit can lead.
• The player with the highest rank of the suit that led or the highest spade wins the trick.
• The person who wins the trick leads the next trick. Spades can be led if they are broken or if the person leading has no other cards in their hand except spades.
• Subsequent tricks follow this pattern of the winner from the previous trick leading, everyone following suit, if possible, until all cards have been played.
• Score the round. Once a round of 13 tricks has been played, teams must compare the tricks won as a team to the tricks bid as a team. They score points or are penalized based on whether they met their bid.
• Play to 500 points. Play as many rounds as needed for a team to win. When a team reaches 500 points, they win.

Rules for Scoring Spades

Spades scoring revolves completely around your bids. The number of points your team scores is dependent on the combined bids you make and the combined tricks you win.

A bid indicates how many tricks you think you can take. A team’s combined bid is then compared to the combined tricks they take in. So if one player bid 3 and their partner bid 2, then they should take a combined number of 5 tricks as a team—it doesn’t matter which player wins the tricks as long as they win 5 total as a team. The only exception to the combined bid rule is when a player places a nil bid, which means they bid for zero tricks.

In addition to Spades scoring rules, you might want to establish house rules for things like:

• Reneging: Most players will want a rule about reneging, not following suit. If you’re playing online, you will not be able to renege, but if you’re playing in person, you might consider establishing house rules to penalize players who don’t follow suit.
• Blind nil: A blind nil means a player bids for zero tricks without looking at their hand. This type of bid isn’t possible online, but if you’re playing in person, you may want to establish whether you’ll allow players to make blind bids.
• Blind double nil: Like the nil bidder, this type of bid means that both players on a team bid for zero tricks without looking at their hands. Again, you can’t make this bid online, but you can do so when playing person. So having a rule about whether this type of bid is allowed helps you bid and score accurately.

These sections break down the different scenarios for bidding and winning tricks and how to score them. Because you have to track more than just points, you can use our downloadable score sheet to easily keep track of bids, tricks, and points while you play.

Winning the Same Amount of Tricks as Your Team Bid

If a team wins the exact amount of tricks they bid for, then scoring is straightforward. The team receives 10 points for each trick bid that the team won. So if the team bid 6 tricks and won 6 tricks, they receive 60 points (6 tricks x 10 points each).

Bids and winning tricks are a team effort. It doesn’t matter if you bid 4 tricks and your partner bid 2. As long as you win 6 tricks combined, you’ve met your bid and get 60 points. So if you only won 1 trick but your partner won 5, they still add up to 6 combined, even though the tricks you personally won didn’t match what you personally bid. The combined tricks won still match the combined bid.

Winning More Tricks Than What Your Team Bid

When you win additional tricks above what your team bid, your team has overbid. Although overbidding is typically associated with bidding too high, in Spades, this means your team bid too low and took more tricks than what you bid as a team. Some players call these extra tricks bags, sandbags, and overtricks.

When your team overbids, you have two different parts to score:

• Bids won: You get 10 points for every trick you won that matches your bid.
• Bags: Your team receives 1 point for each bag (extra trick) your team won above what your team bid.

So if your team bid 5 tricks but won 7, then you get 52 points.

• Bids won: 50 points (10 points x 5 tricks that you bid and won)
• Bags: 2 points (1 point x 2 additional tricks you won)

The extra points you get for bags may tempt you to bid low, but there is a catch called bagging out. Once your team accumulates 10 total bags, you bag out, which means:

• You’re penalized 100 points.
• The bag count is reset to zero.
• But you still get points for tricks won and bags.

So if your team had a total of 9 bags and 346 points but bid 3 tricks and won 6 in the next round, your team would then have a total of 279 points:

• Bagging out penalty: Your team would be penalized -100 points.
• Points for tricks won: You receive 30 points for tricks (10 points x 3 tricks won).
• Points for bags won: You receive 3 points for bags (1 point x 3 bags won).
• Bag count reset: Your team would start the next hand with 2 bags in the count. Although you had a total of 12 bags (9 plus the 3 bags you just won), the bag count resets at 10, so that would give you 2 bags.

Winning Fewer Tricks Than What Your Team Bid

Underbidding may sound like you’re bidding low, but in a game of Spades, it means that a team takes fewer tricks than they bid. For example, they bid a total of 7 but only won 5.

When your team underbids, you get no points for any tricks won. Instead you are penalized 10 points for every trick you bid. So if you bid 7 and only won 5, you get 70 points deducted from your score and receive no points for any of the bids you won.

Winning a Nil Bid

When a single player bids for zero tricks, it’s called a nil bid. In this case, the team doesn’t combine bids or tricks. A nil bid can pose a big risk for your team or a big payoff.

To be successful with a nil bid, you must win, as an individual, zero tricks. If you win any tricks at all, your team receives a 100-point penalty, and you get no points for the tricks you won with your nil bid. If you make a successful nil bid, however, your team scores 100 points.

Regardless of your nil bid outcome, your partner still can count points (or penalties) for the tricks they won compared to the tricks they bid for.

If both players on a team bid nil, it’s called a double nil, and it pays off with double the points or double the penalties. If your team is successful, you get 200 points, but if you win even one trick, you’re penalized 200 points.

Winning a Blind Nil Bid

A blind nil bid is a risky move because it means you bid for zero tricks without looking at your cards. Because it’s so risky, the payoff is even bigger. If the blind nil bidder wins zero tricks, the team gets 400 points, but if they win even 1 trick, the team is penalized 400 points.

The blind nil bidder receives no points for any tricks won if they fail the bid, but their partner still receives points (or penalties) for tricks they win compared to the tricks they bid for.

If both players on the team bid for zero tricks without looking at their cards, it’s called a double blind nil bid. The team must win no tricks for this bid to be successful. If successful, the team wins 800 points, but if not successful, the team is penalized 800 points.

You can’t make this sort of a bid online, but you can bid this way when playing in person. Because it’s such a risky move that faces a steep penalty, many players prefer to establish a house rule, before they begin playing, for whether blind nil bids can be made.

Strategies for Making the Right Bid

When playing Spades, placing the right bid maximizes your team’s score. You get a higher score for matching the tricks won with the tricks bid—those are worth 10 points each. However, sandbagging only gains you 1 point per extra trick (or bag) and can even lead you to a 100-point penalty. So use these strategies to make an accurate bid.

Survey Your Hand for Aces and Kings

The two highest cards are aces and kings, which means if you have these cards, you’re more likely to get tricks when that suit is led. For example, if you have an ace of hearts and hearts leads the trick, you will likely win that trick. However, “likely” is the key word—a trump card wins the trick no matter how high ranking your card is.

So take a moment to assess how many of these high-ranking kings and aces you have. Then balance that information by considering how quickly those will be played. For example, if you have an ace of hearts, a king and ace of clubs, and a queen and king of diamonds, you have to weigh the likelihood of whether all of those high cards can be played without being trumped. The more tricks that are played, the more likely you are to play with spades broken. So a king and ace won’t matter much against a trump card.

So don’t bid for every single ace and king you’re dealt every hand. Consider how many might play in early tricks, especially if you can take the lead. If you happen to be to the left of the dealer, you have a distinct advantage because you’ll know you can take and maintain the lead for the first few tricks.

Account Carefully for Spades

Spades are always trump, but that doesn’t mean you should bid on every spade you’re holding. Higher spades like aces and kings are a better bet, especially if you have other lower ranking spades you can throw to keep higher spades in play. For example, if you have the king but an opposing player led the ace of spades, if you have a lower rank, like a six of spades, you can play that and save your king for another trick because it will be the highest card once the ace has been played.

However, if you have a lot of spades, their rank may not matter as much as when your hand is sparse with the suit. With a lot of spades, you end up having to play them on off-suit tricks, winning the tricks. So after you assess how many other aces and kings are in your hand, look at how your spades are balanced. If you only have a few mid-ranking spades, those may get taken in other tricks, but high-ranking ones are good to count on for your bid.

Decide Whether You Can Make a Successful Nil Bid

A nil bid offers a great deal of points (100) if successful and simply requires a strategy of avoidance. So you must take a look at what high cards you have for each suit and decide whether you can discard them as an off-suit play. For example, if you have the queen of hearts but have a buffer of three or more lower ranking hearts, you have a good chance of being able to play those lower ranks when hearts is led, saving the queen to play as an off suit when another suit leads.

Play the Bid You Made, Not the Hand You’re Dealt

Once you make your bid, play to make that bid work. A hand can be played in several different ways, so consider your bid the driver for your gameplay strategy. That means you may need to play off suit to protect a queen you need later, or you may need to trump early to take the lead.

Try to minimize the bags you take so you’re not penalized later, and do your best to not only get your bid but to also help your partner if it looks like their strategy is falling apart.

Put Spades Scoring to Work on Solitaired

If you want to try out these strategies and level up your skills for making accurate bids, the best way is through practice. So play Spades online as often as you like for free at Solitaired, and learn how spades scoring can work to your team’s advantage.