Spades

Bid Your Tricks, Then Make Them with Your Partner. Free Online

Play Spades free online in your browser, against the computer or at a table with up to four people, with no download or account needed.

Spades is the great American partnership game. Four players, two teams, thirteen tricks a hand, and one simple promise at the heart of it: before a single card is played, you tell the table how many tricks you are going to win. Then you have to go out and win them. Bid too high and you lose the points. Bid too low and you pile up bags that eventually cost you a hundred. That tension between confidence and caution is why Spades has ruled kitchen tables, dorm rooms and lunch breaks for the better part of a century.

This is the version I wanted to play myself. You partner the computer player across the table against the two on either side, and every one of the regulars has its own personality, from careful to reckless, so no two matches feel the same. Pick a quick match to 200 or settle in for the long game to 500. Or start a table, send a friend the code, and let computer players fill whatever seats are left. It is free here at CardAndPuzzle.com, plays in your browser with no download or sign-up, and saves your match on your device.

How Do You Play Spades?

Spades rules take about two minutes to learn. The game lives in the bidding:

• Teams and the Deal: You and the player across from you are a team against the other two. All 52 cards are dealt, 13 to each player, and the deal rotates around the table each hand.
• Bid Your Tricks: Starting to the left of the dealer, each player bids the number of tricks they expect to win, from 1 to 13, or bids nil to promise zero. The two bids on each side add up to the team's contract. A suggested bid is ringed for you while you learn.
• Follow Suit: The player left of the dealer leads the first trick. Everyone else must play a card of the suit that was led if they have one. If you cannot follow, you may play anything, including a spade.
• Spades Are Trump: The highest spade in a trick wins it. If no spade was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner of each trick leads the next one.
• Breaking Spades: You cannot lead a spade until one has been played on an earlier trick, unless spades are the only cards you have left. Once that first spade hits the table, spades are broken and anyone can lead them.
• Score the Hand: A team that makes its contract earns 10 points per trick bid, plus 1 point for each extra trick. A team that falls short loses 10 points per trick bid. First team to the target score wins the match.

New to Spades or want the bidding explained properly? Read the complete Spades Guide →

How Is Spades Scored?

Every point in Spades comes from the bid you made at the start of the hand. Here is the full scoring table this version uses:

Those are the classic rules, and the default. Two house rules in the settings change them for your next match: blind nil, and switching the ten-bag penalty off so bags still score a point each but never cost 100. Before the first deal you choose the target score: 200 for a quick match, 300 for a classic match, or 500 for the long game. The match ends as soon as a team reaches the target at the end of a hand. If both teams are over the line and tied, you play one more hand to settle it.

Can You Play Spades with Friends?

Yes, and it is the part of this game I am proudest of. Spades was always meant to be played with people you know, so this version lets you start a table of your own:

• Start a Table: Choose Play with friends, pick the target score, and the game gives you a six-character code and a link. Share it however you like.
• Computer Players Fill the Gaps: A table holds four people, but it never has to wait for four. Any seat that is still empty when the host deals is played by one of the regulars, so two friends can team up against the computer, or three friends can bring one computer player along.
• Turns Stay Moving: Each turn has a 30-second timer with a warning at ten seconds. If time runs out, your seat plays a legal card for you so nobody is left waiting.
• Reconnect: Lose your connection and your seat is held for a minute. Come back and you pick up exactly where you left off.
• Joining Is Easy: Tap the link, or open the game and type the code under Join with a code. Either one takes you straight to the table.

Who Are You Playing Against?

The computer players at this table are not a difficulty slider. Each one is a named regular with its own way of playing:

• Sixteen Regulars: Nova, Sam, Atlas, Ruby, Sage, Max, Luna, Felix, Echo, Juno, Remy, Iris, Bo, Mia, Cleo and Leo. Three of them are seated at every match, and each has a face, a short bio and a personality.
• Different Temperaments: Some are gamblers who bid aggressively and reach for nil on a marginal hand. Some are careful and would rather take a bag than risk the contract. Some play fast, and one or two are a little unpredictable on purpose.
• They Play Real Spades: The regulars count winners before bidding, cover a partner's nil, feed tricks to an opponent who bid nil, and stop taking tricks once the contract is safe to avoid bags. Your partner is trying to help you, and the other two are trying to set you.
• Table Talk: The regulars react to the match with short remarks when a hand starts, a nil goes down, or a bag penalty lands. If you would rather play in silence, it switches off in the settings.

What Are the Best Spades Strategies?

• Count Your Winners Honestly: Aces are tricks. Kings are usually tricks. A queen is a maybe. Then add your long spades, because once the side suits run out, every spade you hold is a trick waiting to happen.
• Short Suits Are Spades in Disguise: A void or a singleton means you will be able to trump that suit early. Count a short suit with spades behind it as a trick, but do not count it twice.
• Bid as a Team: Your bid and your partner's bid are one contract. If your partner bid high, you can afford to be a little conservative. If your partner bid nil, your job is to win every trick you can so nothing lands on them.
• Watch the Bag Count: With eight bags on the board, an overtrick costs you a hundred points. When the contract is made, start throwing away your winners and let the other side take the rest.
• Set Them When You Can: Sometimes the best play is not making your own bid but making sure the other team misses theirs. A missed 8 bid is a swing of 160 points.
• Only Bid Nil on a Nil Hand: Low cards in every suit, no aces, few spades. A nil that fails is a 100-point hole and every trick you take is a bag.
• Lead Spades Once They Are Broken: If you hold the long spades, leading them pulls trump out of the other hands and protects your winners in the side suits.

Why Play Spades Here?

• Real Partnership Spades: Four seats, two teams, nil bids, bags and the ten-bag penalty, exactly the way the game is played at a real table.
• Tables for Friends: Start a table, share a code, and play with the people you actually want to play with, with computer players filling any empty seat.
• Regulars with Personality: Sixteen named computer players with different temperaments instead of an easy, medium and hard slider.
• Learn at the Table: A six-step interactive coach walks you through your first hand on a real deal, covering your partner, bidding, following suit, winning a trick, breaking spades and bags. You can replay it any time from the game menu.
• Unlimited Hints: Stuck on a play? The hint shows the card the game's own strategy would choose, and a suggested bid is ringed in the bid picker until you switch it off.
• Pick Your Match Length: Play to 200, 300 or 500. Longer matches earn more XP toward your level on the site.
• Free in Your Browser: No download, no app store, no account needed. It works the moment the page loads, on any device.
• Picks Up Where You Left Off: Your match in progress, your lifetime stats including contracts made, and your settings all save automatically on your device, and on every device once you sign in.

From the First Bid to the Last Trick

Every hand of Spades starts with a moment of quiet arithmetic. You fan out thirteen cards, count the aces, weigh the spades, glance at your partner's bid, and commit to a number. Then thirteen tricks unfold and the number either holds or it does not. Making a tight bid exactly, with no bags, is one of the most satisfying feelings in card games. Setting the other team on their overbid is a close second. Deal a hand, take the coach's tour if it is your first time, and find out how good your count really is.

More Free Card Games

If you like trick-taking, Hearts turns the idea inside out, where the goal is to avoid winning tricks, and Euchre is the fast five-card partnership game with the bowers. For something lighter between matches, Trash is a quick race to fill your row of cards, and there is always a game of Klondike Solitaire to unwind with.