Object of the Game
The object of Spades is to work with your partner to earn points through a series of successful bids. You and your partner also try to induce penalty points for your opponents. The first team to reach 500 points wins.


Preliminaries
Spades uses a standard 52-card deck. Within each suit, the cards are ranked from lowest to highest: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A.
Spades is played with four players. The players sitting opposite each other play as a team.
The Spades suit is always trump. That means any Spade will win over any card of any other suit. Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds all have equal value, below Spades. So the 2 of Spades has a higher value than the Ace of any other suit.


Bidding
The game begins with a single round of bidding. The goal of bidding is to predict correctly the number of tricks you will win. A trick is a set of four cards, one card from each player.
Note : To make your bid here in a ZoneMatch room, simply click the appropriate button.
Players examine their cards and bid the number of tricks they think they can win in that hand. The combined bids of two partners is a contract, and once the bidding is completed their goal is to make, or fulfill, that contract. They don't have to make their own individual bids; what's important is to make their contract as a team. Thus, a player can make up the difference for a partner who may not make his or her own bid.
A contract that is not made is "set." Set contracts are penalized at the end of the hand.
A bid of nil means the player will try not to win any tricks at all. A successful bid of nil earns substantial bonus points for the partnership if it is made, and substantial penalty points if it is set. A bid of double nil doubles these points, but players can bid double nil only before examining their hands.
The bidding round is completed when each player has made a bid.


Playing
The goal is to make your contract.
Note : To play your card, either double-click it, or click once on the card, and then click Play .
You make a contract by winning or losing tricks. That is, if you have bid high, you want to win tricks. If you have bid low, you want to lose tricks to your opponents. Tricks are won by the highest card played in either the trump or the suit led. The suit led is determined by the person who leads off a round. So if, for example, the player who leads off a round plays a 10 of Hearts, then Hearts is the suit led.
Play then proceeds clockwise. Each player in turn must follow suit -- that is, play another card of the suit led. If a player holds no cards of the suit led, that player may play any card she or he chooses.
The trump suit is always spades. The highest card in the trump suit always wins the trick. If no trump cards are played, the trick goes to the highest card of the suit led.
Example 1: North leads a trick with the 10 of Diamonds. East follows suit with the 5 of Diamonds, South follows suit with the King of Diamonds, and West follows suit with the 8 of Diamonds. South wins the trick.
Example 2: North leads a trick with the 10 of Diamonds. East holds no diamonds, and plays the 4 of Spades. South holds no diamonds, and plays the Ace of Clubs. West follows suit. East wins the trick, because it is the only trump card played. Had South played another trump card -- the Jack of Spades, say -- instead of the Ace of Clubs, then South would have won the trick, because it played a higher-value Spade.
Players who lead may play any card they want, with one exception: No player may lead with a Spade until one has been discarded in a previous round, or unless Spades are the only suit left in the hand. Once a Spade has been discarded, Spades are said to be "broken," and they may be led.
The play continues until all 13 tricks have been played.


Scoring
Once all 13 tricks have been played, the Zone tallies the score automatically and then deals a new hand. Team points are combined.
Each trick is worth 10 points, so a contract of six is worth 60 points if completed. Remember, the number of tricks bid at the beginning of the round determines the value of each contract.
If a contract is set by winning fewer tricks than was bid, the partnership is penalized the entire value of that contract (or 60 points, in the above case).
If a contract is set by winning more tricks than was bid -- called overtricks -- the partners receive the value of their contract, plus one additional point per overtrick. In the above case, if seven tricks were won, the partners would receive 61 points. Their penalty for going over their bid is to receive one "bag" point per overtrick.
A bag point by itself has no value. However, these bag points accumulate in a bag shown in the upper left-hand corner of the table. When a team accumulates 10 bag points, it is penalized 100 points. Once the points are deducted, the bag is emptied.
Making a nil bid is worth 100 points, and making a double nil bid is worth 200 points. These bids bring with them 100-point and 200-point penalties, respectively, if they are set (that is, if the player who bid nil or double nil is forced to take a trick during the hand). If one partner bids nil and doesn't make it, none of the tricks he or she takes can be applied to the other's bid and the partnership will lose 100 points for the missed nil -- for example, if one player bids nil and his or her partner bids two, and if the players each get one trick, they will lose 120 points -- 100 for the set nil and 20 for the two-bid. They will also receive one bag for going over the nil.
The first team to reach 500 points wins the game. If both teams go over 500 points in the same hand, the team with the higher score wins. The game will also end if a team finishes a round at or below -200 points.