Spades 247 - Play Online Free Spades

Spades is a popular trick-taking card game that has been played around the globe for nearly a century and enjoyed significant growth throughout the early days of PC and online gaming. With no two games being the same, thanks to 635,013,559,600 different possible hand combinations, it is a game that can keep players entertained for life.

Before playing the incredible multiplayer game, either with real cards or in the digital arena, you must first learn how to play Spades correctly. In this quick guide, we’ll discuss the rules, tactics, and best places to take part in one of the most addictive card games on the planet.

Contents:

• An Introduction to Spades
• The Rules of Spades
• How to Play Spades in 5 Steps
• Top Tactics to Become a Better Spades Player
• Stat Playing Spades Today

An Introduction to Spades

Spades is a game that is believed to have originated in Cincinnati in the late 1930s and is a descendant of Whist, thus making it very closely related to Bridge, Hearts, Pinochle, Euchre. and Oh Hell. The game is usually played by four people, although six-player games are possible, using a standard deck of 52 cards.

The game spread its way across America and around the globe throughout World War II by soldiers, who used it as a popular pastime. Its simplicity, both in terms of rules and equipment, saw Spades become commonly played at home and by students on college campuses.

While still a very popular traditional card game, Spades quickly became a classic video game towards the end of the 20th century due to the growing accessibility of PC CD roms and flash-based web titles. Fast-forward to 2024 and millions of hands are still played daily.

The Rules of Spades

As a first-time player, Spades may seem a little daunting. However, the rules are actually very simple to learn. It is a far less complex game than Bridge, so anyone who is familiar with the latter should pick up the rules of Spades within a few hands.

Spades may be played in several variants, including solo play (also known as cutthroat spades) and six-player spades where players are split into either six individuals, three pairs, or two trios. The most traditional version - which is the game you will find here at 247 Spades - sees two teams of two players compete against each other.

As a player, you will be paired with the person opposite you while the players to your left and right are the opponents. Before playing, you should know that;

• The game is won by the first team to score 500 points - we’ll discuss points scoring below.
• Alternatively, the game can be lost if either team reaches a score of negative 200 points.
• Cards are ranked from highest to lowest, with Ace high. A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
• Spades are always the trump suit. A card from the lead suit will beat cards from the other two suits (not Spades).

The game is broken into several key phases, as detailed below:

Dealing & Bidding

As a trick-taking game, each hand involves 13 tricks. So, each of the four players is dealt 13 cards in a clockwise order (13 x 4 = 52 cards). Cards should be facedown. When playing with a real deck, the dealer can be selected by drawing for the highest card or first spade. When playing a video game version, the deal happens automatically.

Bidding can be completed either before you see your cards (blind) or after you have seen them. When bidding blind, you will have to bid “nil”, which means you are planning not to win any tricks. You will be rewarded if you manage to avoid taking any of the 13 tricks, but penalized for each trick that does head your way.

When you place a bid based on seeing your cards, you can choose any number between 0 (Nil) and 13. Generally speaking, if you have a lot of high-value cards from the Suit of Spades, you’ll probably fancy your chances of winning some hands.

If both players bid nil, it is known as a “Double Nil Bid”.

Game Play

To start a hand, the player next to the dealer (clockwise) will open the first trick by playing any of the 13 cards that they hold. This is known as a lead. However, you cannot lead with a Spade card on the first trick of any hand. In fact, you cannot lead with a Spade in any trick until at least one Spade has already been played in a previous trick - which is known as “breaking Spades” in a very similar vein to “breaking Hearts” in Hearts.

Continuing clockwise, each of the remaining three players will play a card too, ending with the dealer. If possible, players 2-4 should play a card from the same suit as the lead card. However, if they do not have any lead suit cards, they may play any card - this includes playing a trump card to break Spades.

At the end of the trick, there will be a pile of four cards in the middle of the table. The trick is won (also known as taken) by the person who played the highest card of the lead suit. However, if trumps are played (Spade cards), the person who played the highest trump card will take the hand. Some examples are;

• P1: King Diamonds. P2: 7 Diamonds. P3: 9 Diamonds. P4: 2 Diamonds. P1 takes trick.
• P1: Jack Hearts. P2: 9 Hearts. P3: 4 Diamonds. P4: King Hearts. P4 takes trick.
• P1: 7 Clubs. P2: 8 Clubs P3: 4 Spades. P4: 10 Clubs. P3 takes trick.
• P1: 10 Spades. P2: Ace Spades. P3: 5 Hearts. P4: 3 Spades. P2 takes trick.
• P1: Ace.Hearts P2: 7 Hearts. P3: 5 Hearts. P4: 7 Spades. P4 takes trick.

The player who takes the trick will place the cards face-down in a pile next to them (this is automated on web games like 247 Spades) and leads the following trick. The hand is completed when the 13th and final trick has been completed.

Scoring

Scoring does differ slightly from one variant to the next. However, for a traditional 2v2 game of Spades, the scoring is linked to the bidding process and does not occur until the end of the hand.

Firstly, the contract score will be calculated by counting the number of tricks that each player took. So, the total number of all four players combined will be 13. The two teams will add the tricks of both players together to gain a team count. This is then compared to the contract from the bidding process;

• If you make the number of tricks (or more) that you bid for, 10 points are awarded for each trick - a bid of 2 gets 20 points, 3 gets 30 points, and so on.
• If you do not win enough tricks to match or surpass the bid, you lose 10 points multiplied by the bid - a bid of 5 is minus 50 points, for example.
• When you take more tricks than you bid, a “bag” (worth one point) is also awarded for each trick above the bid - if you got 6 tricks after bidding 4, you’ll get 2 bags.

If a team accumulates 10 bags during the course of the game, normally over multiple hands, they will be deducted 100 points.

Meanwhile, if a nil bid or double nil bid is made, you will need to know the following possibilities:

	No Tricks Taken	One Or More Tricks Taken
Nil bid	100	-100
Blind nil bid	200	-200
Double nil bid	400	0 / -200
Double blind nil bid	800 (game won)	0 / -400

At the end of a hand, a scorecard (which can also be accessed at any time by clicking the pencil icon) will be shown to explain the points. An example is shown below:

When playing at 247 Spades, the game plays until one of the teams hits the +500 / -200 points threshold. For real-life games, you may also decide to play a set number of hands. In this case, all players should agree on this before the first hand.

How to Play Spades in 5 Steps

Step 1: Start a Game

Before you can deal first hand, you must first open a game. When playing at 247 Spades, you will notice that several themed variants are available including Spring Spades, Summer Spades, Easter Spades, 4th of July Spades, Thanksgiving Spades, and more. The only difference is the appearance of the deck and the table - all gameplay and rules remain identical.

All games are offered for free while the Flash-based titles work on all browsers. The smooth graphics, easy controls, and quick gameplay make it a great platform for playing Spades. There are four levels of play, with the AI opponents becoming increasingly clever as you progress through them. The options are;

• Easy: Spencer as your teammate; Tyler and Steve as your opponents.
• Medium: Deja as your teammate; Mike and Maya as your opponents.
• Hard: John as your teammate; Ruth and Eleanor as your opponents.
• Expert: Ada as your teammate; Grace and Einstein as your opponents.

After choosing your difficulty, simply click the box and the game will soon start with the first hand automatically being dealt as soon as the table loads.

Step 2: Bid

Once the first hand has been dealt, you will need to complete the bidding/contract process before the first trick. You will be given two options - “See Cards” and “Bid Blind Nil”. The latter is self-explanatory and will automatically set your bid to 0. If you click “See Cards”, you will see the options of N-13 (as shown in the “Place bid” image above).

After confirming your bid, the bids of all four players will be shown next to their names. In the image below, we can see that you have placed a bid of 4 while teammate Spencer has bid three for a total team bid of 7. Tyler and Steve have bid for 2 tricks and 5 tricks respectively, giving them a total of 7 too.

Bonus Tip: Because the cumulative total of the two team bids is 14 when there are only 13 tricks in a hand, we already know that one team will fall short of their target.

Step 3: Play the First Trick

After the first lead card is played, the game will progress clockwise. When it arrives at you, you’ll need to play within the rules stated above to play a card from the lead suit if possible.

In the instance above, playing the Queen of Diamonds will beat the 5 of Diamonds and can only be beaten if another player plays the King or Ace of Diamonds - or a Spade.

Whoever plays the highest ranked card, whether that be a Spade or the highest card from the lead suit, will collect the four cards from the first trick.

Step 4: Play Tricks 2-13

The winner of the first trick will lead the second trick, and the same pattern will follow. When you win a trick, you will be able to lead the next. However, if “breaking Spades” has not happened, you will have to lead with a card from one of the other suits:

You will continue to play tricks until all 52 cards have been played. At the end of each trick, you will notice that the winner’s score increases by one. The aim is for both players on the team to match or surpass their bids.

At the end, a scoreboard like the one in the image above in the “Scoring” section will be shown. Assuming that neither team has hit the +500 or -200 points mark, the game will continue to a second hand.

Step 5: Play Subsequent Hands

You will then repeat the same process as the first hand. This begins with making a bid and then revealing the contracts made by the two teams.

Once the cards are turned, the first trick is played and the winner gets one trick point before leading the second trick. All tricks are completed and the scores from the hand are calculated. They are then added to the scores from the first hand to see if either team hits the +500 or -200 points mark.

If they do not, you will play a third hand. And then a fourth. And so on. The scoreboard will be shown and updated at the end of each hand. Once one of the teams surpasses the + of - benchmark, the game will be over.

In this instance, Steve and Tyler won.

When played in real life, games can last for around 90 minutes. Thanks to the instant nature of dealing cards, however, you can expect a game at 247 Spades to last about 30 minutes. However, this will depend on how many hands are required as each hand should only take 3-5 minutes.

Top Tactics to Become a Better Spades Player

While Spades is a game where players can win hands through luck, it is certainly a game of skill. Like many trick-taking card games, though, it is easy to learn but very difficult to master.

Naturally, regular practice will make you a better player. You’ll naturally discover strategies by yourself while also picking up tips from other players (AI or human) throughout your experiences of the game. In time, you should become better equipped to make faster decisions while simultaneously thinking a few tricks ahead.

As a beginner, some key tips that may help include;

• Start with the beginner level on 247 Spades. Otherwise, you may become overawed and frustrated by the expert AI players.
• Do not compete against the card that your teammate has already played, if they are already set to win the trick.
• When you can’t win a trick, play the lowest value card in the suit - playing the 2 now to save a 10 could help you win a later trick.
• Similarly, if you can win a trick as the last player, you should play the lowest-value card that allows you to do this.
• Where possible, try to keep your hand of Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs evenly distributed as it’ll keep you competitive in more tricks.

While you can’t predict which cards an opponent will play on any given trick, you can make an educated guess about what cards they hold. Obviously, if you hold the Ace of Spades, you will win the trick when this card is played. Similarly, if you hold the 10 of Spades, you know you’ll win if the J, Q, K, and A have been played.

Learning to track the cards that have been played while also comparing them to your cards is one of the keys to future success. When starting with 247 Spades, you may want to write down all 52 cards and then tick them off as they are played. It isn’t a tactic that can be used for real-life games but using online Spades to train your brain into noticing patterns and working probability in your favor will make you a far better player over time.

As a trick-taking game of the whist family, time spent playing any similar game will naturally help you develop the skills to thrive at Spades. Alternatively, other strategy games like Minesweeper and Mahjong may help.

Stat Playing Spades Today

Whether you’re a seasoned trick-taking card game player or not, you should now feel comfortable with the rules and basic tactics of how to play Spades. The only thing left to do is head over to a virtual table here at 247 Spades and test your skills hours. A lifetime of fun, fast-paced play awaits.

• Be sure to protect your Spades partner if they bid a nil or double nil.
• Play your Aces first to try to take Spades tricks early before other players run out of that suit.
• Try to bid as accurately as possible to avoid scoring Spades Sandbags.
• If the other Spades team bids a nil or blind nil, be sure to try everything to get them a trick.

DISCLAIMER: The games on this website are using PLAY (fake) money. No payouts will be awarded, there are no "winnings", as all games represented by 247 Games LLC are free to play. Play strictly for fun.