So you want to learn how to play spades but no one is willing to take a moment to teach you? No problem, this guide will go over the basics using the most common rules. Some folks play with jokers/deuce high/etc but what's below is what you'll see on online games if you want to practice.

This site can be used to practice and also has a text version of rules: https://cardgames.io/spades/

I won't be covering scoring too much here. If your table wants to keep score there will def be someone who knows how to do it so let them handle it lol

a standard deck of cards with jokers removed

3 players + yourself

Spades is a game you play in 2 teams of 2 where each team is trying to prevent the other from making their bid on books. Books are the cards a team wins if they play the highest card that turn. Ace is the highest card for each suit.

The table can only lead with clubs/diamonds/hearts until someone doesn't have a card of that suit and may "cut" with a spade (or play off suit). Once the first cut is made, spades can lead (this is called "breaking" spades).

You must play the suit that lead the turn unless you 100% don't have a card from it otherwise you will renege. Try not to do that, the squad will know you are new immediately lol

Shuffle, cut and deal out cards in full (13 cards). The person to the left of the dealer will start off their team's bid and then go first when the game begins.

The person directly across from you is your partner. You cannot tell or hint at your partner about what's in your hand, you have to pay attention to what's being/been played and try not to "play over" them (more on this later).

The strat for bidding is:

listen to your partner's and the other team's bids. there are only 13 total books so do the math. for example, if your partner bid 5, a player on the other team bid 6, you should not go with a huge bid that would bring your team close or above 13 total.

while looking at your hand

check your high cards

how many and what kind of spades you have

how many of another suit you have. for example if you only got 3 clubs, you know you will have to play off suit or cut with spades early

Let's give out an example bid with this hand:

Ace, King and 2 cards lower than 10 of clubs

Queen and 4 cards lower than 10 of hearts

King of diamonds

3 cards lower than 10 of spades

If I was first to bid with this hand, I would bid at least 3. Why? Because I should be able to play that ace and king of clubs quickly without opposition for 2 books, play a low card heart to see what the other players have, I might lose the king of diamonds when diamonds is first played but can cut diamonds with spades afterwards for at least another book.

You can also bid 0 (nil), but you must actually not win a book. This matters a lot for tables who track scoring. Successful nil is 100pts, failing loses 100pts and spades scoring goes to 500pts.

The player who bid first starts the turn, with players clockwise to them putting a card down. Everyone must follow suit and the player with the highest card wins the book for their team. The player who won the previous book now leads the new turn and they can choose any suit but spades (until spades breaks) to play.

Ideally, you don't want to "play over" your partner on a turn, meaning if your partner has played the highest card on the table, you don't want to play a card higher than theirs unless there's no other choice. Let's look at an example:

in the clockwise order of the turn, you are going 3rd. so far the table has played king (your partner), and a 10 (opponent). in your hand, you have the ace and a 7 of that suit. you'd want to play the 7 here because you know the other team won't be able to put anything higher AND you could use the ace later to pick up another book

I mentioned earlier that you can cut with a spade when you 100% don't have the suit that lead the turn. However, you can also play a low, off suit card to avoid cutting over your partner if they have the high card on suit. This allows you to save a spade for a later cut similar to the "play over" example above.

You should def cut if you feel there's a chance the other team will beat your partner's card though. You'll get the timing of these strategies as you gain more experience paying attention to what's been played throughout the game.

The game ends when all players are out of cards. Both teams will count their books to see if they made their bids. For tables that don't score, the simple goal was to try to block the other team from making their bid. If someone is scoring, they'll handle the points and penalties for going over bid if any.

Whoever was first last game is now the dealer, with the player clockwise to them becoming first to bid/lead turn.