- When can you lead spades?
- Only once spades are broken — once a spade has been played on an earlier trick by somebody who could not follow suit. The exception is a hand holding nothing but spades.
- What are bags in Spades?
- Tricks taken beyond what your partnership bid. Each one scores a single point, but they are also counted, and every tenth bag costs 100 points. They are what stops a partnership bidding low for safety.
- What happens if you do not make your bid?
- You lose 10 points for every trick you bid, not just for the ones you were short. A bid of five that takes four costs 50.
- What is a nil bid worth?
- A nil is a promise to take no tricks at all, and it is scored on its own, apart from the partner's bid. It usually wins 100 if it holds and loses 100 if it does not. Blind nil, bid before looking at your cards, is usually worth 200 either way.
- How do you bid in Spades?
- Count the tricks your hand can take by itself. Aces and kings outside spades are usually worth a trick each, the high spades are worth one, and a long suit of spades wins tricks at the end. Your bid is added to your partner's to make the partnership's contract.
- What is the highest card in Spades?
- The ace of spades. Spades are always trump, so any spade beats every card in the other suits, and within a suit aces are high.
- How many points is a game of Spades?
- 500. The first partnership to reach it wins.