The Spades Table
Well, there is a lot to the game of spades. First of all, you need to know what rules you are playing with. To
make life a lot easier for me, I would like to teach you the rules I play with, and then soon I
will add all the different rules I have known. But here's the important
part, I will teach you how to win.
The Rules
Commonly known as the Grill Rules where I come from.
The play:
Use all 52 cards, no jokers. Deal them one at a time to the 4 people that
are playing. You may, if you would like, cut for the deal, with the person
that cut the highest card getting to deal first.
You should have 13 cards when all is dealt. If not, that can constitute a
redeal, and the cards are dealt again, and anything that has taken place is erased. Then, you bid. Following the rules, I will show you how to bid. Minimum bid is 4.
Then, you play. The lowest club of each player is thrown out. The person that has the highest lowest club (confusing, no?) wins the trick. Play continues woth the person that won the trick leading, and so on and so forth.
Order of cards:
From lowest to highest:
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A
What things are worth:
You bid how many tricks you think you will win. This total, added to your partner's total, is your bid. If you:
Take your bid, and only your bid, add a 0 to whatever you bid was.
Take your bid, and a few extra tricks, add the number of the excess tricks to your bid. (Example: If you bid 5, and you tool 7, then your score would be 52. )
Do not take your bid, then add a zero to your bid and SUBTRACT that from your score.
Play continues til one of the parties reach 500.
SPECIAL CASES:
If your bid was either 10 or 13 (13 is commonly known as a Boston):
Bids of 10 are known as a 10-for-2. Meaning, if you get then 10 tricks, than you take 200 points. Bostons are worth 400 points. If you do not get your 10 tricks, you go back 100. And if you do not get your Boston, you go back 200 points.
If you double your bid, you go back DOUBLE your bid, plus your bags, or overbooks (Extra tricks).
When you get 10 bags, you bag out, which means you go back a hundred points but your overbooks start back at 0.
Other special rules:
You or your partner con decide to "go low", which means one person is taking whatever the bid is, and the other person is taking NO, (Let me repeat, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) tricks. If this is succesfully done, you get your bid, PLUS 50 points, plus any bags you might have taken. If:
You get your bid, but the person going low is "busted", meaning, they took a trick, you get your bid points, but subtract 50 for the low, and add your bags. {Example: Billy Bob and Heather are partners. Billy Bob goes low, Heather bids 5. Billy Bob busts his low on the first trick, with the 5 of clubs. Heather takes her 5. They get 50 for taking their 5, minus 50 for busting their low. But wait!! Billy Bob took the extra one at the beginning, which means A BAG!!! So, they get 1 point for the whole ordeal.}
You get the low, but are busted on your bid. Then in that case, you get 50 for the low, but go back what you bid. {Example: Andrew and Doug are partners. Andrew went low, and Doug bid 4. Andrew gets his low, but Doug only takes 3. In this case, They get 50 for the low, but go back 40 for not getting their bid, so they get 10 points for the mess.}
Even MORE special cases:
If you are 100 points behind the other team, you may go what is called Blind Low 5, OR Blind 6.
BLIND LOW 5!!!!!!!!!!!
This is why I even play spades. This is the most fun thing to do in the world, except, of course, sex and eating Rice Krispy Treats.
Blind Low 5 is where 1 person takes 5 and the other person takes none. The scary part about it is the blind part. You see, you bid it even before the cards are dealt. The cool part is this. If you get both the low and the 5, you get a whopping 200 points ! YAAAAY! :) Now, if you get either the low OR the 5 but not both, you get 50 points. If you really screw up and get niether, you go back 100 points.
Blind 6.
Kinda pales in comparison, but it's like this. You bid before the cards are dealt that you will take 6 between you and your partner. It's worth 120 points, or double the bid. If you don't get 6, you only go back 60. Nifty. If you look at your cards and determine that one person can take 6 and the other person can go low, then you may add a low to it for an extra 50 ponts.
FOR BOTH BLIND LOW 5 AND BLIND 6:
If you have 10, you may up the bid to 10. In the event that it is a blind low 5, you have to keep the low, but you may bust the low and you will get 150. If you Don't get it, you go back 100.
2 last rules:
Reneging:
If a suit is led, then you MUST FOLLOW SUIT and play the suit that was led if you have it. If you do not have it, then you may trump with spades and take the trick, or you may throw an off suit. IF you do not follow suit when you have it, then the other team may: either take 3 tricks from you, OR give you 3 tricks, or take 50 off your scpre or add 50 to their score, and, of course, if you renege, you will be branded a renigger, and if you are playing with me, I will nail your tounge to the wall. :)
MISDEALS:
If you are dealt:
No spades, AND no aces, this is considered a misdeal and you may opt to play it out or you may opt to have it redealt.
More or less than 13 cards, then this is a misdeal and it must be redealt.
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