Spades Scoring: How to Keep Score in Spades

How does scoring work in spades?

Spades is a partners game. You and your partner sit across from each other, and you score as a team.

Every hand has 13 books (a book is one trick: four cards, one from each player). Before anybody plays a card, each player bids how many books they think they can take. Then you add your bid to your partner's bid. That total is your team's contract: the number of books the two of you promised to take together.

You bid 3. Your partner bids 4. Your team's contract is 7. It doesn't matter which of you takes the books. If you take 2 and your partner takes 5, that's still 7, and you made it.

At the end of the hand, the books get counted and you score one of two ways: you made your contract, or you got set.

How many points do you get for making your bid?

Make your contract and you get 10 points for every book you bid, plus 1 point for every extra book you took.

• Bid 7, take 7: 70 points.
• Bid 7, take 8: 71 points (70 for the contract, 1 for the extra book).
• Bid 4, take 6: 42 points.

Getting set means you took fewer books than you bid. Then you lose 10 points for every book you bid.

• Bid 7, take 6: minus 70.
• Bid 5, take 2: minus 50.

Yes, missing by one book costs the same as missing by four. That's why a smart team bids what it can really take, not what it hopes to take.

What are bags in spades?

A bag is any book you take over your contract. Each bag gives you 1 point, so at first bags look like free money. Honey, they are not.

Your team keeps a running count of bags from hand to hand. Every time that count reaches 10 bags, your team loses 100 points.

Here's how it plays out. Your team already has 8 bags. This hand you bid 5 and take 8, so 3 more bags.

• Contract made: 50 points.
• 3 bags: plus 3 points.
• Your bag count passes 10: minus 100.
• Score for the hand: minus 47.

The 1 bag left over starts you toward the next 10. So bags are a slow leak. Take a few and nobody notices. Take a lot and one day the bucket tips over. Good players keep one eye on the books and one eye on the bag count.

How is nil scored in spades?

Bidding 0 is called nil. It's a promise that you, personally, won't take a single book this hand. Your partner still plays for their own bid.

• Nil made (you took no books): plus 100 for your team.
• Nil failed (you took even one book): minus 100.

Your partner's bid gets scored on its own, the usual way. Here's the catch: a nil bidder's books never count toward the partner's bid. If you bid nil and take a book anyway, that book is a bag.

Example 1: You bid nil. Your partner bids 4. You take 0 books and your partner takes 5. Nil made is plus 100, the contract of 4 is plus 40, and the extra book is plus 1. That's 141 for the hand.

Example 2: Same bids, but you get stuck taking 1 book and your partner takes exactly 4. Nil failed is minus 100, your partner's 4 is plus 40, and your book is a bag worth plus 1. That's minus 59 for the hand, and your team picks up a bag.

Variation, blind nil: some families play blind nil, where you bid nil before you look at your cards. It's usually worth plus 200 if you make it and minus 200 if you don't. It's a house rule, and Spades Arena doesn't offer it yet.

How do you win a game of spades?

Scores carry over from hand to hand, and the game ends when a team reaches the target score. On Spades Arena, games are played to 250 or 500. A game to 250 is quick, good for a lunch break. A game to 500 gives you room for a comeback.

There's also a mercy rule. If your team's score falls to minus 200 or below, your team loses right there. Get set a couple of times with big bids and you can get there faster than you'd think, so bid with care when you're behind.

A quick way to keep score by hand: give each team a column. Write each hand's bid, books taken, points for the hand, the running total and the bag count. Check the math out loud after every hand, so nobody's cousin gets creative with the pencil.

Try it at a free practice table

Scoring makes the most sense once you've watched it happen a few times. Sit down at a free practice table on Spades Arena against the computer, play a few hands, and watch the score update after each one. The site does all the math for you, so you can keep your mind on your cards. Spades Arena is free to play, and nothing you can buy helps you win.