I’ve seen dozens of variations of the rules for Spades. The ones we use are:
[list][li]First deal - someone deals the cards face-up. First person to get a Jack is the first dealer for the game. Dealing rotates to the left for subsequent rounds.[/li][li]Breaking Spades - someone can’t lead Spades until one has been used to trump a trick, or the player doesn’t have any other suit.[/li][li]Sandbags - Excessive tricks taken subtract 100 points for every 10 accumulated.[/li][li]Minimum bid - 4 between partners. Partner of a Nil bidder must bid at least 4. If he’s already bid and it was less than 4, it becomes 4.[/li][li]Nil bid - player bets he won’t take any tricks, worth 100 pts. Zero bid - Not a Nil bid, not worth any extra.[/li][li]Redeal - if a player is dealt no Spades, he may request a redeal on his turn to bid. Same dealer redeals.[/li][li]Boston (all 13 tricks taken) - worth 200 points.[/li]
Judges 14:9 - So [Samson] scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
Ten points per book bid and made, one point per overbook.
Breaking spades, sandbags, minimum bids, Boston – as above
Nil: worth 50 points, minus 50 if you don’t make it. No zero bids. If both players on a team successfully go nil, it’s worth 200 points.
Blind six, blind nil-six, blind nil-eight, etc.: If a team is down by at least 100 points, they can bid before seeing their cards and get a bunch of extra points. If you bid blind nil, you must agree beforehand which partner is going nil. You may switch one card after the deal. A team may successfully bid blind only once per game. The only way to get out of a blind bid after seeing the cards is to bid ten for two.
Ten for two: The team bid is ten. If you make EXACTLY ten books, you get 200 points; otherwise, scoring is normal.
Low clubs: Everyone throws out their lowest club on the first trick; highest low club takes the trick and leads the next card.
I know of all the above rules, but don’t use all of them; Sandbags extends the game a little much. But I did want to discuss nil bids…
We used to play with a Nil, One-pass Nil, and Two-pass Nil, worth 100, 50, and 25, respectively. Why you’d do a two-pass, I dunno, but it was there.
In addition, before dealing and seeing your cards, you could call out a Blind Nil. Being Blind doubles the value, meaning a Blind Nil is 200, a Blind One-pass is 100, and a Blind Two-pass is 50.
I’d like to smugly point out that I once made a Blind One-pass bid; in the hand, I received the Ace and King of spades. We won the round and the game on that hand. Bloody artful.
GOD, I love cards! It seems like people just don’t want to play anymore!
We always played with Nil, and Blind Nil (100 and 200 points respectively) But you didn’t get to pass any cards. Whoever bid the nil, couldn’t take any of the tricks. I got the impression from above, you could decide who got to take zero tricks? You could also bid zero.
Sandbagging, if you slow-bid your hand, it would eventually catch up to you. Like someone said above, you got 10 points for each trick you bid on, and made, and only 1 point for each trick beyond that. When the 1’s column in your score rolled over, then you subtracted 100 pts.
Any Pitch players out there? My home town plays it different than anywhere else I’ve played, but I love the variation. (There’s a small stakes game going on almost anytime at my brother’s bar)Anyway… Seven point pitch: High, Low, 4 jacks and Game. (the other two jacks are the two jokers, and their rank is 10 1/2, they also count half a point towards Game) Also the deck is cut… no 3’s 4’s or 5’s. You get most of your point cards in play that way. First one to 11 wins. We usually bet it at $5.00 game, $5.00 a hicky (going set on your bid)
Love Spades, lost many hours of sleep in college playing all night long (and perhaps consuming a little beer at the same time). Dorm rules were pretty much the same as AWB, along with Fret’s ability to go blind if down by a hundred points or more. A couple of key differences : if a team got Boston (pulled all 13 books) game over buddy, that was it; also you could throw the hand if you had no spades OR no face cards; and we would never under any circumstances swap cards around - thats for “Hearts”, real men play what they are dealt straight up in Spades.
Well, some of the above is just silliness. I’m not gonna pick on anyone, but some of the rules if you were playing poker would have you labeled a nasty gender specific noun.
OK, first my rules.
[ul][li]First deal is decided by “jacking off”, ie. dealing cards face up until the first jack (or first black jack).[/li][li]10 pts per trick bid on and gotten.[/li][li]-10 pts per each trick bid upon if the team is set.[/li][li]Bidding is done as a team (not one player at a time in order as many do) and the dealing team bids last.[/li][li]Bags/Sandbags/Books (whatever you call 'em) are tricks taken over the bid, and you are penalized -100 pts once you reach 10. They are scored in the ones column, but bags do not count when deciding a tie breaker, nor do you add 10 pts to the tens column when it rolls over. (ie. 269 becomes 160 after the next bag)[/li][li]A team may go blind-6 or higher if they are down 100 pts. They also may do Blind-nill but must declare which player in nill. All point totals are doubled when going blind (ie. blind-7 is worth 140 pts, or -140 if set) Bags are also doubled. No limit on number of attempts a game.[/li][li]Teams must bid a minimum of 3 tricks, 4 if one player is nill.[/li][li]Boston is worth 200 pts and is credited for any bid of 10 tricks or more. A failed Boston is only -100.[/li][li]First trick is played by the player left of dealer. (We have also played that the 2 of clubs must lead the 2, as well as the player with the 2 may lead any card)[/li][li]Play to 500.[/ul][/li]
I hope I didn’t leave anything out. There is never any trading of cards. We don’t play spades when drinking much becasue we all concentrate so hard, and get competitive, that we end up leaving our beers sitting getting warm. Euchre is the get drunk game.