This article contains everything you need to know about Arkadium’s Spades Game.
Use the list below to navigate specific topics about Spades.
The Game
Spades is a classic trick-taking card game similar to Bridge. The game mode we offer in our website, is Partnership Spades. The objective of the game is to take the number of tricks that were bid before play of the hand began.
Here is how the game looks on a typical match. The player is in the bottom, with all of the available cards ready to play.
You can see the username of the player on the left, and the number of tricks on the right. The center is the player's in-game avatar, which can be changed in the options menu. The D on the right means that the player is the current dealer. The symbol will switch to different players when it's time for someone else to deal.
Your score and bags are located on the top right, with a color set for each of the teams. The teams have the same color as represented in their game icons, blue and red.
You can see all of the options available to you on the bottom of the table. Here is what each of them represents.
The Table option allows you to see the game's stats, as seen here.
The Pause option allows you to pause the game. This is not allowed in multiplayer games.
The Chat option allows you to type a message to chat with other players.
Using Game will let you quit the table or join a brand new one, with bots or real players. It will also allow you to use the Multiplayer menu.
The Multiplayer Menu gives you more options, to browse the different available tables, host your own, or join a private table with other players you know.
Using Help and Rules allows you to check guides for the game's options and rules, if you need a quick refresher.
The Profile allows you to check a variety of options to do with your chat and player interactions. You can also change the deck you play with, the game's wallpaper, the avatar you use and check your stats.
Main Menu
The main menu of the game will give you a wide range of options to choose from. Spades can be played in both singleplayer against the computer, and multiplayer against real people. You can see how many players are active at the time next to Play.
The New Game option will allow you to play against the computer, while Join Table will match you up with existing players. Browse Tables lets you check from a variety of tables hosted by different players, each with their own options. You can choose to your liking.
To learn how to play the game, you can use the interactive Tutorial. This will teach you all of the game's rules. You can also read the game's rules directly.
You can also customize your account and game settings on the bottom.
How to Play
Here is how to play the game. You can read these rules from the game itself. We recommend playing the tutorial first.
Rank of cards
Cards are ranked from Highest to lowest: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
Objective
The objective is to be the first team to reach 500 points. Reach it, and you win the match.
Deal
A random player is chosen to be the dealer.
Each player is dealt a hand of 13 cards from a standard deck of 52 cards.
The player to the dealer's left goes first.
Bid
Starting with the start player and proceeding clockwise around the table, each player places a bid. They are bidding on how many "tricks" they think they can take. Players may bid from 0 (nil) to 13 tricks.
Each team adds together the bids of each partner. This is the number of tricks the team must take as a whole to avoid receiving negative points.
A bid of 0 tricks is known as a "nil" bid. This player is saying that they will not take any tricks this hand. If they succeed in not taking any tricks, their team scores a bonus. If they take 1 or more tricks, they fail, and their team will receive a penalty.
Play
The start player starts the trick by playing any card from their hand except Spades. The other players then each play a card in clockwise order until all 4 players have played a card. Whichever player played the highest card with the same suit as the lead card takes the cards. This is known as "winning a trick".
The trick winner starts the next trick.
Players must play a card with the same suit as the lead card. If they do not have a card with that suit, they may play any card (except on the first trick, in which you may not play Spades). The first time a Spade card is played is known as "breaking spades". From this point on, players can lead Spades.
Normally the highest card with the same suit as the lead card wins the trick. However, if a Spade is played on the trick, then the highest Spade card will win the trick instead. This is known as "trumping" and the Spades are considered a "trump" suit.
TRAM
If your hand is guaranteed to win all remaining tricks, you will be presented with a TRAM button. This stands for "The Rest Are Mine". Clicking it will give you all the remaining tricks.
This is just a way to make the game move along a bit quicker. This option is only available if it is impossible for anyone else to take any tricks due to the cards you have in your hand (such as A, K, Q, J of spades).
Scoring
After each hand, scores are calculated for each team.
If a team takes at least as many tricks as they bid, they will gain 10 points per trick bid. Every trick taken beyond their bid is worth 1 point.
If a team does not take enough tricks to meet their bid, they will lose 10 points per trick bid. This is known as being "set". For example, if a team's combined bid is ' and at the end of a hand, they only took 4 tricks between the two of them, then they will lose 50 points.
Additionally, for every trick taken beyond what the team bid, that team will earn a "bag". Over the course of the game, these bags accumulate. Every time a team accumulates 10 bags, that team will lose 100 points.
If a player bids "nil" and successfully does not take any tricks, then their team will gain 100 points.
If a player who bids "nil" fails and takes any tricks, then their team will lose 100 points.
Note that if a "nil" bidder fails and takes tricks, those tricks do NOT count towards the team goal. A "nil" bidder is on their own, and so is their teammate in regards to making the bid.
Game End
The game ends when any team reaches 500 points or falls to -200 points. The team with the highest score wins!
The Spades game doesn't use the Arkadium Leaderboards due to using its own internal scoring system.