| How to play spades
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How to play spades
Spades is a contract bidding card game, very similar to other games such as Hearts or Rook. The ultimate object of Spades is for one team to reach a certain number of points first, usually 500 or 1,000 for casual play. Points are earned by accurately estimating how many tricks (or books) the team will win during each round of play. Failure to make the number of books results in a penalty, while overestimating the books will prevent players from making maximum scores. If you think how to play spades, here is the way.
As in other contract bidding games, there is a trump suit which ranks higher than all other suits. In the case of Spades, the trump suit is indeed spades. The rest of the suits rank below spades, except during rounds where all players must play cards in another suit. For example, the ace of clubs would be the highest ranking club to be played, so it would win the book if not trumped or \'cut\' by a spade. Players cannot use trump cards unless they have absolutely no other cards in that suit. If a player is found with a different suit card after cutting with a spade, another player can call him for a foul called \'reneging\'. One should know before thinking how to play spades.
Learning the basic card play in Spades is not especially difficult, but understanding how to count possible winning books can take much practice. Here is a crash course on playing the basic game of Spades.
Simple steps on how to play spades
1.First you will need a clear table and a standard 52 card deck. Players should sit so that everyone is facing someone, and no one is side by side. When seated no one should be able to see your card hand, even your partner. The proper seating arrangement is your two opponents seated at your sides and your partner seated directly across form you. For the first deal all players blindly select a card and the player with the highest card (2 is lowest, Ace is highest) deals. If players tie with a high card the process is repeated until one player has the highest card. The high card player shuffles the cards, has the player to their right cut the deck (dealer sets the deck face down, cutter takes half the deck and places it under the other half without viewing any cards). After the cut the dealer then deals the cards face down to all the players, including to self, one by one, starting with the player to the left and continuing clockwise. Deal until all cards have been dispersed, each player should have 13 cards. This is the first step towards how to play spades
2. Next all players can pick up and view their cards, being careful to not let others view them. Cards can be arranged in the hand in any manner, but I recommend grouping them by suit and from highest to lowest. The name of the game is spades, and the spade suit cards are of the highest rank (example: a 2 of spades trumps an Ace of hearts). Starting with the first player to the dealer\'s left the players will bid on how many "books" their hand can take in the game. When the bid falls on the final player in his/her team that player combines what the partner bid to what they feel they can win to make a final bid for the team. This is then written down by a player who has agreed to keep score. If a team bids say 6 books and gets only 5 books then they are set back 6 points. If they get their 6 books they gain 6 points.
3. Then the player to the left of the dealer starts the game, and can lead out the hand with any card of any suit but spades. Clockwise, the next player plays a card of the same suit, keeping in mind who has the highest card played and who has yet to play a card. A player can play a higher card, or lower, so long as it\'s the same suit of card. When a suit is played and a player has no cards of the suit the player has the option of trumping the suit with a spade. Trumping is good if an opponent has the high card. Keep in mind if the opponent to your left is also ready to trump with a spade they can trump a higher spade than yours and take the book over you. Remember while learning how to play spades that if your team member has the high card and you have no more cards of the same suit you can "skate" on the suit by playing another suit of cards. When playing another suit other than what\'s lead the card has no value and can\'t ever win, unless, of course it\'s a spade. After all cards are played the teams tally up their books and finds out who got their points and who was set back.
4. Finally, after scores are recorded the deal is passed clockwise and another hand is bid on and played. The game can be played to a score designated by the players, 35 to 50 is common for an approximately 1 hour long game.
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