Most spades variations change one of two things: how you bid, or how many people play. Suicide makes one partner on each team bid nil; Mirror makes you bid the number of spades you hold; Whiz lets you choose between your spade count and nil. Cutthroat (solo) spades drops the partnerships. Two and three players use their own deals, and five and six players need different decks.
Spades has one standard game: four players in two partnerships, 13 cards each, bids for tricks, spades as trumps (see how to play spades). The variations on this page change either how you bid or how many people play. Smaller differences that tables argue about, like Board, 10 for 2, blind nil and the bag penalty, are on the house rules page.
The sources are Pagat’s spades rules and its page of reader-submitted spades variations, Bicycle’s rules for spades with jokers, Dan Corkill’s three-player rules, and the published rules of the apps that offer each mode (Trickster, and the App Store listings of VIP Spades, Spades Plus and “Spades !!”). Where they disagree, this page says so.
Bidding variations
These are usually played for one hand at a time, or for a whole game when the table agrees. The deal, the play and the scoring stay as in the standard game.
Suicide
One player on each team must bid nil. Every source agrees on that. They disagree about the partner:
| Source | The partner of the nil bidder |
|---|---|
| Pagat (reader-submitted “Evil Spades” list) | bids normally |
| Trickster, VIP Spades, “Spades !!” | must bid at least 4 |
VIP Spades also bans blind nil in Suicide. Decide before you start which version you are playing, especially whether the partner must bid 4.
Mirror (Mirrors)
You must bid the number of spades in your hand. Hold four spades, bid four. Pagat’s list, Trickster, Spades Plus and VIP Spades all describe it this way. VIP Spades and “Spades !!” add that a player with no spades bids nil, and VIP Spades doesn’t allow blind nil.
Mirror takes the judgment out of bidding and puts all of it into the play: everyone’s bid is fixed by the deal, so the hand is about making those bids and setting the other team’s.
Whiz
You must bid either the number of spades in your hand or nil. Trickster, VIP Spades, Spades Plus and “Spades !!” all describe it the same way; VIP Spades and “Spades !!” don’t allow blind bids. Whiz is Mirror with one choice left: with a weak hand, you can still go nil instead of bidding your spades.
Other fixed-bid hands
Pagat’s page of reader-submitted variations lists dozens more “Evil Spades” hands with fixed bids, such as everyone bidding the number of diamonds they hold. They come from one contributor’s group and don’t appear in other rule sets, so treat them as house games.
Playing without partners: cutthroat (solo) spades
Four players, no partnerships. Each player bids and scores for themselves. Pagat records a version from the rec.games.playing-cards newsgroup with one extra rule: you must beat the highest card played to the trick so far if you can, which includes trumping with a spade if you can’t follow suit. Trickster, VIP Spades and Spades Plus also offer a solo mode in which each player scores separately; VIP Spades scores nil at ±50 and doesn’t allow blind bids in solo.
Cutthroat changes the strategy more than the rules: there’s no partner to cover your nil or to count on for tricks, and every other player is an opponent.
Other numbers of players
| Players | How it works | Page |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | No deal: each player draws from the stock and keeps or discards, ending with 13 cards each | Two-player spades |
| 3 | Every player for themselves, 17 cards each; or two players against the third and a dummy hand | Three-player spades |
| 5 | Bicycle’s joker game: with both jokers added, all four deuces are removed and everyone plays alone | see below |
| 6 | Three teams of two with a double deck | see below |
Five players
Bicycle’s rules for spades with jokers allow two to five players. For five players, the two jokers are added as the two highest trumps and all four deuces are removed, leaving 50 cards: 10 each. Each player bids and scores alone.
Six players
Pagat gives a six-player game for three teams of two, with partners sitting opposite. It uses a 102-card deck: two standard decks shuffled together with two low cards removed (some groups take out both twos of diamonds, others both twos of clubs). Bidding and scoring are as in the four-player game. When two identical cards are played to the same trick, the second one beats the first.
Agree before you deal
Every variation here has local versions. Before the first hand, agree which one you’re playing and write it down; the printable rules have space for it, and the score keeper handles the standard scoring the variations use.
Want the standard game? Play spades against the computer or with friends.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Suicide spades?
In Suicide, one player on each team must bid nil. The sources agree on that, but not on the other partner: Pagat's reader-submitted rules let them bid normally, while Trickster, VIP Spades and others say they must bid at least 4.
What is Mirror spades?
In Mirror (or Mirrors), every player must bid exactly the number of spades in their hand. A player with no spades bids nil, in the versions that say so.
What is Whiz in spades?
In Whiz, each player must bid either the number of spades in their hand or nil. Trickster, VIP Spades, Spades Plus and the "Spades !!" app all describe it the same way, and VIP Spades and "Spades !!" don't allow blind bids.
What is cutthroat spades?
Cutthroat, or solo, spades is played without partners: four players each bid and score for themselves. Pagat's version adds a rule that you must beat the highest card played to the trick if you can.