Spades Plus
How to Play Spades
Players
In a typical game, there are four players and two team. You are on the same team as the person across from you and the same goes for the other two.
The Goal of Spades
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- Spades Plus offers you a great experience against many Spades players from all around the world! You can play in many different game modes such as Classic, Solo, Mirror and Whiz. Now playing Spades.
Spades Plus —the best and largest online Spades community in the world.
The goal is to accumulate points, and the first to 500 points wins.
Dealing
The dealer will deal out all of the cards so each player will end up with 13 to start.
Bidding
Bidding is simply guessing how many 'tricks' you can take. Before each round of Spades begins, each player will bid (or guess) how many tricks they will take.
The teams then add together the total number of bids. This is the number of tricks that team has to win in order to get a positive score.
The first player to bid is the person to the left of the dealer. Bidding then continues clockwise around the table.
You may bid on any number from 0 to 13. But be smart and remember that it's very difficult to get all or even half of the tricks. A bid of zero or 'nil' is another strategy we'll talk about shortly.
Here's an example: Sarah deals. Beyonce who is to her left bids 3. Billy then bids 1. Terrance bids 4. And finally Sarah bids 4. Billy and Sarah's goal is to win at least 5 tricks based on their bids (4+1), Terrance and Beyonce will attempt to win at least 7 (4+3).
As mentioned previously, a bid of zero is also called a nil bid. This is basically a player trying NOT to win any tricks. Why would anyone do that though? Well, there's a huge bonus if you can bid nil and succeed. There's also a penalty for bidding nil and getting 1 or more tricks. We'll talking about scoring shortly.
Playing Spades
After all of the bidding is done, the player to the dealers left begins by playing any card EXCEPT for a spade. It can be any heart, diamond or club, but no spades.
Then, again in clockwise, each player lays down a card (trick) face up. The card must be of the same suit as the person who started (in this case, the person to the left of the dealer). If you do not have the same suit, you can play any card of any suit!
If someone plays a spade, that spade trumps all other cards EXCEPT for higher spades. So even if someone plays the Ace of diamonds, and I play the 2 of spades, I win that trick if no other spades are played. If no spades are played, the highest card wins of the suit that was played first. The winner of each trick leads on the next.
After the first spade has been played, then spades are 'broken.'
Scoring
So we've already talked about how the goal is to get the number of tricks that you and your partner bid. If you bid 5, you want to get at least 5. If you get exactly 5, you win 10x your bid, so 50 points. Additional tricks (overtricks) are only worth one point apiece.
This means if my partner and I bid 5, then get 7 tricks, our total score for that round will come to 52.
However, if we don't get 5 tricks, we're in trouble. This means we lose 10 points for each bid. So if we bid 5, then get 4 tricks - we lose 50 points! Eek!
Sandbagging: Each trick we win that is over the bid is known as a bag. Back to the example: if we bid 5 and get 7, then we get 2 bags.
Bags can also be bad. Each round you keep track of the number of bags you get, and if you reach a total of 10 bags, you lose 100 points on that round. Your bag count then starts back at zero.
Remember the nil (or zero) bid? If you can pull of a nil bid and get no tricks, you receive 100 points! This will be in addition the number that your partner wins or loses. If you bid nil and don't pull it off, you lose 100 points so it can be very detrimental as well. Again, your partner's score is still factored into the round as well.
If a nil bid fails, the tricks won by the nil bidder don't count towards the partner's bid, but would count as bags for the team if the total goes over your partner's bid.
The side that reaches 500 points first wins the game. If both sides reach 500 points in a single deal, the side with the higher score wins. Got it? Then get back up there and play some Spades!!!
Terminology
Trick:
When all four cards are layed out, the trick is what you call the winner of that particular throw down.
Book:
This is pretty much the same thing as a trick. Treat it as such.
Hand:
The series of books or tricks where all 13 cards that is player is dealt are played.
Bid:
This is the number of tricks/books that you think you will get in any given hand. You combine the number you think you will get with the number your teammate estimates
Contract:
This is the number of tricks/books that you and your partner must get for the hand in order to not be docked.
Under trick:
It is just like it sounds: not getting quite the number of tricks that you wanted for a hand. This usually results in loss of points.
Bag:
This is also referred to as an overtrick. This is when you get more books than you estimated before the hand. Ten bags incur a penalty of 100 docked points.
Void:
When you don't have any of the cards of the suit that is being played.
Trump:
Having a better card to lay down than the others that have been played. Spades trump all in this game of course!
Sluff:
This is when you don't have the suit being played but you also don't have a trump card. This is sometimes a good thing early on when you are trying to get rid of some of the less desireable cards.
Nil:
When you declare that you will get no books/tricks you are declaring nil. If you accomplish this, you get a lot more points!!
Trick taking is one of the most iconic genres in the history of card games like Spades Plus. Trick taking belongs to the largest top-level category of card games that follows the classification-by-mechanism rule called Outplay games of which it also boasts the most number of variants. Each variant is then grouped into multiple rule-based sun categories like Plain Trick Games, Point Trick Games, Trick-and-Draw Games, Trick-Avoidance Games, and Quasi Trick-Taking Games.
As a whole, trick-taking genre consists of over a hundred card game variants, nevertheless, among the group lies some of the most iconic games ever conceived and Spades is one of those games. Devised in the 1930s, Spades served as one of the main forms of entertainment for WWII soldiers. Due to the simplicity of its ruleset, the popularity of Spades spread like wildfire from the U.S, and to the rest of the world.
Spades Plus
By Zynga 918 downloadsToday, Spades remains one of the most popular trick-taking games across the planet. The millions of players who play the video game version of Spades serve as evidence to its popularity. One of the biggest titles is Spades Plus developed from Zynga developer of the world-renowned Zynga Poker. Join the millions of spades players and enthusiasts in one of the largest online card-game community in the free-to-play genre. So what are you waiting for? Click on the ‘Play Now’ button today and explore the fun world of Spades.
Spades are one of the easiest card game to learn, winning is dependent on your strategic skills and real-time planning. It is all about predicting how many tricks you can do, bid your estimated number of tricks, and ensure that you and your partner can fulfill the combined total of your tricks in order to score. In other words, all you have to do is look at your cards, analyze, bid based on your estimate and unleash your strategic skills. With that said, Zynga was able to innovate a modest game of cards into a highly immersive online game that comes with multiple features just like the ones below.
Brilliant Audio Visual Presentation
Spades Plus carries that classic Zynga presentation made up of high definition graphics, fluid animation, and immersive audio effects. These modest features allow players to jump into a game of spades at a click of a button. Not to mention, that the sound effects come with an innovative design that will alert the player even when his favorite music track is playing on the background.
Spades Reinvented in Spades Plus
Spades Plus features a decent number of game modes just waiting for you to explore. Right off the bat, the player can either jump into a quick game in one of the random rooms in the game. Players can also join spades purists in a room dedicated to Classic Spades. For those who are looking for special rooms, the game also has you covered.
Special Rooms is comprised of four rooms; the first one is VIP that features customized tables and expensive buyouts. Next is the Solo Room, which, as the name suggests, does not allow partnerships and blind Nil in playing with three other people.
Spades Plus App
Whiz Room is another type of special room whose main rule is that players must bid Nil. In other words, this room will test both your analytic and strategic skills. The fourth room is the Mirror Room. The main rule of this room is that the players’ bid must equal the number of spades in his deck. Other than that, players can also create their own room and set their own rules through the Create Table tab.
Competitive Multiplayer Tournaments & Challenges
Spades Plus also comes with a solid and competitive online multiplayer structure. First is the Solo Tournaments that comes with its own bracketing system. Solo tournaments allow the player to compete and clash against other players up until the Grand Finals. Knockout Tournaments, on the other hand, is another type of challenge wherein the player must not lose a single round. A single defeat will lead to elimination or for the player being “knocked out of the tournament.”
A Rewarding Spades Plus Experience
Spades Plus also features a solid reward system that will smother the player with coins from time-to-time. Players receive a whopping 20,000 coins as a welcome bonus in addition to the daily bonus. In addition, Tournaments, challenges, and regular games also provide a decent if not an astonishing number of coins.
Spades Plus On Facebook
Aside from the basic reward structure, Spades Plus also has a stable and solid social structure. Unlike other online games where the chat is public, the game comes with a “Public or Private” chat option that the player can toggle anytime. With that said, if you want to become part of the ever-growing Spades community, then, Spades Plus is the way to go!
Spades Plus is one of the better spades version in the free-to-play genre of games. It’s a modest game with colossal features. So, what are you waiting for? Join the millions of Spades players across the globe by checking out this amazing game today!
Game Features
- Brilliant Audio-Visual and Animation
- A Diverse Collection of Game Modes
- Various Unlockable Decks
- Tons of Free Coins
- Free-to-Play
Spades Card Game
