Spades is a classic trick-taking card game, often called the unofficial national pastime of Black cookouts, barbershops, and HBCU dorm rooms. It’s a game of partnership, power moves, and petty revenge.

If you don’t know how to play, don’t fake it. That’s how you lose friends and get disinvited from Juneteenth next year.

Players

• 4 people
• 2 teams (partners sit across from each other)
• Standard 52-card deck, no jokers

Objective

Win as many “books” (aka tricks) as you and your partner bid. The team that reaches 500 points first wins.

Setup

1. Shuffle and deal all 52 cards.
2. Each player gets 13 cards.
3. Starting left of the dealer, each player bids how many books (tricks) they think they can win.
   • Bids are team totals.
   • You can bid “Nil” (zero books) for extra points, but if you win a trick, you lose points.
   • No talking across the table. (But let’s be real — a look can say everything.)

Card Strength

Spades are always trump. They beat everything.

• Order of power (high to low): A♠, K♠, Q♠, J♠, 10♠ … all the way to 2♠
• Other suits follow standard order: A, K, Q, etc.

How to Play

1. First lead: Player to the dealer’s left starts. Any non-spade card is fine — you can’t lead with a spade unless spades have been “broken” (someone played a spade because they had no cards in the lead suit).
2. Play goes clockwise. Each player must follow the suit if they have it.
3. If you don’t have that suit, you can “cut” with a spade — which usually wins the trick.
4. Highest card in the suit led (or highest spade, if spades were played) wins the book.
5. Winner of the book leads the next round.

Spades Scoring (Quick & Dirty)

• Win your bid = 10 points per book Bid 6, win 6 → 60 points
• Each extra book = +1 point (called “bags”) Bags are bad. 10 bags = –100 points
• Bid Nil, win zero → +100 points Fail Nil → –100 points
• Get “set” (don’t meet your bid) → you get nothing, and you feel shame

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Common Mistakes That’ll Get You Roasted on Spades

• Reneging: Playing off-suit when you had the suit. Automatic loss of respect and probably the game.
• Underbidding: You bid 3 and had 6? Congrats, your team now has bags.
• Overbidding: You said 7 and won 5? That’s a set, and now your partner wants new friends.

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Spades Tips for Beginners (If You Want to Live)

• Play your low cards early — save spades for when they matter.
• Don’t be flashy. No need to cut with the Ace unless it wins you the book.
• Read your partner. Good chemistry beats good cards.
• Watch the books. Always know how many tricks have been played.
• Don’t bid nil unless you really know your hand.

For the Spades Culture

Spades is more than cards — it’s a rite of passage.

• It’s where Aunties go undefeated.
• Where cousins cut you with a Queen and smile.
• Where cookouts go silent after a set.
• It’s Black joy + Black strategy + Black pettiness, all in one.

If you’re Black and millennial, Spades is your cultural homework. Learn it, love it, dominate.