SPADES HELP CONTENTS

GAME TYPES

OBJECTIVE

BIDDING

BAGS

GAME PLAY

SCORING


GAME TYPES

CutThroat

CutThroat spades is played against three competitors.

Each player attempts to make his own bid while

preventing his opponents from making theirs.

Partners

Partners is a spades game that is played as a team with the player

seated opposite you, that is, East teams up with West, North teams

up with South. When playing partners, each team attempts to make

their combined bid.


OBJECTIVE

The objective of the game is to be the first player (or team)

to reach 250 points at the end of a round of play.  If more

than one player (or team) reaches 250 points, the highest

score wins.


BIDDING

At the beginning of each round of play, each player must submit

a bid.  The player whose turn it is to lead will bid first and bidding

will proceed clockwise.  A players  bid is an estimate of the number

of  tricks he will win.  The bid can be any number between 1 and 13

or NIL.  A NIL bid indicates that the player will not win any tricks.


BAGS

Bags are the amount of tricks you win past your bid.

For example, if you bid 4 and make 5 tricks, you will have earned 1 bag.

You do not, however, accumulate bags while attempting a NIL bid.

Bags will be scored 1 point each. Your bags will accumulate

throughout the game. If at any point during the game you

accumulate 10 bags, your bag count will be set back to 0 and

100 will be subtracted from your score.


GAME PLAY

To play a card you must double click it. Game play

proceeds clockwise with the lead player for the start

of each round of play rotating.  After the first trick has been

played, the winner of the previous trick will lead off.  Each

player following the lead played must follow suit if they are

able to.  For example, if player 1 leads a diamond, player 2

must throw a diamond if he has one.  If a player cannot follow

suit,  that player may throw any card he wishes to, including

a  spade. Throwing a spade is called trumping.  The highest

spade in a trick automatically wins that trick.  Spades cannot

be lead until  they have been broken.  Spades are broken when

a player trumps a trick, as described above.  The only exception to

this rule is if spades have not been broken but the lead player

has no other suit.  If a trick has not been trumped, the high card

of the suit lead wins the trick.


SCORING

If you make your bid, 10 times your bid will be added to your

score plus 1 point for each bag you earned during this round

of play.  If you do not make your bid, 10 times your bid will be

subtracted from your score.  For example, after the first round

of play:

 	- if you bid 4 and win 4 tricks your score will be 40.

  	- if you bid 4 and win 3 tricks your score will be -40.

  	- if you bid 4 and win 5 tricks your score will be 41.

A NIL bid is worth 100 points. If you bid a NIL and do not win any

tricks, 100 points will be added to your score. If you do win a trick,

100 will be subtracted from your score .  If at any time during play

you accumulate 10 bags, 100 will be subtracted from your score and

your bag count will be set back to 0.