RULES FOR OUR SPADES TOURNAMENT
are listed here and can be sent via PDF File upon request.

 HOW TO PLAY
• Spades is a 4-player card game of strategy and luck with 2 players on each team. Teams are made by the two people sitting across from each other. At the end of the game, team members points are tallied together.
• Spades uses a standard 52 card deck with Aces high, 2s low, and Spades trumping all.
• The objective is to win at least as many “tricks” bid.
• The dealer shuffles the deck and will request players to cuts it (starting to their immediate right and continuing from their each in turn). The dealer then passes 13 cards one by one clockwise to each of the 4 players.
• After everybody receives their cards, bids are made based upon the players’ hand. A bid refers to the players’ expectation of “tricks” they will make in the round. All players must make a minimum of 1 bid unless a player chooses to go Nil (see below). A trick is given to the player with the highest card in a given round.
• After the bids are made, the gameplay begins with all players laying their lowest CLUB down. The player with the highest club wins the trick and will be the next to lead the round.
• In clockwise fashion, each player then places their card down in an attempt to outrank all of the cards in play.
• A player must only play cards of the same suit as the lead card. The winner of the round leads the next round.

 TRUMPING/THROWING OFF
• If a player does not have the suit that was led, they have the option to play a spade and trump the trick or throw off (play another suit of their choice) if more than one player trumps a trick, the player that played the highest spade will win the round.

 NIL
• A player is allowed to go nil. By bidding nil, the player expects to not be able to make any tricks in the game.
• If the player successfully makes no bids in the round, they receive 100 points.
• If the player goes nil but actually takes a trick, they lose 100 points.
• Players on the opposite team may counterattack a nil bid by playing their lowest cards, possibly forcing the nil bidder to place a higher card and breaking their nil bid.

 BLIND NIL
• A player is allowed to go Blind Nil before they see any of their cards.
• If a player calls Blind Nil they are agreeing that they will not catch any tricks during this game. If they are successful, their team receives 300 points.
• If they are not successful and the player who called Blind Nil catches a trick their team loses 300 points.
 PASSING CARDS
• If a player calls Blind Nil their team has the option to pass 2 cards each to the dealer and the dealer will then pass the 2 traded cards on to the team’s players. The expectation being that the player going Blind Nil will pass their 2 highest cards and the other player will pass their 2 lowest cards-especially their lowest club.

 SCORING
• Points are rewarded in the following fashion. If a player makes their number of bids, 10 points are given to each trick bid.
• Any trick taken above the bid amount will be considered a Bag.
• 0 points are given to players who fail to win the number of tricks they bid.
• Should a team make a combined bid of 10 books and achieve catching them they will receive 200 points. If they do not catch at least 10, they lose 200 points.

 BAGS
• Players that make overtricks (tricks made after the initial bid) turn into “bags.”
• If a player makes 10 bags (during any part of the game), they are deducted 100 points. The intention of introducing bags is to cause the players to try and win the exact number of ticks they bid.
• It is possible for teams to “bagged out” multiple times during a game.

 MISDEAL
• If a player is dealt a hand with no Spades in it, that player may call a misdeal. In this case a misdeal must be called before bidding begins. The cards will be reshuffled and redealt.
• If any player is found to have a different number of cards in their hand during any even part of the game a misdeal will be declared by the dealer. The cards will be reshuffled and redealt.

 RENEG
• If a player throws off suit and is later discovered to have had that suit, the player has reneged and will be penalized 3 books. Those 3 books will not add points to either team.
• Should the team whose player reneged not obtained the number of tricks bid without counting these 3 books will receive 0 points that round.

 TABLE TALK
• Talking between teammates must not be game related unless you are deciding on a bid.
• If an opposing team player or the dealer believes there is table talking at any other point, the dealer will make the call and 1 book per incident will be removed from guilty teams hand.

 WINNING
• The team that makes 500 points first wins the game. If both teams exceed 500 points in the same round, the team with the highest score wins the game.