Spades Spots

How it works

• Bid spots: your 13 cards. Pick a bid.
• Late cards: trick 8 on. Pick a card.
• I grade by points, your team against theirs.
• A book that only adds a bag can cost you.
• Tap the rule name on the table to set house rules.

How we grade

Rule of thumb

Bids: our sure-book count.

• A side ace: 1.
• A side king with 1 to 3 others: 1.
• Top three spades: 1 each, if you hold that many spades.
• Each spade past four: 1.
• Void or singleton with 3+ spades: 1 (2 with 5+ spades).
• Partner bid 5+: take 1 off.

Off by one is Close.

Exact per layout Late cards.

I deal 40 ways the cards you can't see could lie. Each fits what you've seen, voids too.

I play each out perfectly and score this hand: bid, set, nil and bags.

A card's points are your team's score for the hand minus theirs.

Best average wins. Within 2 points is Close.

Forty layouts are a sample. A card too close to call against the best is left off the buttons.

I deal only spots where the card matters: the best beats a choice by 5 points or more. I pick spots. I never change a card.

At a real table

• Here I block cards you can't play.
• At a real table a renege is called. A common cost is 3 books. Rooms differ.
• A nil bidder's books don't count toward partner's bid. They count as bags (pagat.com rules).
• The house makes the rules. Yours win at your table.
• Table talk about your hand is cheating at serious tables.

Free. Play points only. Scores stay on this device. Sign in and they follow you.

Win a hero's favor and I lay their world's felt beneath your cards. 25 sharp choices at their table.