Spades glossary
What Is a Renege in Spades?
A renege is playing a card of a different suit when you could have followed the suit led. At home tables the usual penalty is 3 books moved to the other team. At Spades Night a renege is impossible: the game only lets you play legal cards.
A renege is failing to follow suit when you had a card of the suit that was led. It is the cardinal sin of spades, and at a kitchen table it can start a louder argument than any bid. Following suit is the first rule of play in the spades rules.
How it works
When a suit is led, every player must play a card of that suit if they hold one. Only a player with no cards in that suit, a void, may play something else: a spade to trump or any other card to throw away.
A renege is breaking that rule: playing a spade on a heart lead while you still hold a heart, for example. Sometimes it's an honest mistake, sometimes it's not.
A renege is usually discovered later in the hand, when the player produces a card of the suit they claimed not to have. At that point the table stops and decides what happens.
Example
Diamonds are led: K♦. Your partner plays the 4♦. You hold 7♦, but you cut with the 3♠ and win the trick. Three tricks later, you lead the 7♦.
That's a renege. You played a spade on a diamond lead while holding a diamond. Under the common house rule, your team gives three books to the other team at the end of the hand.
How Spades Night handles it
You can't renege here. The game knows the suit led and only lets you play legal cards; the ones you can't play are dimmed. If you locked a card early and the suit led makes it illegal, it simply bounces back to your hand and you pick again.
That also means no one needs to police the table or reconstruct tricks after the fact. The game follows the same rule for jokers and the 2♦, which count as spades.
Variations at other tables
- Three-book penalty. The most common house rule: the reneging team hands three tricks to the other team.
- Set on renege. The reneging team is treated as set for the hand.
- Point penalty. A flat deduction, often 100 points.
- Call it or lose it. The renege only counts if someone calls it before the cards are gathered or before the next hand is dealt.
Some online games let players renege on purpose and let opponents catch it. That can be fun, but it's not something Spades Night offers.
Related terms
- Void: the only time you're allowed not to follow suit.
- Trump: playing a spade on another suit.
- Book: the unit a renege penalty is usually paid in.
- Breaking spades: the other rule that limits what you can play.
Questions people ask
What is the penalty for reneging in spades?
The most common house penalty is three books (tricks) taken from the reneging team and given to the other team. Some tables use a flat point penalty or call the hand set instead.
How do you pronounce renege?
Most players say 'ruh-NIG' or 'ree-NEG'. Both are heard at spades tables. The word means going back on a promise, here the promise to follow suit.
Can you renege in online spades?
Not at Spades Night. Cards you can't legally play are dimmed and can't be played, so every play follows suit when it has to.