How Spades Scoring Works

Spades scoring rewards accuracy. You score well for taking exactly what you bid, you lose big for falling short, and you pay a slow tax for taking too much. Once that clicks, every bid and every play at the table starts to make sense.

Everything below matches the scoring at Spades Night (our House Rules). Where other tables differ, we say so. The complete game rules are on the spades rules page.

The short version

Scores are kept per team, never per player. Your partner's books count exactly as much as yours.

Making your contract

Your team contract is your bid plus your partner's bid. Nil bids don't add anything: if you bid 5 and your partner bids nil, the contract is 5.

If the team takes at least that many books, you make it and score 10 points for every book in the contract. Bid 6, take 6: 60 points.

Books beyond the contract are overtricks. Each one scores a single point and adds one bag to the team's bag count. Bid 6, take 8: 60 + 2 = 62 points and 2 bags.

That single point is small on purpose. It's a consolation, not a reward.

Getting set

If the team takes fewer books than its contract, it is set. You lose 10 points for every book in the contract, and the books you did take are worth nothing.

Bid 6, take 5: −60. Bid 6, take 0: also −60. Missing by one and missing by six cost the same, which is why a team that knows it's going down sometimes gives up on its own contract and switches to spoiling the other team's.

Setting the other team is a big swing: they lose their contract value instead of gaining it. See set.

Bags and the 10-bag penalty

Bags are the running count of overtricks. They carry over from hand to hand. When your count reaches 10, your team loses 100 points and 10 comes off the count. Anything above 10 carries on.

• 7 bags, take 2 more: 9 bags. No penalty yet.
• 9 bags, take 3 more: 12 bags. Pay 100, keep 2.

Why it matters: 10 bags cost 100 points, which is 10 points per bag, while each bag only ever paid you 1. Taking two extra books a hand looks harmless and costs you a whole made contract every five hands.

Many scorekeepers write the bag count as the last digit of the score. A team at 247 has 7 bags. That shorthand works on paper as long as nobody's score has gone negative, and it's why 500-point games feel tense around the "9" digit. More on bags, including sandbagging.

Nil and blind nil

A nil bid is scored on its own, separately from the partner's contract:

• Nil bidder takes no books: +100.
• Nil bidder takes one or more: −100.

The partner's contract is scored as usual. So a team can make the nil and get set on the contract, or the other way around, and both results go on the sheet.

When a nil fails, the tricks the nil player took don't help the partner's contract. At our table they count as bags for the team. Some tables count them toward the partner's bid instead.

Blind nil is nil bid before looking at your cards. It scores +200 or −200. At Spades Night it is only on offer when your team trails by 100 or more. See nil and blind nil.

Double nil

When both partners bid nil, the team has no contract. Each nil is scored separately (+100 or −100 each), and any book the team takes is a bag. Make both and it's +200. Break both and it's −200 plus bags. See double nil.

Board: the minimum contract of 4

With board on (the House Rules default), a team contract under 4 is raised to 4 before play starts. Bid 1 and 2, and you're playing for 4.

Board still applies when one partner bids nil. If you bid nil and your partner bids 2, your partner has to take 4 books alone. It doesn't apply when both partners bid nil. See board.

Boston

A team that takes all 13 books has run a Boston. At Spades Night that's a +200 bonus, added on top of whatever the hand scored normally. It does not end the game.

Some tables only pay for a Boston that was bid (13), and some make it an automatic win. See Boston.

10 for 200 (optional)

10 for 200 is off by default. When a private table switches it on, a team contract of 10 or more that is made scores a flat 200 (plus any bags), and a set costs 200. It makes big bids worth chasing. See 10 for 200.

Worked examples

All of these use House Rules scoring.

1. A plain made contract. You bid 3, partner bids 4. Contract 7. Your team takes 7. +70, no bags.

2. Made with bags. You bid 2, partner bids 3. Contract 5. Your team takes 8. +53, 3 bags. If you were already on 8 bags, you're now on 11: pay 100, keep 1. Net for the hand: −47.

3. Set. You bid 4, partner bids 4. Contract 8. Your team takes 7. −80, no bags.

4. Nil and a contract. You bid nil, partner bids 5. Contract 5. You take 0, partner takes 6. Nil made +100, contract +50, 1 bag +1. Total +151, 1 bag.

5. Failed nil. Same bids. You get stuck with the last diamond and take 1 book. Partner takes 5. Nil failed −100. Contract made +50. Your book is a bag, +1. Total −49, 1 bag. If partner had taken only 4, the contract would be set even though the team took 5 books between you: a failed nil's books never count toward the partner's bid here.

6. Board kicks in. You bid 1, partner bids 1. Contract raised to 4. Your team takes 3. Set: −40.

7. Boston. You bid 6, partner bids 5. Contract 11. Your team takes all 13. Contract +110, 2 bags +2, Boston +200. Total +312, 2 bags.

How to keep score on paper

Draw two columns, one per team. For each hand write three things per team: the contract, the books taken, and the running score with bags. A common layout:

Circle a nil so nobody forgets it's scored separately, and write the bag count in brackets so the penalty never sneaks up on you. The spades cheat sheet has a blank sheet you can print.

Online, the game keeps the score and animates each part of it at the end of every hand, so you can see exactly where the points came from.

Winning score: 500, 300 or four hands

• 500 points is the traditional game. After any hand where a team has reached 500, the higher score wins. An exact tie keeps the game going.
• 300 points is the same with a shorter finish line.
• Quick match is the Spades Night default: four hands, the higher total wins, and a tie goes to a sudden-death fifth hand. It takes about 12 to 18 minutes.

Some tables also end the game when a team drops to −200. We don't: there is no floor, and a blind nil can pull you back.

Ready to see the numbers move? Play a free hand and watch the score count up after every deal.