How to Play Spades with 2 Players

Spades is built for four, but a lot of spades gets played by two people at a kitchen table waiting for the others to show up. There's a proper two-player version that works well, and it's a good way to sharpen your card counting. This page covers the tabletop rules, then how two people play online. For the full four-player game, see the spades rules.

Can you play spades with 2?

Yes. You can't just deal 26 cards each, though: with the whole deck in play, both players would know exactly where every card is, and the game turns into arithmetic. The two-player version fixes that with a draw-and-discard deal. Each player ends up with 13 cards, 26 cards sit face down in a discard pile, and each player has seen only the half they threw away.

It's a cutthroat game: no partners, just you against the other player. Everything else, from spades as trump to bags and nil, stays close to the regular game.

Classic 2-player rules

These are the rules most people use at home. Agree on any differences before you start.

The deck

A standard 52-card deck, ace high, no jokers. Spades are always trump. You can add jokers and deuces, but most heads-up players keep it plain so the counting stays manageable.

The deal: draw and discard

Shuffle and put the whole deck face down between you. The non-dealer goes first, then you alternate.

On your turn:

1. Take the top card and look at it.
2. Keep it, and then look at the next card and discard it face down. Or discard it face down, and take the next card, which you must keep.
3. Pass the turn.

Each turn adds exactly one card to your hand and one to the discard pile. After 26 turns (13 each), the deck is gone. Each of you holds 13 cards and 26 cards are dead in the discard pile.

The skill here is deciding when a card is good enough. A small spade you'd keep in a four-player game might be worth throwing to see what's under it. A high card in a suit you're short in is often a keeper, and so is anything that sets up a void.

Bidding

The non-dealer bids first, then the dealer. Each player bids the number of tricks they expect to take, from 1 to 13, or nil. There's no partner to share a contract with, so your bid is your contract.

Most heads-up players skip board (the team minimum of 4), since there are no teams. Bids tend to run lower than you'd guess: with only 26 cards in play, each hand has 13 tricks but the two of you are splitting them, and the bidding usually adds up to 10 to 13.

Play

The non-dealer leads the first trick. Standard spades rules apply:

• Follow suit if you can.
• If you can't, play any card, including a spade to trump.
• Spades can't be led until one has been played on another suit, unless you hold only spades.
• The higher card of the led suit wins, unless someone trumped. The winner leads the next trick.

A trick is two cards, so hands move fast.

Scoring

Scoring is the regular spades system, per player:

• Make your bid: 10 points per trick bid, plus 1 per extra trick (a bag).
• Miss it: minus 10 per trick bid.
• Every 10 bags: minus 100.
• Nil: +100 made, −100 failed.

First to 500 wins. Some pairs play to 300 or 250 for a shorter game.

Tips for heads-up spades

Two-player spades rewards different habits than the four-player game.

Track the spades. There are 13 spades, but only some of them are in play. Once you've seen seven between your hand and the tricks, you still can't know how many your opponent holds, but their bid and how quickly they kept cards during the draw make for a very good guess.

Keep voids in mind during the draw. A void is worth more heads-up. With only one opponent, when you're out of hearts and they lead hearts, you can usually ruff the trick.

Bid tight. No partner means no one to cover your overtricks or pick up your slack. Bags pile up quickly when there's only one of you taking them.

Nil is harder heads-up. In the four-player game a partner can cover your nil. Here, nobody helps you. Bid nil only when your hand is truly low in every suit.

Watch what they keep. If your opponent keeps a card quickly, it was probably high or a spade. If they hesitate and discard, it's likely a mid card. It isn't much, but it's something.

Playing online with two humans

Spades Night doesn't have a two-player mode. Every table has four seats and two teams of two, and bots take any seat no person sits in. So two friends have two good options.

Sit as partners. Take opposite seats, and you two form a team against two bots. It's the co-op version: you learn to read each other's bids and cover each other's nils. Good for a couple or a pair of friends learning the game together.

Sit as rivals. Take seats next to each other, and each of you gets a bot partner. Now it's you and your bot against your friend and theirs. This feels closest to the heads-up game while keeping the four-player rules.

To set it up:

1. Open Spades Night and create a table.
2. Tap Invite and send the link, or read out the table code.
3. Your friend picks a seat. Across from you for partners, beside you for rivals.
4. Tap Start the game. Bots fill the two empty seats.

A quick match is four hands, around 15 minutes. Or set the table to play to 300 or 500. The full walkthrough is in play spades online with friends.

If you have a third friend, see spades with 3 players for the tabletop version, or just add them to your table and let one bot sit in.