Spades variants

Our game plays standard partnership spades, cutthroat spades and a game to 250. These variants are for playing at home. Sources: Pagat.com and Wikipedia.

Cutthroat (solo) spades

Four players with no partners. Each player bids, scores and counts bags alone, with the normal scoring. Play it here.

3-player spades

• Remove one card (often the 2♣) and deal 17 cards each.
• Each player plays for themselves and scores alone, as in cutthroat.

2-player spades

• Players draw from the stock in turn: look at the top card and keep it or throw it away; if you throw it away, you must take the next card. Repeat until the stock is gone, so each player keeps 13 cards.
• Then bid and play 13 tricks as normal, each player on their own.

Jokers high

Add the two jokers as the highest spades (big joker, then little joker, then the A♠). Remove two 2s (often 2♥ and 2♦) to keep 52 cards.

Game to 250 or 300

A shorter game. Some groups use 5 bags = −50 in a 250 game. In our game, 10 bags = −100 in both lengths.

Other house rules

• 10 for 200: a side that bids 10 or more and makes it scores double.
• Boston: taking all 13 tricks wins the game or scores 200.
• Minimum bid: each side must bid at least 4 between them.
• Spades led any time: no need to break spades first.
• Losing at −200: a side that falls to −200 loses.