Spades Glossary
Every Spades term explained in plain English — from bags and being set to Nil, breaking spades, cutting, sloughing and bosses.
Spades players talk fast, and most of the vocabulary describes the few ideas that decide every hand: bidding accurately, trumping at the right moment, covering a Nil, and staying away from the bag penalty. If a word here is new to you, the how-to-play guide shows it in context, the rules page gives the exact restrictions, the scoring page puts numbers on it, and the strategy guide explains how to use each idea to win.
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- Ace of Spades
- The highest card in the game. Because spades are always trump, the Ace of Spades wins any trick it is played on, and a hand holding it can count one certain trick when bidding.
B
- Bag
- A trick taken beyond your team's bid, also called an overtrick or sandbag. Each bag scores 1 point, but bags accumulate across hands and every 10 bags cost a team 100 points.
- Bag Penalty
- The 100 points a team loses each time its running bag count reaches 10. Ten bags are then removed from the count and any remainder carries forward.
- Bid
- Each player's declaration, made once before play, of how many tricks they expect to win — from 1 to 13 — or Nil. Partners' numeric bids are added together to make the team bid.
- Blind Nil
- A variant bid of Nil made before looking at your cards, usually scoring plus or minus 200 instead of 100 and often only allowed when your team is well behind. CardCouch plays standard Nil only.
- Board
- Slang for the current trick, as in 'the board is mine'. Also used in some circles for a minimum team bid of four tricks ('bidding board').
- Boss
- The highest card of a suit still unplayed, and therefore a guaranteed trick winner if led (unless it is trumped). The Ace of Spades is boss from the start; the King of Spades becomes boss once the Ace has gone.
- Boston
- Winning all 13 tricks in a hand. Some house rules pay a large bonus for bidding and making a Boston; standard scoring, and CardCouch, simply pay 10 per trick bid.
- Breaking Spades
- The moment the first spade is played on a trick, usually by a player trumping because they could not follow suit. Until spades are broken, no one may lead a spade unless they hold nothing else.
C
- Cover
- To play a card higher than the one currently winning the trick, most often to protect a partner who bid Nil from being forced to take it.
- Cut
- To play a spade on a trick led in another suit, winning it by trump. You may only cut when you have no card of the suit led. Also called trumping or ruffing.
D
- Deal
- Distributing the whole deck, 13 cards to each player, one at a time clockwise. The deal moves one seat to the left each hand, and the player to the dealer's left bids and leads first.
- Duck
- To deliberately play a card too low to win the trick. Ducking is the essential skill for a Nil bidder and for any team trying to avoid bags.
F
- Follow Suit
- Playing a card of the same suit that was led. You must follow suit if you can; only when you have none of that suit may you play a spade or discard.
H
- Hand
- One complete deal: bidding followed by 13 tricks and a scoring. A game of Spades is made up of as many hands as it takes for a team to reach 500 points.
L
- Lead
- To play the first card of a trick. The lead sets the suit the others must follow. The player left of the dealer leads the first trick; the winner of each trick leads the next.
- Long Suit
- A suit in which you hold many cards. Long side suits are hard to cash because opponents run out and trump them, but a long spade suit is a source of late tricks.
M
- Make
- To take at least as many tricks as your team bid. Making your bid scores 10 points per trick bid; the opposite is being set.
N
- Nil
- A bid to take zero tricks. A successful Nil earns the team 100 points; a failed one costs 100, and the tricks taken become bags. The Nil bidder's partner is judged on their own tricks only.
- Nil Bidder
- The player who bid Nil. Their whole hand is spent ducking, and their partner's job is to cover them by winning any trick they are in danger of taking.
O
- Overtrick
- A trick taken above the team's bid. Overtricks are worth 1 point each and are counted as bags — see Bag.
P
- Partner
- The player sitting opposite you, whose bid combines with yours. On CardCouch your partner is North; West and East are the opposing partnership.
R
- Renege
- Failing to follow suit when you could have — against the rules. Also called a revoke. In live play it carries a penalty; on CardCouch it is impossible because only legal cards can be played.
- Ruff
- Another word for cutting: winning a trick by playing a spade on a lead of another suit. Borrowed from bridge and whist.
S
- Sandbag
- The original name for a bag — an overtrick. 'Sandbagging' is deliberately underbidding so as to take extra tricks safely, a tactic the bag penalty exists to punish.
- Set
- Falling short of your team's bid. A set team loses 10 points for every trick it bid and gets nothing for the tricks it did win. 'Setting' the opponents is the main defensive goal.
- Short Suit
- A suit in which you hold only one or two cards. Short suits become voids quickly, letting you trump when that suit is led — a source of extra tricks worth counting in your bid.
- Singleton
- A single card in a suit. After it is played you are void in that suit and can trump future leads of it.
- Slough
- Pronounced 'sluff'. To discard a card of a different suit when you cannot follow suit and choose not to trump — usually to throw away a dangerous high card or to protect a Nil.
- Spades Broken
- The state of a hand after the first spade has been played. From then on spades may be led. The CardCouch table shows a marker when it happens.
T
- Table Talk
- Any hint about your hand to your partner beyond the bid itself — forbidden. Partners communicate only through the bids and the cards they play.
- Team Bid
- The sum of the two partners' numeric bids. The team must take at least that many tricks between them; it does not matter which partner wins them.
- Trick
- One round of play in which each of the four players contributes one card. The highest spade wins; if no spade was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. A hand has 13 tricks.
- Trump
- The suit that beats all others — always spades in this game. Any spade wins over any card of another suit, and the highest spade wins a trick that contains several.
V
- Void
- Holding no cards of a suit. When that suit is led you cannot follow, so you may trump with a spade or slough a card from another suit. Voids are the main source of bonus tricks in your bid.
Frequently asked questions
What does 'set' mean in Spades?
A team is set when it takes fewer tricks than it bid. It loses 10 points for every trick bid and scores nothing for the tricks it won. Setting the opponents is the main defensive goal.
What are bags in Spades?
Bags, also called sandbags or overtricks, are tricks taken beyond your bid. Each is worth 1 point, but when a team's running bag count reaches 10 it loses 100 points and 10 bags are removed from the count.
What does Nil mean in Spades?
Nil is a bid to take no tricks at all. Success earns the team 100 points; failure costs 100, and any tricks taken become bags. The Nil bidder's partner is judged on their own tricks alone.
What does 'breaking spades' mean?
Spades are broken the first time a spade is played on a trick, usually when a player cannot follow suit and trumps. Until then spades may not be led, unless a player holds nothing but spades.
What is a 'boss' card?
A boss is the highest remaining card of a suit — a guaranteed winner if it is led and no one trumps. Counting your bosses is the first step in working out your bid.