- Score sheets
- Card games
- Spades
How to keep score in Spades
To keep score in Spades, each side bids the tricks it will take. Make the bid and score 10 for each trick bid, plus 1 for every extra trick (a bag); miss it and lose 10 for each. The game ends when a side reaches 500.
- 4 players, 2 teams
- Spades are always trump
- Ends at 500
- 10 bags cost 100
Tabletales is free on iPhone and iPad.
This is the real app screen, live. Each side’s hand goes under one partner, and the teams bar adds them up. Hand 4 is You making a nil.
Spades
A partnership trick-taking game where spades are always trump, each side bids how many tricks it will take, and the side that keeps its promises best is first to 500.
Year from BoardGameGeek.
How to play Spades, in brief
Spades is played by four people in two teams, partners opposite. Each side bids the tricks it will take, spades beat every other suit, and the first side to 500 wins.
- Deal 13 eachDeal the whole 52-card deck, one card at a time.
- Bid your tricksFrom the dealer’s left, each player bids 0 to 13 tricks; partners’ bids add up to the side’s contract. A bid of 0, called nil, promises no tricks at all.
- Play 13 tricksA trick is one card each, and the winner leads the next. Follow suit if you can. The highest spade wins, or else the highest card of the suit led. Spades can’t be led until one has been played on another suit.
- Score, then deal againEach side scores against its contract. Deal again until a side reaches 500.
Make your bid, and not much more.
Partners add their bids into one contract. Take at least that many tricks and you score 10 for each trick you bid. Every trick past the bid is worth just 1 and counts as a bag, and bags come back to bite.
What a hand is worth
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Each trick bid, when the side makes it | 10 |
| Each extra trick (a bag)Bags carry over from hand to hand | 1 |
| Bid missed (set)For each trick the side bid | −10 |
| Nil made, or missedThe nil bidder must take no tricks at all | 100 / −100 |
| Blind nil made, or missedBid before looking at your cards | 200 / −200 |
| Every 10th bagThen the count starts again | −100 |
- Add the partners’ bidsEach player bids 0 to 13 tricks. The two bids make the side’s contract; a nil bid is scored on its own.
- Score the contractMade it: 10 for each trick bid and 1 for each extra trick. Missed it: minus 10 for each trick bid.
- Score any nilNil is 100 if the bidder takes no tricks and minus 100 if they take any. Their tricks never help the partner’s bid, but they still count as bags.
- Count the bagsBags carry over. When a side reaches 10, it loses 100 and starts counting again. While a total is positive, its last digit is the bag count.
- Stop at 500The game ends after the hand in which a side reaches 500. The higher total wins; if the totals are level, play another hand.
Hand 9: a nil, two bags and the game.
You and Jonas are Team A, Mara and Dev Team B. Going into hand 9 it is 437 to 478, and Mara and Dev are carrying 8 bags. Dev bids nil and Mara bids 4; You and Jonas bid 6 between you. This is hand 9 on the Scorepad above.
| Team | Bids and tricks taken | Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Mara and Dev | Dev bid nil, took 0 · Mara bid 4, took 6The nil, the bid, 2 bags, then the 10th bag costs 100: 100 + 40 + 2 - 100 | 42 |
| You and Jonas | Bid 6 together, took 7The bid and 1 bag: 60 + 1 | 61 |
Hand after hand, the race to 500.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. In Spades, pick Teams and set Play to a score at 500. Type each side’s score every hand, and Tabletales adds up each team’s total.
- Partners on one sideTap a letter to put each player on Team A or B. The teams bar adds up each side and puts the trophy on the higher total.
- One score per sideType each side’s hand under one partner and leave the other blank. Type the score, or type it the way you count it (100 + 40 + 2 - 100) and Tabletales adds it up. There is no times key, so a made bid of 4 goes in as 40.
- Bags hide in plain sightYou track the bids and bags at the table, and Tabletales keeps the totals. The last digit of a positive total is your bag count, so the TOTAL line shows your bags too.
- And the night is keptSave it with who played and a photo from the table. Each game gets a history: how often you play it, who with, and how often you win.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- Spades, with its scores
Common Spades scoring mistakes
- Paying 10 for every trickOnly the tricks in the bid are worth 10. Each trick past it is 1 point and a bag.
- Wiping the bags after each handBags carry over until a side has 10. Then 100 comes off and the count starts again.
- Giving the nil bidder’s tricks to the partnerThey never count toward the partner’s bid. Any trick breaks the nil (minus 100), and it still counts as a bag.
- Scoring a missed bid as 0In the partnership game a side that falls short loses 10 for every trick it bid. Zero is the rule in Bicycle’s version without partners.
Spades scoring, answered
- How do you keep score in Spades?
- After each hand, a side that made its bid scores 10 for each trick bid plus 1 for each extra trick, and a side that missed loses 10 for each trick bid. Add that to the side’s total and deal again until a side reaches 500.
- What are bags in Spades?
- Bags are the tricks a side takes beyond its bid. Each one is worth 1 point, but every 10 bags costs the side 100 points.
- How much is a nil bid worth in Spades?
- 100 points if the nil bidder takes no tricks, and minus 100 if they take even one. Blind nil, bid before looking at your cards, is 200 if made and minus 200 if missed.
Spades score sheet
Print one for the table: two sides and twenty hands, with room for the bid, the tricks taken, the hand, the bags and a running total.
Score another game
Tables differ: some play to 200 or 300, end the game when a side falls to minus 200, score nil at 50, or count each bag as minus 1 instead of the 10-bag penalty. Rules checked on 19 October 2026 against Pagat, Wikipedia and Bicycle Cards.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
