|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 Playing
Spade
| written
by _Wolf |
read
3164 times |
|
If you have read the rules of the game in There,
you might be just as confused as the rest of us!
Thanks to the many friends who have been so kind
and helpful in answering all my questions about
the game. I'm writing this tutorial to help those
who wish to learn how to enjoy this addictive card
game.
Knowing the cards
There are four suits of cards in the deck: Spades,
Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds.
Spades is the largest suit followed by Hearts and
then Clubs and then finally Diamonds. (I know most
of you know this. This is for the benefit of first-time-card-players.)
How to play
The game can only be played with all four players
in place. The player sitting directly opposite you
is your partner for the game. The game begins with
13 cards in everyone's hand. The first player plays
a card of either Hearts, Clubs or Diamonds. Spades
can only be used when it is "broken".
If the first card is a Diamond for example, the
following players have to play any Diamond card
they have. You can play a non-Diamond card only
if you do NOT have any Diamond cards in your hand.
How to "Break"
a Spade
If the first player plays a Heart, and the next
player does not have any Hearts, the next player
may choose to play a Spade. If the player does play
a Spade, Spades would be considered "broken".
After that any player may lead a Spade.
So what happens next?
When all four cards are played, the player who played
the largest card among the four gets to take all
of the cards, this is called winning the Trick.
Here are 3 scenarios for determining the largest
card. If the first card is a Club for example:
| Scenario
1 |
- |
If all 3 cards that follow are Clubs too, then the largest Club player takes the trick. |
| Scenario
2 |
- |
If the next player has no Club to follow, and plays a Heart, or Diamond, it will not be considered at all and no chance of taking the trick. Largest Club takes the trick.
|
| Scenario
3 |
- |
If the next player plays Spades however when having no Club (this is the case of "broken" Spades), the player overrides the first player's suit (which is Clubs in this example) and takes the trick. If there is more than one player who has no Clubs and plays a Spade, then the largest Spade takes the trick.
|
Why do you need to take tricks?
Before the hand starts after dealing, you have to
bid. To bid means telling everyone how many tricks
you want to take during play of this hand. Taking
tricks is one of the ways to score points. Another
way to score points is by not taking tricks.
Scratching your head? Just read on. LOL.
 How
to bid
You can bid from NIL to 13. To bid 13 means to say
that you have all the Spades and there is no way
anyone can take tricks except you. To bid NIL means
you will NOT be taking any tricks at all. The total
number of bids is the total of what you and your
partner bid. If you bid 3 and your partner bids
6, then the total bid for your team is 9. This means
your team must take at least 9 tricks to score points.
Your partner can take tricks on your behalf so long
as the total tricks of the team makes the bid, and
visa versa. If you take more tricks than you bid,
the extra tricks are called bags (I'll
touch on bags later). If your team takes less than
what you bid, you lose points. In the case of a
NIL bid, your partner is allowed to take tricks
but not you. If you take any tricks you would lose
points.
What are bags?
When you take more tricks than you bid, they become bags. Bags score points too but in a negative sense. When you and your partner accumulate 10 bags, you lose points and the bag count is reset to zero.
How to score points
| - |
If your team takes tricks
equal to or more than your total bid, your
team scores 10 points times total bid. Bags
(extra tricks) are worth 1 point each. For
example, your team bid 5 in total and the
total tricks your team have at the end of
the hand is 7. Your total score for that round
is 52. |
| - |
In the case if a NIL bid,
if you did NOT take any tricks at the end
of the hand, you score 100 points. Take note
that even when you achieve your NIL bid, but
your partner did not get his/her bid, your
team still loses some points. |
How to lose points
| - |
When your team is not able
to take enough tricks, your team loses 10
points times the total number of tricks bid.
For example, your team bids 7 in total and
the total tricks your team has at the end
of the hand is less than 7, your team loses
70 points. |
| - |
When you get 10 bags, your
team loses 100 points. |
| - |
Lastly, if you take any trick
when you bid NIL, your team loses 100 points. |
How to win
To win, your team must score 500 points or more.
Tips on playing the game
| - |
Bagging tricks is useful
when it causes your opposing team to fail
to make their bid and they lose points. |
| - |
Making the opposing team
take bags and lose the 100 points helps in
closing or widening the gap in the score. |
| - |
Take note of the total of
bids of all four players. There is only 13
tricks in a hand, so if the grand total is
less than 13, you know a team will definitely
bag some tricks. If it's more then 13, you
know a team will not meet their bid. Take
advantage of the situation. |
| - |
When your partner bids NIL,
you will usually bid higher to "cover" your
partner to make sure he/she won't take any
tricks. Your opponents will definitely try
to set your partner by forcing him/her to
take tricks, so be prepared to "cover" with
the largest card you have. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
| Avatar |
|
|
| Designer |
|
|
| Music
DJ |
|
|
| Music
Station |
|
|
| Group |
|
|
|
|
