Spades: A Card Game

Grant A. Bissell

Overview

Spades is an old card game that was introduced around the 1930′s as a trick based card game.  There are different ways to play this game.  The game is meant to be played as a team of 2 people against 2 others but you can also be the guy who tricks the other team into thinking you have more than what you have, so essentially you are “that guy” in the game and can a deceiving rat.  Spades comes from the Whist family of card games that is comprised of: Bridges, Hearts, and Oh Hell. It differs from other card games because it’s main goal is to posses the highest card that has the spade suit.  The spade is considered the trump card, which goes away from the highest card being the trump card.  Spades became wildly popular towards the ladder part of the 1940′s.

How to Play

1. You need between  2-4, though it’s more fun to play with 4 people, teams of 2.

2. A standard 52 card deck, which you will deal each player 13 cards after you give the deck a good shuffle.

3. Once the cards have been dealt, you then discuss with your partners and decide on how many hands you think you can win.  It is better to bet on the lighter side as opposed to predicting to many.

4. The main goal of the game is to score 500 points.  Points are gathered based upon how many hands you win (ie- if you predict you will win 8 hands, you get 100 points for bidding correctly)

5. Once you are in gameplay, you will be able to decide when you want to play your cards, in order to meet your bid prediction.  This is where the strategic aspect of the game comes into play

In the Game

1. As the 13 cards were given to each person, I reviewed my spaded cards and was able to determine that I had 4-5 possible winning cards–my partner, Amy, decided she had about 3-4 winning cards–so we decided that we would bid on 7 winning hands.

2.As the first 2 rounds went through, we comfortably claimed 2 winning hands, with my 10 of spades and her Queen of spades, we felt that we were on our way to getting 500 points and winning the game.

3. Laying down the 8 of spades so early seemed like a risky move but with a high bid of 7, I felt it was necessary to drop that card and trump the deck.  Worked out to my advantage, 4 winning hands so far.

4. Getting towards the last few cards, we ran into a bit of a situation–we each only have 3 cards left and our high bid of 7 is starting to look really risky.  The score is 5 hands for our team and 7 for the other.  My last 2 cards are a Ace of spades (guaranteed victory) and a 7 of spades.  My partner has no more spades cards, so it’s going down to the wire to see if we can get to exactly 7.

5. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to win the final hand. As I put down my 7 of spades with the 2nd to last turn, I felt that I was going to take the hand.  My opponent put down a 9 of spades!!!! Really close but as they say–close but no cigar.

Review of In-Game play

What you really realize once you are into a game of Spades, is that you really need to think that your opponent has higher cards than you do.  This allows for your bid to make more sense and eventually achieve the 100 points for making the exact bid, getting you closer to 500 points and eventual victory.  Spades is a game of strategy and luck so I plan on getting both of those on point for the next time we play!

Review of Spades: Spades is honestly one of my favorite card games of all time.  It really encompasses a time when people had the ability to spend leisure time playing games.  I like that Spades is still a game that people play today because I really don’t believe there are games like it today.  Spades can be played as both a serious game and a social game, which is definitely a reflection of the times we live in today, where people are always looking to make a game social (drinking games).  I like the strategy as well as deception mechanics of the game.  Spades was one of the better games we got to play in this class, mainly because of it’s importance in the birth of card games and the fact that it’s still around today.