How to Play Spades with Only 3 Players

Agree on this table’s rules before bidding

Use these settings consistently for every example on this page. A bid is a target you must reach, not a promise to win exactly that many tricks. Do not add a reward or penalty only after seeing someone’s result.

• Three individuals, 17 cards each; no partnerships, dummy or jokers.
• Bids are 1–17. Nil, Blind Nil and special high-bid bonuses are off.
• The three bids may total 17; no restriction on that total is used here.
• Overtricks give one point and one bag each; every 10 bags costs 100 points.
• Check the 500-point target after the entire hand and all penalties are settled.

Bid clockwise for your own hand

After looking at the cards, the player left of the dealer bids first, followed clockwise by the other two. Write each bid down. Look for high spades, side-suit winners and short suits, but do not count every high card as a guaranteed trick. Opponents can hold higher cards or trump a suit they cannot follow. You do not combine a bid with a partner.

Lead, follow suit and find the winner

The holder of the three of clubs leads it first, since the two of clubs is absent. Play clockwise. Follow the led suit if you can; if you cannot, discard another suit or play a spade. Spades are always trump. The highest spade wins; if no spade appears, the highest card of the led suit wins. Within a suit, rank cards A, K, Q, J, 10 down to 2. The winner leads next.

What breaking spades means

Before spades are broken, do not lead one unless your remaining hand contains only spades. They become broken when a player who cannot follow a non-spade suit plays a spade. That can happen on the first trick in the convention used here. Having a low club is not permission to trump a club lead: you must follow suit. Pagat’s three-player play section explains this follow-suit and lead restriction.

Score positive bids and keep bags separately

For a bid b and result t, making the bid earns 10 × b plus one point for each extra trick: 10 × b + (t − b). Those extras also become bags. Falling short loses 10 × b, with no partial credit. Keep a running bag count; whenever it reaches 10, deduct 100 points and remove those 10 bags, retaining any remainder. Trickster lists alternative failed-bid and bag settings; these are the choices used here.

Worked hand: account for all 17 tricks

These original scores use the house convention above, with no previous bags or penalties. The bids total 15, which is legal here; the tricks actually won must total 17. Keep the bid and the result in separate columns.

• Alex: bids 5, takes 7; +52 points and 2 new bags.
• Blair: bids 6, takes 4; −60 points and 0 new bags.
• Casey: bids 4, takes 6; +42 points and 2 new bags.

Bag carryover: nine old bags do not disappear

Suppose your score is 249 and you already have nine bags. Bid five and take eight: this hand adds 53 points and three bags. Twelve accumulated bags trigger one 100-point deduction, leaving two bags. The new score is 249 + 53 − 100 = 202. Do not subtract the same penalty again next hand, and do not confuse the two remaining bags with two extra points to add a second time.

A simple score sheet and finish rule

For each player, record the previous score, previous bags, bid, tricks taken, hand points, bag deduction, new score and remaining bags. Count 17 trick winners before accepting a hand’s totals. After settling the whole hand, if anyone has at least 500, the highest final score wins. If the top final scores tie, play another hand. Reaching 500 before a bag penalty does not end the game.

A short practice checklist

Before a turn, identify the led suit, whether you can follow it and which card currently wins. Before a new lead, check whether spades are broken. After the hand, compare your original bid with the result without pretending hidden cards were known. For a first game, use paper tokens to count tricks and review one disputed play before shuffling. This teaches the procedure; it does not promise a winning bid or a particular win rate.

Keep variants separate

Some tables use a dummy hand, a random unused card, immediate penalties for each overtrick, or different Nil rules. Pagat describes several such choices, including an immediate bag deduction that is not our scoring method. If your group prefers another version, write a replacement agreement before dealing and recalculate the examples under it. The linked sources document their own rules; this page’s score examples follow only its declared house convention.