How to Play Spades With Six People
- 1). Remove the jokers and twos of clubs from two decks of regular playing cards. Shuffle the cards together to form one large deck.
- 2). Sit at a table so that each player’s partner is across from you. This means that two opponents will separate you from your partner in each direction around the table.
- 3). Choose a dealer at random for the first hand; for each subsequent hand, the player to the dealer’s immediate left will deal the next hand. The dealer should pass out all of the cards one at a time, moving clockwise around the table starting on his left, until all cards are distributed. Each player should have 17 cards.
- 4). Bid on the number of tricks you will win during the game. Bidding begins with the player to the dealer’s immediate left. Any player can bid any number of tricks, from one to 17. Add up each bid from each teammate; the team must try to win the combined number of bids from each teammate.
- 5). Start play with the player on the dealer’s left. That player can lay any card except a spade. Moving clockwise around the table, the players must follow the leading suit. If they cannot, they can play any card. Continue until all six players have played one card on the trick.
- 6). Award the trick to the winning player. The player who played the highest spade of the trick wins the trick. If no spades were played, the player who played the highest card of the leading suit wins the trick. Whoever wins the trick starts the next round.
- 7). Mark down how many tricks each team wins. When all cards have been played, add up the total tricks for each team. If the team has equaled or surpassed the number of tricks it bid, that team receives 10 times the original bid in points. All tricks over the bid are worth one extra point. If a team does not reach its bid, it loses 10 points for each trick it bid.