Spades is a trick-taking card game devised in the United States in the 1930s.

The object is to take the number of tricks that were bid before play of the hand began.

Spades is a descendant of the whist family of card games, which also includes bridge, hearts, and oh hell.

[4][5] Bridge author, George Coffin ascertained that it originated in Cincinnati between 1937 and 1939.

[6] The game is descended from Whist and is closely related to Bridge, Pinochle and Euchre.

[6] It appears like a simplification of contract bridge such that a skilled spades player can learn bridge relatively quickly, the major additional rules being dynamic trump, the auction, dummy play, and rubber scoring.

The game's rise to popularity in the U.S. came during World War II, when it was spread by soldiers traveling around the globe.

The game's popularity in the armed forces stems from its simplicity compared to Bridge and Euchre and the fact that it can be more easily interrupted than Poker, all of which were also popular military card games.

[7] It also remained widely popular in countries in which U.S. troops were stationed, both in WWII and later deployments.

The entire deck is then dealt face-down one card at a time in clockwise order.

A four-handed game consists of thirteen tricks using all fifty-two cards.

The player on the dealer's left makes the opening lead by playing a single card of their choice.

Another common variant rule, also borrowed from Hearts, is that a player cannot lead spades in the first trick.

The trick is won or taken by the player who played the highest card of the led suit.

The contents of each trick can not be viewed after this point, except to determine whether a player reneged.

Play continues until all players have exhausted their hands, which should occur on the same last trick.

As a result, a partnership can have a net positive score even if they failed to make their contract.

[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] A common scoring variant is designed to penalize players for underestimating the number of tricks they will take, while at the same time not removing the possible strategy of intentionally taking overtricks, or "bags", in order to "set" the other team.

The penalty can instead be 110 points to offset this, or the ones' place can simply not be carried when adding.

Alternatively, the scorer can turn the bid into the contract score by writing in the number of bags (zero if there were none) behind the bid, and a minus sign before it if the team was set, then add bonuses and subtract penalties beneath.

If there is a tie, then all players participate in one more round of play until a winner is decided.

The differences partners spades and cutthroat bidding and play are substantial.

In partners, a player would bid a trick for every ace, king, and queen in a side suit (i.e.: non-Spade).