How to Score Spades: Bids, Bags, Nil and the Race to 500
Spades scoring explained: partnership bids, overtricks and the ten-bag penalty, nil and blind nil, and the race to 500, with worked hands and house rules.
Bartłomiej Żabicki · Updated · 7 min read
Spades is easy to play and surprisingly easy to score wrong. The tricks are the simple part. The arguments start afterwards: do overtricks help or hurt, what happens to a partner's bid when a nil fails, and when exactly do ten bags cost you 100 points?
This guide covers standard four-player partnership scoring — bids, bags, nil and blind nil, and the race to 500 — with a hand-by-hand example, and then the house rules that vary from table to table. The standard rules here follow the widely used version documented on pagat.com.
The shape of a hand
Four players sit in two partnerships, partners opposite. All 52 cards are dealt, 13 each. Spades are always trumps.
Before any card is played, every player bids the number of tricks they expect to win, from 0 to 13. The two bids in a partnership are added together to make the side's contract. North bids 4, South bids 3: North–South must take at least 7 tricks between them, and it does not matter which of them wins which.
A bid of 0 is special. It is nil, and it is scored separately — see below.
Scoring a contract
At the end of the hand, each side compares tricks taken with tricks bid.
| Result | Score |
|---|---|
| Made the bid exactly | 10 × bid |
| Made the bid with overtricks | 10 × bid, plus 1 per overtrick |
| Took fewer tricks than bid | minus 10 × bid |
Overtricks are called bags (or sandbags). They look like free points. They are not.
Worked example: making and missing
North–South bid 7 and take 9: 70 for the contract plus 2 bags = +72.
East–West bid 5 and take 4: one short, so they lose the whole contract = −50. Taking 4 of 5 scores exactly the same as taking none.
Bags: the ten-bag penalty
Every overtrick is recorded as a bag, and bags accumulate across hands. When a side reaches 10 bags, it loses 100 points, and any bags beyond ten carry over towards the next ten.
This is what keeps the game honest. Without it, the safe strategy would be to underbid every hand.
Worked example: the bag penalty
North–South have 368 points and 8 bags. They bid 5 and take 8:
- Contract: +50, plus 3 bags = +53, taking them to 421
- Bags: 8 + 3 = 11. That passes ten, so −100: 321
- One bag carries over
Many tables track bags without a separate column by reading the last digit of the score. Contract scores and nil bonuses are all multiples of ten, so the units digit is the bag count: 368 shows 8 bags; 321 shows 1. It works as long as nothing else on your table changes the units digit and the score is positive.
Nil and blind nil
A player who bids nil is promising to win no tricks at all that hand. Their partner's bid stands alone as the side's contract.
| Bid | Succeeds | Fails |
|---|---|---|
| Nil | +100 | −100 |
| Blind nil (bid before looking at your cards) | +200 | −200 |
The nil is scored in addition to the partner's contract. It is quite possible to make one and fail the other.
When a nil fails, the usual rule is that the tricks the nil bidder took do not count towards the partner's bid, but do count as bags for the side.
Blind nil is usually only allowed when a side is behind by at least 100 points — it is a comeback bid, not an opening one.
Worked example: nil made, partner's bid missed
East bids 5; West bids nil.
- West takes no tricks: nil made, +100
- East takes only 4: bid of 5 missed, −50
- East–West score for the hand: 100 − 50 = +50
Worked example: nil failed, partner's bid made
East bids 4; West bids nil.
- West is forced to win 2 tricks: nil failed, −100
- East takes 5 tricks on their own. The 4-trick bid is made with 1 overtrick: +41
- West's 2 tricks do not help East's bid, but count as 2 bags: +2
- East–West score for the hand: −100 + 41 + 2 = −57, and 3 bags on the tally
A full example: two hands
Hand 1
| Side | Bids | Tricks | Contract | Nil | Hand score | Total | Bags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North–South | 4 + 3 = 7 | 9 | +72 | — | +72 | 72 | 2 |
| East–West | 5 + nil | 4 (all East) | −50 | +100 | +50 | 50 | 0 |
Check the tricks: 9 + 4 = 13.
Hand 2
| Side | Bids | Tricks | Contract | Nil | Hand score | Total | Bags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North–South | 3 + 3 = 6 | 5 | −60 | — | −60 | 12 | 2 |
| East–West | 4 + 3 = 7 | 8 | +71 | — | +71 | 121 | 1 |
Check the tricks: 5 + 8 = 13. North–South went from leading to trailing on a single missed trick, which is the whole game in miniature: being one short costs the entire contract.
Winning the game
The first side to reach 500 points wins. If both sides pass 500 on the same hand, the higher score wins.
House rules and variations
Spades has no governing body, and these are the rules most likely to differ at a new table. Agree them before the first deal.
| Rule | Standard | Common alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| Target | 500 | A lower target, such as 300, for a shorter game |
| Losing threshold | None | A side at −200 loses immediately |
| Bag penalty | −100 at 10 bags | No penalty; or bags worth −1 each instead of +1 |
| Minimum side bid | None | Each side must bid at least 4 |
| Nil | +100 / −100 | Not allowed |
| Blind nil | ±200, only when 100 behind | Not allowed; or allowed at any time |
| Nil bidder's tricks | Count as bags, not towards partner's bid | Count towards partner's bid |
| Bidding 10 or more | Normal scoring | 10 tricks bid and made scores 200 |
| Taking all 13 tricks | Normal scoring | "Boston" or "moon" bonus, sometimes an instant win |
Keeping score
A spades score sheet needs more than two running totals. At minimum, write each side's bid next to its tricks every hand, so that a "we made it" can be checked, and keep bags somewhere visible. The two classic mistakes are forgetting to carry bags forward, and adding the nil bidder's tricks into the partner's contract.
Fivebar's Spades sheet puts a bid column next to every hand and races to 500 for you. It is part of the one-time unlock; the support page sets out what is free and what is not. The same app keeps Hearts, where the scoring runs the other way — the lowest score wins once someone crosses 100 — and a card round grid with a bid column for rummy, whist and similar games.
If spades is your partnership game, the other classic scoring puzzle worth learning is cribbage — a two-player game where the points come from combinations of cards rather than from tricks.
The short version
- Partners' bids are added; the side needs that many tricks between them.
- Made: 10 per trick bid, plus 1 per overtrick. Missed: minus 10 per trick bid.
- Ten bags cost 100 points; extra bags carry over.
- Nil: ±100, scored separately from the partner's bid. Blind nil: ±200.
- A failed nil's tricks don't help the partner's bid, but do count as bags.
- First side to 500 wins.
Written by Bartłomiej Żabicki
iOS developer writing Swift since 2015 and the maker of Fivebar, the game-night scorekeeper for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you score a hand of spades?
- Partners add their bids into one contract. If the side takes at least that many tricks, it scores 10 per trick bid plus 1 for each overtrick. If it takes fewer, it loses 10 per trick bid.
- What are bags in spades?
- Bags are overtricks — tricks won beyond the bid. Each is worth 1 point, but they accumulate across hands, and a side that reaches 10 bags loses 100 points, with any extra bags carrying over.
- How is nil scored in spades?
- A player who bids nil scores 100 for their side if they take no tricks, and loses 100 if they take any. Blind nil, bid before looking at the cards, is worth 200 either way. The nil is scored separately from the partner's bid.
- Do a failed nil bidder's tricks count for their partner?
- Under the usual rule, no. The tricks the nil bidder took do not count towards the partner's bid, but they do count as bags for the side. Some tables play it the other way, so agree before you start.
- What score do you play spades to?
- The standard target is 500. If both sides pass 500 on the same hand, the higher score wins. Some tables play to a lower target for a shorter game, or say a side at −200 loses.
Try it yourself
Keep score without the paper pad
Fivebar is a scorekeeper for games played at a real table — 18 score sheets from dominoes and cribbage to darts and tarot, with undo everywhere. Works offline, no account, pay once.
Keep reading
- Cribbage Scoring Explained: Counting a Hand to 121Fifteens, pairs, runs, flushes and the two jack rules, counted in order — with pegging, the go, worked hands up to 29 and the skunk line.
- How to Score Dominoes: Pip Counts, Train Rounds and All FivesDominoes scores two ways — pips left in your hand, or multiples of five on the board. Both, with worked counts and the house rules to settle first.
- Darts 501 Rules: Double Out, Busts and CheckoutsStraight in, double out, and what counts as a bust — with a leg scored visit by visit and a table of checkouts from 170 down.