Spades

Spades is a classic partnership trick-taking card game for four players in two teams. At the start each player is dealt thirteen cards. Before play begins, you and your partner bid how many tricks you think your side will win together — that total is your contract. Spades are always trumps, so they beat every other suit. Players take turns playing one card; the highest spade wins the trick, or the highest card of the led suit if no spades appear. You score points only if you make your bid, and you lose points if you fall short. The first team to 500 points wins.

The scoring is asymmetric and worth memorising: a made bid pays ten points per trick bid, while a failed bid costs ten per trick regardless of how many you actually took. Every trick over your contract is a bag worth one point — but ten bags costs you 100 points. So a team that consistently overtricks by one is slowly building a penalty that arrives every ten rounds.

There are thirteen tricks in a hand, so the two teams' bids always compete for the same thirteen.