Spades (Card Game)
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40 free Spades (Card Game) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Spades looks simple: the trump suit never changes, and all a team has to do is win the number of tricks it promised. The catch is the promise. Bid too high and the hand is wasted; bid too low and the extra tricks come back to bite. That tension is why a good bidder is worth more than a good hand. This quiz takes in the bidding and scoring rules most tables share, the nil and blind nil gambles, the slang players use for tricks, penalties and big hands, and the house rules and variants that change from city to city. A few questions look at where the game came from and which older card games shaped it. It is pitched at anyone who plays, from people still learning to count a hand to regulars who argue about house rules. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so a wrong guess still teaches something about the game.
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Q 01During which war did Spades first become popular, carried from camp to camp by American soldiers?
World War II
World War II made Spades a barracks favourite, because a hand could be dropped and picked up again far more easily than a hand of poker.
Q 02Which tax explains why the ace of spades became the most ornate card in English playing-card decks?
Stamp duty
Stamp duty was extended to playing cards in 1711, and the ace of spades was the card stamped to prove it had been paid, later printed by the tax office itself.
Q 03Which slang word do Spades players use for overtricks, which bring a penalty once ten pile up?
Bags
Bags is short for sandbags, and each one is worth a single point when it is won, which makes the penalty waiting down the line easy to forget.
Q 04A Spades player who bids nil is promising to do what for the whole of that hand?
Lose every trick
Lose every trick is the whole contract of a nil bid: succeed and the team banks a big bonus, but taking even one trick turns that bonus into a penalty of the same size.
Q 05What score do most Spades games use as the winning target, though short games often stop lower?
500 points
500 points is the usual finish line, and when both sides cross it on the same deal the side with the higher total takes the game.
Q 06The Spades rule against leading a spade too early is borrowed from which other card game?
Hearts
Hearts players know the idea from their own penalty suit: in Spades, nobody may lead a spade until one has been played on another suit or the leader holds nothing else.
Q 07Spades descends from which family of trick-taking games, named after an old English favourite?
Whist
Whist filled English card tables in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Spades stands apart from its relatives mainly because nobody bids for the trump suit: it never changes.
Q 08Which word do many Spades players use instead of 'tricks' when counting what a team has won?
Books
Books is the everyday word at many tables, and under New York City rules partners openly tell each other how many they expect before agreeing a bid.
Q 09Spades is often called a simplified version of which partnership game, famous for its dummy hand?
Bridge
Bridge adds a changing trump suit, an auction and the dummy hand, so a skilled Spades player can pick up the older game fairly quickly.
Q 10In partnership Spades, how do two partners' separate bids become the contract their team must meet?
They are added up
They are added up into one team target, so a partner who falls short can be rescued by the other taking extra tricks.
Q 11In standard Spades, who bids first and later plays the opening card of the hand?
The seat left of the dealer
The seat left of the dealer opens both the bidding and the play, which leaves the dealer to bid last, knowing what everyone else has promised.
Q 12How much is each bid trick worth to a Spades team that makes its contract?
10 points
10 points per bid trick is the backbone of Spades scoring, so a bid of five that comes home scores fifty, while each extra trick adds only a single point.
Q 13What happens to a Spades team's score once it has piled up ten overtricks across several hands?
It falls 100 points
Q 21Which word describes a Spades hand that holds no cards at all in one of the four suits?
Void
Void is the word, and it is a weapon in Spades, because a player with none of the suit led is free to win the trick with a trump.
Q 22What do card players call the small pile of leftover cards put aside in some versions of Spades?
A kitty
A kitty appears when the cards will not divide evenly, and one player picks it up before the bidding, then throws away the same number of cards.
Q 23Under a common house rule, what may a Spades player declare when dealt a hand with no spades?
A misdeal
A misdeal sends the cards back to the same dealer for a fresh shuffle, though a bold player might keep the spadeless hand and try for nil instead.
It falls 100 points, a rule aimed at teams that underbid on purpose, so the safest plan is to bid what a hand is really worth.
Q 14Compared with an ordinary nil, what is a successful blind nil worth in standard Spades scoring?
Twice as much
Twice as much is the standard reward, and the standard risk too: a blind nil that fails costs double what a failed ordinary nil would.
Q 15What do Spades players call the moment the first spade of a hand is played on another suit?
Breaking
Breaking spades matters because, until it happens, nobody may lead the trump suit unless spades are all they have left.
Q 16What is the offence called when a Spades player holds the suit led but plays a different one?
Reneging
Reneging often goes unnoticed until later in the hand, which is why played tricks may be turned back over only to settle that kind of dispute.
Q 17A Spades team that fails to win as many tricks as it bid is said to be what?
Set
Set is the word, and opponents often chase it on purpose, grabbing tricks they do not need just to push the other side below its bid.
Q 18In four-player partnership Spades, where does each player's partner sit at the table?
Directly opposite
Directly opposite is the rule, so every player has an opponent on each side and the turn to play always alternates between the two teams.
Q 19In Spades played with a 54-card deck, which card outranks every other trump?
Big joker
Big joker is the top trump, and when the two jokers in a pack look alike players simply write the word BIG on one of them.
Q 20If nobody plays a spade to a trick in Spades, what wins that trick?
Highest card of the suit led
The highest card of the suit led takes it, which is why even the lowest spade is powerful: played on another suit, it beats an ace.
Q 24Which nickname is given to Spades played with no partnerships, every player bidding alone?
Cutthroat
Cutthroat Spades makes nil far harder to bring home, because nobody at the table will take the tricks a nil bidder is trying to dodge.
Q 25On a standard Spades scoresheet, which part of a team's total shows the overtricks it has collected?
The last digit
The last digit does the counting, since every overtrick adds a single point to the total, so no separate tally is needed.
Q 26Which term describes throwing away a worthless card when a Spades player cannot follow the suit led?
Sloughing
Sloughing, also spelled sluffing, simply means discarding: the card thrown has no chance of winning the trick.
Q 27What is it called when a Spades partner plays high to shield a nil bidder from taking a trick?
Covering
Covering is the partner's whole job on a nil hand, which is why some tables let the pair swap a card or two before play begins.
Q 28Two-player Spades has no deal, so how do the players build their hands instead?
Drawing from a stock
Drawing from a stock, each player looks at the top card and either keeps it and discards the next, or rejects it and keeps the next.
Q 29What do Spades players call the rare feat of one team winning every single trick in a hand?
A Boston
A Boston earns bragging rights at any table, and under some house rules a team that bids one and brings it home wins the game outright.
Q 30Which nickname for a ten-trick Spades bid comes from the linked zeros drawn on the scoresheet?
Wheels
Wheels are the two zeros of the 200-point score, joined at the top to look like train wheels; miss the ten tricks and the same amount comes off instead.