The four-player deal at a glance
| At the table | Cards |
|---|---|
| Whole deck | 52, without jokers in this version |
| Each player | 13 |
| Each partnership | 26 between two separate hands |
| Stock or draw pile | None |
How to deal at a real table
Seat partners opposite each other. Shuffle, then deal clockwise, one face-down card at a time, beginning to the dealer’s left. Continue until all four players have 13 cards. Each player looks only at their own hand before bidding.
If somebody has 12 cards and somebody else has 14, the deal is incorrect. Recount before anyone bids or plays. In the browser, the game deals and counts the hands for you, so nobody gets to blame the dealer.
Why 13 cards means 13 tricks
A trick uses one card from each of the four hands. After the first trick, everybody has 12 cards left. After five tricks, everybody has eight left. When all 13 tricks are complete, all 52 cards have been played.
Your bid is the number of tricks you expect to win, not the number of cards you hold. A player who bids three still starts with 13 cards. Learn the next step in our bidding guide, then check how made and missed bids score.
Two players do not split the deck in half: they draw and discard to build 13-card hands, as the 2 player spades rules explain. Wondering how many spades the whole deck holds? See how many spades are in a deck.
Do jokers change the count?
Only if the house rules say so, and even then not always. In one joker version that Pagat's Spades rules describe, the two jokers become the highest trumps and the 2 of clubs and 2 of hearts leave the deck, so everyone still gets 13. Agree on any such variant before dealing. The standard game offered here uses the regular 52 cards, with spades as trump.
For a compact reference, use the printable Spades cheat sheet.