Find out What are the terms for Spades.

Spades game glossary

Bid - The number of books each player thinks they will win during a hand, which each player says before the hand starts. It is the sum of the bids from each member of the team. These bids are added together to get the total team bid. This is how many books the team must win, or risk being set.

Blind bid - Before each team member has seen their cards, someone bids the hand. It is common for the point total to double if the blind bid is successful. If the team doesn't win, they are called set and lose points. Most games say that a team must be down at least 100 points before they can blind bid. They also have a minimum blind bid, which usually starts at 6.

Book - During a hand, each player plays four cards. The book is the total of all four cards played by each player. It's up to the person who plays the best card to get the book. Face down on the table, books should be kept in the order that they were won.

Board - Each hand, each team must bid a certain number of books. The traditional number of books on a board is four, but it can vary.
Boston - When you win all 13 books in a hand, you make your opponent look bad. Most Spades games make this a sure thing.

Breaking Spades - Making the first Spade in a hand into a cut card. As long as this doesn't happen, you can't use spades as the lead suit in any hand.

Cross-boarding - It's called "cross-boarding" when someone communicates verbally or non-verbally during a hand that gives away the contents of a player's hand or game plan. This is cheating and very bad, so don't do it.

Cut or Cutting - The lead (non-spade) suit is cut or cut when it is beat by a Spade from a player who doesn't have any cards from that suit left. One of the ways cutting can happen is when one of you beat your partner's winning card.

One of the ways cutting can happen is when one of you beat your partner's winning card. A card from the same suit as the first one played.
Hand - During a hand, cards are dealt, people bid on them, and they all play cards until 13 books are won. During each hand, teams can either add or take points.

Misdeal: Any deal where the wrong number of cards are given to each player or the dealer doesn't get the last card. Some games also think that if a player doesn't have Spades and/or face cards, he or she made a bad deal. People who do this get their hands back and start over.

Nil - This is a bid to win no books during the hand. A bonus is usually given if the goal is met, and a penalty is usually given if it isn't. Players who have a card from the lead suit and can follow suit but don't do it.

Renege - Reneging is cheating and can be punished if it can be proven that it happened. It is important for a team to know which book on the table the player did not follow. The team that loses the renege challenge is usually given three books back by the judge.

Sandbag or Bag: The number of books a player or team won that were more than the bid amount. In some cases, Sandbags can hurt teams' scores in different ways, depending on the house rules.

Sandbagging - The act of underbidding the number of books that are expected to be won in a given hand. This can happen because of your strategy and/or because you didn't count your books correctly during the bidding process. It's called a set if no team wins the number of books they bet. They will lose points from their score if they don't win.

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