How to play
Four players in two partnerships, sitting opposite each other, get thirteen cards each. Starting after the dealer, everyone bids how many tricks they think they’ll take. Partners add their bids together: that’s the number the two of you have to make.
The player after the dealer leads. Everyone plays one card in turn and must follow the suit that was led if they can. Spades are trumps: any spade beats any card of another suit. If you can’t follow suit you may play a spade (or throw something away). The highest spade wins the trick, or the highest card of the suit led if nobody played a spade. You can’t lead a spade until one has been played, unless you hold nothing else.
Scoring
Make your partnership’s bid and you score 10 points per trick bid, plus 1 for each extra trick (a “bag”). Fall short and you lose 10 per trick bid. Bid nil to promise you’ll take no tricks at all: it scores 100 if you manage it and costs 100 if you don’t, and your partner’s bid stands on its own. Bags add up from round to round, and every tenth bag costs 100, so taking far more tricks than you bid isn’t free. The first partnership past the target (250 or 500) wins.
Playing together
Seat any mix of people and computer players; seats 1 and 3 play together against seats 2 and 4. With more than one person on the same device, each hand stays hidden until its owner taps their name. Online, everyone opens the invite link on their own phone and computer players fill the empty seats.
Tips
Count aces and kings as likely tricks, and long spades as extra ones. A short side suit lets you trump in early. When your partner is already winning a trick, play low. If your partner bid nil, help them: win the tricks they might otherwise be stuck with. When the opponents need just one more trick, make them work for it; when they’ve already made their bid, every extra trick they take is a bag.