Use a standard 52-card deck and four players (or play with 3–4 if your group’s rules allow)
Assign teams (2v2)
Choose a dealer; deal 13 cards to each player
Determine the trump suit as spades
Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player bids the number of tricks they expect to win
Bids are made in whole numbers and each player’s bid is independent
The player who wins the first trick leads to the next trick
The first card of a trick determines the suit that must be followed (if you can)
Follow suit if possible; if you cannot, you may play any card
Spades are always trump: if you cannot follow suit, you may play a spade
If a spade is led, everyone must follow with a spade if they have one
If a trick contains spades, the highest spade wins the trick
Otherwise, the highest card of the led suit wins the trick
Card ranking within a suit is: A high, then K, Q, J, down to 2
After 13 tricks, the round ends and scores are calculated
Score each team by adding their players’ bids to determine the team’s total bid
For each player, score tricks won compared to their bid
Typically: each bid point is worth 10 points when met
Typically: each extra trick over the bid is worth 1 point
Typically: each trick short of the bid is penalized (commonly 10 points per missed trick)
Common rule: “bags” (extra tricks) accumulate and may cause penalties after a set threshold (often 10 bags total per team)
Common rule: a player who bids 0 must win zero tricks to score their contract (different variants exist for scoring and penalties)
Use your group’s house rules for variations (0 bids, nil scoring, bag limits, blind nil, reneging rules, and whether you must bid in certain ways)