In Royal Spades, the deck consists of 32 cards instead of the usual 52 cards. The deck doesn't contain cards numbered 2-6 of any type.
Each player receives 8 cards.
Cards ranking from high to low:
A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7.
Spades will always trump other cards, even if it is the lowest card.
Each player must bid a number of tricks from 0 to 8, which they expect to win.
The combined bidding of the two partners is summed up together to form the team bid. This is the number of tricks the team must win in order to achieve a positive score.
In solo:
· NIL BID - gives 25 points, but also costs 25 if the player wins even one trick.
· BLIND NIL - there is no blind nil in solo.
In partners:
· NIL BID - gives 50 points, but also costs 50 if the player wins even one trick.
· BLIND NIL - gives 100 points, but also costs 100 if the player wins even one trick.
The winning team is the first to reach the target points or if the opposing team drops below the threshold.