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The partnership one — exactly four of you, in two pairs. Seats 1 and 3 are a side, 2 and 4 the other (the order the names are typed on New game). Bid your tricks, make your bid, and don't collect too many spares.
- One pack, no jokers, thirteen each. Ace high. Spades are always trump.
- The deal moves one seat left each hand.
- Starting on the dealer's left, everyone says how many tricks they'll take, 0 to 13.
- A bid of 0 is nil — you're saying you'll take none at all. It's scored on its own (below).
- A side's bid is its two bids added up (nils aside).
- The player left of the dealer leads. You may not lead a spade until one has been played on another suit — spades are broken. If spades are all you hold, you may.
- Follow suit if you can. If you can't, play anything — a spade wins the trick.
- The highest spade takes the trick; if there's none, the highest card of the suit led. The taker leads the next.
10 × bidif your side took at least what it bid — plus 1 for every trick over. The overs are bags.
−10 × bidif your side fell short. Even by one.
−100every time a side's bags reach ten. Sandbagging costs.
±100a nil: +100 if that seat took nothing, −100 if it took anything. Those tricks are bags — they don't help the partner's bid.
The game ends at the end of the hand in which a side reaches 500. If the sides are level, play another. The winning pair's seats rank first; within a pair, whoever took more tricks across the game. The winning pair take the crown.
On the felt: the strip across the top keeps both sides' scores and bags, and each seat's line shows its bid and tricks this hand; Scores opens the game hand by hand. On your bid you get pills 0 to 13 (0 is nil); on your go a card you can't play sits dim. If someone leaves mid-hand the game ends there and the scores stand — a pair short is not a game.
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