Spades Express is Spades for four players in two partnerships, each on their own phone. Bid with your partner, or bid nil; spades are always trumps; the first side to 500 wins.
About Spades Express
Spades needs four people in the same place, which is exactly what a long journey has. Spades Express keeps the game and drops the table: one phone hosts, the other three join it with a short code, and nothing needs a server or an account. Partners sit opposite - seats 1 and 3 against 2 and 4 - and bots take any seat nobody is in.
Thirteen cards each, and once round the table everybody bids the tricks they expect to take. A side's bid is its two bids added up. A bid of nothing is nil: a promise that you, alone, will take no trick at all, scored apart from your partner. A side 100 or more behind may bid blind nil, before looking at the cards, and then the bidder and partner pass each other two cards.
Follow suit if you can; if you cannot, play anything, a spade included. The highest spade takes the trick, or else the highest card of the suit led, and spades may not be led until one has been played - until spades are broken. A side that takes its bid scores ten a trick and one for each trick over; those over are bags, and every ten bags cost a hundred. A side that falls short loses ten a trick it bid. A nil is 100 either way, a blind nil 200. The game is to 500, or 250 or 300 if the table chooses.
Made for the journey
- No internet, no mobile data. The phones talk to each other directly, so a game carries on through tunnels, ghats and stretches with no signal at all.
- Everyone on their own phone. Nobody passes a handset round, and nobody sees a hand that is not theirs.
- Short of players? Bots take the empty seats, each with a setting for how closely it follows the play.
- A dropped link is not the end of the hand. A phone that loses the connection can join the same table again.
- No sign-in and no real money. Install it, open it, play.
How playing together works, and tips for trains, buses and flights
Features
- Spades for four players in two partnerships, partners opposite
- Bids added up for the side, with your partner's bid shown as you bid
- Nil, and blind nil with the two-card exchange, for a side 100 behind
- Spades always trumps, and not led until broken
- Bags counted for each side, and a hundred lost for every ten
- Games to 500, 300 or 250, with every hand on the score sheet
- Show each trick, so nobody misses what was played
- Bots that bid what they hold, mind the nils and stay off bags
- Connects over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Google Nearby, with no internet
- No sign-in, no server, no real money