How to keep score at Spades

Spades is scored by the partnership. A side’s bid is its two partners’ bids added, a nil is a bet on taking nothing at all, and every trick over the bid is a bag. Bags are worth a point each until there are ten, which cost a hundred. Keeping that straight across ten hands is what this is for.

It needs no account and no signal. The score is kept on this phone, so it survives the screen going dark between deals, and the page opens again where you left it.

1. Write in the four names in the order you sit. Partners sit opposite, so the first and the third are one side and the second and the fourth the other.
2. Tap Deals beside whoever deals first, or press Pick a dealer and let the phone choose.
3. Set the house rules your table plays, then press Start. The phone remembers the names and the rules for next time.

Partners sit opposite. Write the names in the order you sit, and the first and third names are one side.

Press Next deal and write in every bid, nought for a nil. Save the bids for now puts them on the board while the hand is played.

Then write in the tricks each player took. The hand saves once they add up to thirteen.

A side that makes its bid scores ten for every trick bid and a point for every trick over. A side that falls short loses ten for every trick bid. A nil scores a hundred when the nil bidder takes nothing and loses a hundred when they take a trick, and their partner’s tricks count on their own.

The first side past the target wins. Both past it and level means another hand.

The arithmetic is the code the Spades tables in this app score with, so the scorekeeper and the game always agree.

Play to

300 is a game of an evening. 500 is the long game.

Nil bids

On by default. Turn it off and every bid has to be at least one.

Ten bags cost a hundred

On by default: the tenth bag costs a hundred and the count starts again.

Share board makes a link and a QR code. Everybody who opens it watches the board change as you save each deal, with no account on either side. With no signal it gives a link that carries the board inside it instead, which shows the score as it stood when the link was made.

Send a picture of the board draws the standings and every deal as an image for the family group, with the address in the corner. It needs no signal.

If you have to leave before the game ends, Hand over scoring shows a second code. Whoever scans it keeps score on their own phone from then on.

Pick a dealer chooses who deals first, and from then on the scorekeeper says whose deal it is above every deal. Draw partners shuffles the names, and partners are whoever ends up opposite each other.

Both draw from the phone’s own random number generator, the one the dice roller uses, so every seat is equally likely.