Q&A
What Is a Book in Spades?
A book in Spades is one completed trick of four cards. Here is where the word comes from, how books relate to your bid, and how many are in a hand.
If you have just heard somebody say we need two more books, they meant tricks. A book in Spades is one completed trick — four cards, one from each player. The word is inherited from older trick-taking games where it meant something different, which is why it confuses anyone arriving from bridge, and it is worth a page of its own because almost every conversation about bidding and scoring is conducted in it.
One Trick, Four Cards, One Book
A book is one completed round of play. The leader puts down a card, the other three follow clockwise, and when the fourth card lands the book is finished and belongs to whoever won it.
Book and trick mean the same thing in Spades and players switch between them mid-sentence without noticing. There is no distinction in the rules, no situation where one applies and the other does not, and no scoring difference.
In physical play, books are stacked face down in front of whichever partner won them. Keeping them in a slightly fanned row rather than a single pile is standard courtesy, because both partners need to be able to count the side's books at a glance without asking.
Thirteen Books to a Hand
Fifty-two cards dealt to four players is thirteen each, and thirteen cards each produces exactly thirteen books. Nothing is removed, nothing is turned up, there is no kitty. Every hand of standard Spades contains thirteen books and never one more or one fewer.
That fixed number is what makes bidding a real decision. The four bids together almost never reach thirteen — ten, eleven or twelve is the normal range — and the books nobody claimed are the loose ones that decide whether a side collects bags or gets set.
It also means the two contracts are directly opposed. If your side bid seven and the opponents bid four, eleven books are spoken for and two are floating. Whoever takes those two either pads a score by two points or, more importantly, denies the other side the books it needs.
How a Book Is Won
The highest card of the suit that was led wins the book — unless a spade was played, in which case the highest spade wins no matter what the led suit was.
A spade can only reach a book two ways: played by somebody holding none of the led suit, or led directly once spades have been broken. That constraint is what stops trump from dominating every book. The two of spades takes a book from the ace of hearts, but only in the hand of a player who was dealt no hearts at all.
If two or more players ruff the same book, the highest spade among them takes it. If nobody ruffs, rank within the led suit settles it and every off-suit card played is irrelevant, however high.
The winner of a book leads the next one, which is why holding the lead matters so much when covering a partner's nil or steering a hand away from spades.
Where the Word Came From
The term is inherited from whist and bridge. In those games a book means the first six tricks the declaring side takes — the tricks that do not score, the base you have to clear before the contract begins counting. Six tricks make a book; the seventh trick is the first that counts toward a contract.
Spades borrowed the vocabulary from the same family of games and quietly changed the meaning. In Spades a book is a single trick and the number six has nothing to do with anything.
This is the one piece of Spades vocabulary that actively misleads bridge players, who reasonably hear we made book and think of six tricks. At a Spades table it means one trick and nothing else.
Books, Contracts, Bags and Sets
Making your contract means your side's books reach the total the two partners bid. Scoring is ten points per book bid: bid eight, take eight, score eighty.
Books above the contract are worth one point each and one bag each. Bid eight and take ten and you score eighty-two and collect two bags — and when the running bag count hits ten, the side loses a hundred points.
Falling one book short is a set: minus ten per book bid, with the books you did win earning nothing at all. Bid eight, take seven, lose eighty. The penalty does not scale, so seven books and three books cost identically.
A nil bid means taking zero books. One book and the nil fails at minus a hundred, which is why the nil bidder's partner spends the hand trying to win everything within reach.
Taking all thirteen books is a boston, and it is not automatically good news. On a bid of four, thirteen books pay forty for the contract plus nine for the overtricks — forty-nine points and nine bags, which puts a hundred-point penalty one trick away.
Counting Books While You Play
Track your side's book count against the contract continuously, not at the end. The moment your side has taken what it bid, the correct play changes completely: you start ducking, refusing tricks and avoiding ruffs, because every further book is a bag.
Track the opponents' count too. A side that has already made its bid will start playing low deliberately, and a side one book short will fight for every trick with everything it has. Both are readable from the stacks in front of them.
Count books by suit as well as by number. Knowing that four rounds of hearts have been played tells you the suit is nearly exhausted and your remaining small heart is a discard rather than a loser.
Above all, count spades. There are thirteen of them. Once you can say how many have gone and who is out, the last four books of a hand become arithmetic instead of hope.
At most tables you may look through your own side's won books at any time. What crosses into table talk is announcing how many you still need after bidding is closed, so agree the convention early.
How Players Actually Use the Word
We need three more books — our side is three tricks short of its contract.
That book is ours — as the cards currently sit, our side wins this trick.
Book count — the running tally of tricks won by each side in the current hand.
He is playing for books — taking tricks rather than shedding them, usually said of a partner covering a nil.
A ten-book hand — a large contract, the kind where you lead spades immediately and keep leading them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books are in a hand of Spades?
Thirteen, in every hand. Fifty-two cards divided among four players gives thirteen cards each, and each round of four cards is one book, so the total is fixed at thirteen and never varies.
Is a book the same as a trick?
In Spades, yes — completely interchangeable. In bridge and whist, where the word originated, a book means the first six tricks a declaring side takes, which do not count toward the contract. Spades reused the word for a single trick.
Who wins a book?
The player who played the highest card of the suit that was led, unless somebody played a spade. If any spade was played, the highest spade takes the book regardless of the led suit.
How many books does my side need to win the hand?
As many as the two partners bid together, and no fewer. Reaching it scores ten points per book bid; falling one short loses ten points per book bid with no credit for the books you took.
Do books carry over to the next hand?
No. Book counts reset to zero with every deal. Only the running score and the bag counter carry forward between hands.
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