Spades (card game)

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Spades

Origin	United States
Alternative names	Call Bridge, Call Break
Type	Trick-taking
Family	Auction Whist
Players	4 (standard)[1][2] to 6
Skills	Card counting, tactics
Age range	All
Cards	52–54
Deck	French
Rank (high→low)	A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Play	Clockwise
Playing time	90 min.[citation needed]
Chance	Moderate

Spades is a trick-taking card game devised in the United States in the 1930s. It can be played as either a partnership or solo/"cutthroat" game. The object is to take the number of tricks that were bid before play of the hand began. Spades is a descendant of the whist family of card games, which also includes bridge, hearts, and oh hell. Its major difference as compared to other whist variants is that, instead of trump being decided by the highest bidder or at random, the spade suit always trumps, hence the name.^[3]