Play free

Spades glossary

What Is Cutthroat Spades?

2 min read

Cutthroat spades is spades where every player plays for themselves: no partners, no team contracts. It's most often played with three people, 17 cards each after removing one card. Scoring works like normal spades, per player. Spades Night doesn't offer cutthroat: every game is four seats in two teams.

Cutthroat spades is spades without partners. Every player bids, plays and scores on their own, and anyone can gang up on the leader. It's the usual way to play when you don't have four people. The partnership game it's based on is covered in the spades rules.

How it works

The most common version is three players:

  • Remove one card (usually the 2♣) and deal 17 cards each from the remaining 51.
  • Each player bids the books they expect to win. There's no team contract.
  • Spades are trump, you must follow suit, and spades can't be led until broken, same as the partnership game.
  • Each player scores alone: 10 per book bid if made, +1 per bag, −10 per book bid if set.
  • Nil is usually allowed at ±100.
  • First to 500 (or another agreed target) wins.

Cutthroat is also played with four players each on their own. With four, deal 13 each from a normal deck.

Example

Three players: you, Dee and Marcus. You bid 6, Dee bids 5, Marcus bids 4. That's 15 books claimed out of 17, so there's little room for bags. You take 6 for 60. Dee takes 7: 50 plus 2 bags, 52. Marcus takes the last 4 and makes his bid exactly for 40. Next hand, if Marcus bids 5 and only 4 books are left for him, he's set for −50.

The tension in cutthroat is that you have no partner to rely on and two opponents who will both try to set whoever is leading.

How Spades Night handles it

Spades Night doesn't have a cutthroat mode. Every table has four seats and two partnerships, and bots fill any empty seat. If three of you want to play together, one bot takes the fourth seat, and two of you play as partners against the third player and the bot.

Variations at other tables

  • Card removed. Some three-player games remove the 2♦ instead of the 2♣.
  • Blind cards. Some deal 16 each with extras set aside.
  • Jokers. Cutthroat with jokers usually removes more low cards to keep hands even.
  • Target. 300, 500 or a fixed number of hands.

The spades with 3 players guide walks through a full three-player game.

  • Book: each player's tricks, counted alone.
  • Bags: extra books, scored per player.
  • Set: missing your own bid.
  • Nil: harder without a partner covering you.

Questions people ask

How do you play cutthroat spades with 3 players?

Remove the 2♣ so 51 cards remain and deal 17 to each player. Everyone bids for themselves, spades are trump, and each player scores 10 per book bid, with bags and sets as usual.

Can you play cutthroat spades online at Spades Night?

No. Spades Night is always four seats in two partnerships. Three friends can play together with a bot in the fourth seat, but you'll be in teams.

Is there nil in cutthroat spades?

Usually yes, scored ±100 like the partnership game. Without a partner to cover you, a nil is harder to make, so many cutthroat players bid it less often.

Keep reading