Spades - Terminology

Terminology

• Trick - A unit of play in which each player lays one card from their hand, and is "taken" or won usually by the player who laid down the highest value card.
• Book - in Spades, this is synonymous with "trick"; however other trick-taking games have a different definition.
• Hand - A series of tricks in which all cards dealt to each player are played.
• Bid - The number of tricks each player will take during a hand, announced by each player in term before a hand begins. The bid is the sum of each team members single bid and is used to determine the total "team bid." The bid equals the total number of tricks the team must win, or risk being set (falling short of the bid) or taking sandbags, or bags (taking more tricks than were bid).
• Partnership - A pair of players when playing with an even number; their bids and taken tricks are summed.
• Team - largely synonymous with "partnership", but when playing with six or more a team can comprise more than two players.
• Contract - The result of a player's or partnership's bids for the hand; they are required to take at least that number of tricks during play of the hand.
• Set - To be unable to take the number of tricks required by a contract, usually because the opposing players have taken enough tricks that there are fewer remaining tricks than are needed.
• Undertrick - A trick that a partnership needed in order to make contract, but didn't take. The term is used more in scoring than in play; a pair who bid 6 but only took five has an undertrick, while a specific trick in play that the partners need to take from a tactical standpoint is simply a "must-have" or "must-win".
• Bag - an "overtrick"; a trick taken by a player or partnership when their contract has already been met. The importance of bags or overtricks varies depending on house rules; generally, taking too many overtricks incurs a penalty, but the taking of some overtricks can be good strategy.
• (To) Follow Suit - to play a card of the same suit as the first card played to a trick. As in many trick-taking games, Spades players are required to follow suit if they are able.
• Void - To not have any card in a particular suit or suits, or to intentionally exhaust them from one's hand. A player must be void in at least one suit in order to play Spades as trump, and therefore will try to void their hand of a suit in which they hold few cards.
• Trump - a suit or other subset of cards in the deck that is of higher value than all others. Most games in the Whist family use a trump suit; in Spades, it is always the Spade suit. The term also refers to the playing of a trump card.
• Slough (Sluff) - to play a card that is not a trump card but of different suit than the first suit played, therefore discarding that card. Sloughing is normally used to get rid of a card that may otherwise take a trick the player does not wish to take. It can also be used to void other suits allowing play of trump cards in tricks where that suit is led.
• Honor Cards - Refers to the top four or five cards in each suit, A, K, Q, J and 10.
• Nil - A Bid to win no tricks at all in any hand. A special bid for which there is usually a bonus if the nil is achieved and a penalty if it is defeated by forcing the one who bid Nil to take a trick in any given hand.
• Renege - When a player can follow suit but does not, it is considered cheating and is often penalized with three books awarded to the opposing team.