PURPLE RULES FOR SPADES

Purple Rules Modifications:

12 cards are dealt to Players and 12 Tricks are played, not the 13 cards and Tricks in the Standard Rules.

Players can Follow Color as well as Follow Suit, not just Follow Suit like the Standard Rules.

Black Spades are the Trump Color Suit with 7 Trump Cards instead of the standard 13 Spades Trump Cards.

Object of the Game:  To Score more Points than the other Players or Partnership by winning Tricks and predicting the number of Tricks won.  Spades is a Plain-Trick Game, so the Points of each card are used in scoring.

Number of Players:  2 to 4 Players, usually 2 Partnerships of 2 Players each

The Deal:  Each Player is dealt 12 cards and 12 Tricks are played.  There will be 1 card left over which is shown to all Players before setting it aside.  If the 2 Jokers are used there will be 3 cards left over.

Following Suit:  This is a typical Standard Rule which requires a Player to play a card with the same Suit as the Lead Card if they have one in their Hand, unless they play a Trump Card.  

Following Color:  With the Purple Rules, Players have the additional option of playing a card with the same Color of the Lead Card, which is called Following Color.  Like a Trump Card, a player is not required to Follow Color if they have a card of the same Color.

If a Player cannot Follow Suit, they can play any card, but the card will lose to any card of the same Suit or same Color of the Lead Card or a Trump Card.  

As in Standard Rules, a player is not required to play a Trump Card if they have one in their Hand.  

Playing Trump:  In the Purple Rules the Trump Suit is Spades, the same as the Standard Rules.  A Black Spades card outranks and wins over any card from the other 6 Color Suits.  

Bidding for a Contract:  Players Bid in an Auction to win a Contract, which is a declaration of the number of Tricks that they will win.  The maximum Bid is 12 (all 12 Tricks won).

The Player to the left of the Dealer begins, with the Bidding going clockwise.  

Bidding can be done with 2 different methods.  One method allows only 1 Bid per Player.  The second method allows continual Bidding until all Players pass.  The method used needs to be determined before a game begins.

Players on their Turn Bid by declaring a Number of Tricks won.  If the continual Bid method is used, Players can Bid or Pass.  Bids are declared until all Players pass.  

If Players are playing in Partnerships, the combined Bids of both Partners are combined to make the Contract.  Points are scored for winning at least the number of Tricks in the Contract.

THE PURPLE RULES FOR TRICK PLAY

The Highest Ranked card from the Black Spades Trump wins.

If no Trump Card is played:
The Highest Ranked card which Follows Color wins.

If no card Follows Color:
The Highest Ranked card which Follows Suit wins.

In the case of a Tie, the Tied Player who went first wins.

Scoring:  If a Player or Partnership wins the number of Tricks they Bid in their Contract, they score 10 Points.  They also score 1 Point for every Trick they won over their Contract.  The Tricks won over the Contract are called Overtricks or Bags.

Players or Partnerships are penalized 100 Points from their total for every 10 Bags that they accumulate during a game.

Winning the Game:  The first Player or Partnership to reach 500 Points wins the game.  If both Partnerships, or multiple players, reach 500 Points during the same Deal, the one with the most Points wins.

Special Rules:  Players have the option to use a special Bidding and Scoring method using a Nil or a Blind Nil.  A Nil is a Bid of Zero, with Players winning no Tricks.  If a Player or partnership Bids Nil and loses all of their tricks they win 100 Points, if they win any Tricks they lose 100 Points.  A Blind Nil is a Nil Bid before the Player has seen their cards.  A Blind Nil scores 200 points or loses 200 Points.  See the Links to the Standard Rules for more details. 

Basic Strategy:  

There are only 7 Trump Cards compared to 13 Trump Cards (all of the Spades) in standard Trick Taking Games.  Fewer Tricks will be won with a Trump Card, so playing a Trump Card requires more thought.  There are 6 possible cards that can Follow Color of any Lead Card.  Keeping track of the High Cards played of each Color as well as the Trump Cards played will be needed for maximum strategy.  Playing a Color Follow card a Player thinks could win, and saving Trump Cards for other Tricks could be a successful tactic. 

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Links to Standard Trick-Taking Game Rules:  

Spades: Bicycle Learn to Play^®  |  Pagat  |  Wikipedia