What is Solo Spades?

Solo Spades keeps the familiar rules but removes your safety net. It is the version for players who want pure self-reliance.

The short answer: Solo Spades, often called Cutthroat, strips out the partnerships so that all four players compete individually. Everyone bids for themselves, scores for themselves, and there are no teammates to cover for you. The core trick-taking rules stay the same, but with no partner the whole game becomes a shifting free-for-all where temporary alliances form and break.

Everyone for themselves

Instead of two teams, you have four rivals. Each player makes an individual bid and is scored alone against their own contract. Nobody protects your Nil or helps you make your tricks, so every decision rests entirely on you.

Shifting alliances

With no fixed partner, the table's dynamics change constantly. Players often gang up to set whoever is leading, then turn on each other the moment the threat passes. Reading these temporary alliances, and knowing when you are the target, is the defining skill of cutthroat play.

How it compares

The same follow-suit and trump rules from Partnership Spades apply, but the strategy is more defensive and opportunistic. If you enjoy this format, try three-handed cutthroat too. Jump straight into a game of Solo Spades, or browse every version on the variants page.

Put it into play

The fastest way to make this stick is to deal a hand and try it.

Keep reading - related questions

What is Partnership Spades?

Partnership Spades is the traditional and most popular form of the game, played by four people in two teams of two. Partners sit directly across from each other, so play alternates between the two sides around the table. The two partners' bids are combined into a single team contract, and they win, lose, and score together.

How do you play 3-player Spades?

Three-player Spades adapts the game for an odd number by removing one card, usually the two of clubs, leaving a 51-card deck that deals evenly at 17 cards each. There are no partnerships, so it is played cutthroat with everyone bidding and scoring individually. All the core rules, following suit, spades as trump, and Nil bids, carry over unchanged.

How do you bid in Spades?

To bid in Spades you look at your 13 cards and estimate how many tricks you can win, then announce that number. Count your near-certain winners first: high spades, aces, and protected kings. Your bid is added to your partner's to set the team's contract, and you can also choose to bid Nil, a promise to win zero tricks.

Every Spades question in one place

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