Yahoo Spades: Though it may be played with 2, 3, 4, or 6 players, the most common version of spades is the four-player game played at Yahoo! Players are divided into two partnerships. Partners sit across from each other.

Each partnership bids the number of tricks they expect to take during the play of the hand. Before bidding, partners may discuss how many tricks they think they can take, but cannot give any specific information about what cards they hold; then, each player announces his or her bid in turn.

A player may bid any number of tricks from 1 to 13, or may bid "nil," which is an undertaking not to win any tricks during that hand. The bid made by the partner of the nil bidder becomes that partnership's total bid for the hand.

A player whose team is at least 100 points behind may bid "blind nil." To do so, the player bids nil before looking at his or her cards. The blind nil bidder then looks at his or her hand and may exchange two cards with partner by choosing two cards and placing them facedown. Partner picks up the two cards, then chooses two cards to return, which are also placed facedown.

The first team to 500 points wins. If both reach 500 on the same deal, the team with the higher score wins.