The catalogue opens this month with Chess and Rubamazzo, a few apps at a time after them. See the release plan.

Spades app icon

Spades — aiOrion GamesInternational card game · Sixth release

Expected early November

Spades

Name your tricks. Protect the nil. Mind the bags.

Three games of Spades: the classic 2-v-2 partnership, the cutthroat form where every seat bids alone, and the house deck of Jokers & Deuces with four cards above the ace. Configurable match, nil and bag scoring throughout.

3 games in one4 in curated formatsApple OS 27iPhone Duo readyNo adsOn-device play
Coming soonRead the rules
Spades game artwork

Learn

Learn the game before you play it.

An illustrated, animated walkthrough of the rules, plus a short read on what the game asks of your mind. Both open here in your browser — no download, no account.

How to play SpadesWhat it trains in your mind

A guide for every variant

The rules

How it plays

  1. Deal thirteen cards to each player; spades are always trump.
  2. Each player bids expected tricks, including a possible zero-trick nil bid.
  3. Follow the led suit when able; otherwise discard or play a spade.
  4. Spades may not be led until broken unless a hand contains only spades.
  5. Making a bid scores ten per bid trick plus bags; missing it loses the contract value.
Availability note. Expected early November is an approximate target. The catalogue opens a few apps at a time, and each release waits until the one before it has settled in.

Ways to play

3 games for the price of one.

Every variant here is a game of its own — its own rules and legal-move checking, its own tables, its own illustrated guide, its own daily challenge, its own achievements and its own taught first game that walks you in. One purchase brings all 3. Each option below changes the table while keeping the engine's legal-move checks in charge.

Spades

Classic partnership Spades: 52-card deck, spades always trump, bid and make your contract.

  • Standard Spades for four players in two partnerships, using the full 52-card deck. Spades are always trump.
  • Each player bids the tricks they expect to take (zero is a 'nil'); a partnership making its combined bid scores ten points per bid trick plus a 'bag' for each overtrick, and accumulated bags eventually cost 100 points. Play continues to the target score.

Arena

  • Spades Arena — partners to 5004 players · partners

Tournaments

  • Spades — SwissSwiss of 8 · 4 a table · partners

Cutthroat

Four players, no partners: your bid is yours alone and every seat keeps its own score.

  • Cutthroat Spades: the same deal, bidding, trump and trick rules as the partnership game, but every player scores alone.
  • Each seat makes its own contract, keeps its own bags and covers its own nil, so there is no partner to protect a nil bid or to absorb a missed contract.
  • Deals repeat until a player reaches the target score.

Arena

  • Cutthroat Arena — to 2504 players · solo

Tournaments

  • Cutthroat — Swissknockout of 8 · 4 a table · solo

Jokers & Deuces

The house deck: big joker, little joker, 2 of diamonds and 2 of spades top the trumps.

  • Spades as it is played at countless family tables: the two of hearts and two of clubs leave the deck and both jokers come in, still 52 cards and thirteen a seat.
  • The trump ladder now runs big joker, little joker, two of diamonds, two of spades, then the ace of spades on down — and the jokers and the two of diamonds ARE spades: they follow spade leads, they break spades, and a hand of them counts as trumps.
  • Everything else — partnerships, bidding, nil, bags — is the same game.

Arena

  • Jokers & Deuces Arena4 players · partners

Tournaments

  • Jokers & Deuces — SwissSwiss of 8 · 4 a table · partners

Every online table is a ladder. Each Arena table and each tournament above comes at four entry levels — Challenge 10 GC, Contest 50 GC, Championship 200 GC, and a Friendly 1 GC table that returns the coin to everyone who finishes. The higher the entry level, the more places share the reward; aiOrion keeps 10% of a paid table's entries to pay for running the online game, and nothing from a Friendly one.

Make it yours. Start from any of these, adjust the settings the game allows, and save it as your own template. Online tables start the same way: copy one of the Arena tables, then set the entry, the rewards and who may join.

aiOrion events

Events in Spades.

aiOrion's own tournaments in this game, read live from the game server: when the next ones are and how many places are taken. You enter from inside the app; the entry pays for the online game, and winning earns a reward.

Times are shown in your time zone.

Loading the events

Reading the event calendar from the game server…

All eventsAdd the aiOrion calendar

What is inside

Built around the game, not the grind.

01

Configurable target score

Set the finish line for a quick round or a long match.

02

Configurable nil bonus

Tune the reward — and the risk — of calling nil.

03

Configurable bag threshold

Decide how much bags sting, the way your group plays it.

04

On-device AI opponents

Partners and rivals that bid and play offline.

Next move

Follow the releases.

Explore every title now; the month labels are approximate, and each release waits until the one before it has settled in. The same rules and identity run on iPhone, iPhone Duo, iPad and Mac; Apple Vision Pro follows as an update.

Coming soonSee all 21 apps
Private local playOn-device AIConfigurable templatesCalm by design