The Barber & Beauty Spades Tournament

ShearQuery is bringing barbers, stylists, nail techs, estheticians and students to one online Spades table. The tournament is played 100% online, from anywhere. Sign-up details are coming soon.

Until then, the practice table is open, free and with no sign-up. You and your partner Dre play Keisha and Tony, two computer players, under the tournament's house rules.

House rules

• Teams. Four players, two teams of two. Your partner sits across the table.
• The deck. The 2 of clubs and 2 of diamonds come out and two jokers go in. Spades always win, ranked Big Joker, Little Joker, 2 of spades, then ace down to 3. The jokers count as spades.
• Bidding. Each player bids the tricks they think they'll take, and partners' bids add up. A team bids at least 4 (board).
• Nil and Blind Nil. Bid Nil to take no tricks: +100 if you do, −100 if you don't. When your team is behind by 100 or more, you can bid Nil before looking at your cards for ±200.
• Play. Follow the suit that was led if you can. Nobody leads a spade until one has been played, unless spades are all they have.
• Scoring. Make your bid for 10 points a trick, plus 1 for each extra trick (a bag). Miss it and lose 10 a trick. Every 10 bags costs 100 points. First team to 500 wins; a team at −200 loses.

How to play on a phone

Tap a card to lift it, then tap it again to play it. Cards you can't play are dimmed. Your game is saved in your browser, so you can leave in the middle of a hand and come back.

See every ShearQuery game.