In standard spades, cards rank from ace high down to two low within each suit, and the spade suit always acts as trump. That means any spade beats any club, diamond, or heart when the player cannot follow the suit that was led.
This page is the quick version for game night. If you want the full rules flow, go to rules of spades.
Standard ranking order
In a normal 52-card deck with no jokers, the order inside every suit is:
A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
That order applies to clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. The difference is that spades are always trump in the standard game.
Quick memory rule
When everyone follows suit, highest card in that suit wins. When a spade is played by someone who cannot follow suit, the highest spade wins.
How trump changes the trick
- If hearts are led and all four players follow hearts, the highest heart wins.
- If hearts are led and one player cannot follow hearts, that player may play a spade and trump the trick.
- If two players both trump with spades, the higher spade wins.
Remember that you usually cannot lead spades until they are broken, unless your table uses a special exception such as being down to only spades.
What changes when jokers are used
Some local games add jokers as the highest trump cards. A common version is:
- Big Joker
- Little Joker
- Ace of Spades
- King of Spades
- then the rest in normal order
That is not the universal standard. If your table uses jokers, say so before the first hand and decide exactly how they rank against the ace and king of spades.
Fast table summary
Standard game order
For most groups, the safest move is to play standard order with no jokers unless everyone already knows the local variation.