Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
This trick-taking game is a standard deck playing card game and takes on many different group-specific rules. Generally speaking, each player is given thirteen cards and a partner who sits across the table.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Read the full game description
This trick-taking game is a standard deck playing card game and takes on many different group-specific rules. Generally speaking, each player is given thirteen cards and a partner who sits across the table. Each player bids the number of tricks they'll take, and then the partners collectively attempt to take at least as many as they bid. The tricks are fairly standard with following suit if you can, and spades as the trump suit. If you make your bid you earn ten times the number of tricks you bid, otherwise you lose that many points. Plus there is usually a nil bid, which means you personally won't take any tricks but your partner still plays as normal. Call Break is a popular variation of Spades among card game players in South Asian countries. To win, players must score the maximum points in 5 rounds. Points equal the number of tricks bid in each hand. The player who wins that hand gains point, the loser loses the same amount of points.