Dr. Eva Dodd-Walker Strategic Management Page 1 of 2 SPADES1 SPADES is an acronym—Strategic Principles Application and Development Educational Supplement; the SPADES exercise uses the card game Spades to illustrate strategic principles. (Please see Appendix A for the game’s instructions taken both from Wikipedia.com and personal memory of the game as played as a youth.) The SPADES exercise consists of playing the Spades card game and answering a set of questions designed to review the fundamental concepts of strategy. APPENDIX A1 Rules for Spades Card Game (Author and Wikipedia.com) 1. The game requires four players; the four players form two teams. 2. The following rank order applies from high to low in a suit: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. 3. Determine the first player to deal the cards. The player to the left of the dealer starts the game or plays the first card. 4. The first or lead player determines the suit—Diamonds, Hearts, or Clubs—for the round. 5. The Spade cards are used to “cut” any suit when a player does not have a suit card (e.g., player 1= King Hearts, player 2= 10 Hearts, player 3= 5 Hearts, player 4= 2 Spades. The player with the 2 Spades wins the round and collects the cards played as a “book”). 6. If a player “cuts” one round (indicating that s/he does not have a suit card) but plays one of the suit cards in a later round, her/his team forfeits two “books” to the competing team as a penalty! 7. At the beginning of the game, the 2 of Hearts and 2 of Diamonds are removed (i.e., they are not used in the game). Removal of these two cards means that thirteen “books” are available each round because there are 52 cards in a deck, excluding the 2 Jokers. The Jokers are considered the top trump cards. That is, they are in the Spades family or suit. One Joker is high (e.g. the black Joker), and one Joker is low (e.g., the red Joker). 8. At the beginning of the game, all cards (excluding the red 2’s) are dealt to the players. 9. Scoring: a. After each player views her/his cards, s/he indicates the number of books s/he believes that s/he can make or win to her/his partner, and the total is written down on the score pad. For example, player 1 says “I have 3 books” and player 3 says “I have 2 books,” so 1 Dodd-Walker, E. (2011). Teaching strategy with SPADES: The strategic principles application and development educational supplement game. Journal of Business and Training Education, 20, 1-11. Dr. Eva Dodd-Walker Strategic Management Page 2 of 2 they bid 5 books collectively! Player 2 says “I have 3 books” and player 4 says “I have 3 books,” so they bid 6 books collectively! Note that 2 books have not been accounted for. b. Books are estimated by the number of winning or high cards in a player’s hand. For example, if a player has “Ace-King-Queen” in one suit, it can be estimated that s/he can win 3 books! If a player has no suit cards—Diamond, Hearts, or Clubs—it can be estimated that s/he can win 2 books because of “cuts” with Spade Cards! c. If a team bids a certain number of books (e.g., 8) but wins fewer books (e.g., 6), a negative count (-80) is added to the team’s score because each book is worth 10 points. However, if this team had won 9 books, 80 plus the additional book (81) would have been added to the team’s score. Note that books won over the bid amount are worth fewer points. d. Two special plays are possible: (1) If a team bids 10 books and makes it, the team receives double the score or 200. If the team wins 11 books, the team receives the 200 plus the additional book or 201. If the team is “set” and does not make the bid (e.g., 8 books only), a score of -100 is added to the team’s score. (2) A team can blindly bid 7 without looking at their cards. If they make the “books”, they receive a score of 140. If not, -70 is added to the team’s score. e. The first team to reach 300 points wins! (The winning team may also be determined by the highest score of a preset number of hands or rounds. A one hour class will usually accommodate a 300 point game or 5 rounds.) SPADES ASSIGNMENT 1. READ: Teaching Strategy with SPADES 2. PLAY: The Spades card game 3. WRITE ONE-PAGE ESSAY: What did you learn from this exercise? 1 Dodd-Walker, E. (2011). Teaching strategy with SPADES: The strategic principles application and development educational supplement game. Journal of Business and Training Education, 20, 1-11.
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