Why trick-taking games stick
If Spades is your game, you like partnerships, bidding, and the thrill of taking exactly the tricks you promised. Plenty of other card games share that DNA. Here are the best ones to try next.
All of these are trick-taking games. In each one, players take turns playing a card, everyone must follow the suit that was led if they can, and the best card wins the trick. What changes from game to game is how trump is chosen, what you bid on, and how points are scored. Those small differences give each game a very different personality, which is why Spades fans often end up with two or three favorites rather than one.
Pitch (also called Setback or High Low Jack)
Pitch is a partnership trick-taking game where players bid on points rather than tricks: High, Low, Jack, and Game. The winning bidder chooses trump with the first card they lead, so trump changes every hand. Hands are only six cards, so a full game takes about fifteen minutes.
For a Spades player, the biggest adjustment is that not every trick matters equally. Winning the trick with the jack of trump, or the trick with two tens in it, can be worth far more than winning three empty tricks. Bids run from 2 to 4, and a team that falls short loses the amount it bid, so the push and pull between bidding high and playing safe will feel very familiar.
Pitch goes by many names depending on the region, including Setback, High Low Jack, and Auction Pitch, and a close relative called Smear adds its own twists. If someone at your table grew up with one of those names, they already know most of the game.
Euchre
Euchre uses a short 24-card deck, and the two jacks of the trump color become the top trumps. Teams try to win at least three of five tricks. It's fast, social, and hugely popular in the Midwest.
Instead of bidding numbers, players decide whether to accept the card turned up as trump or to name a different suit. The team that calls trump must win at least three tricks or the other side scores. Winning all five tricks earns a bonus, and a player can even choose to go alone without a partner for a bigger reward, which is a nice echo of bidding nil in Spades.
Hearts
Hearts flips the goal: you want to avoid taking hearts and the queen of spades. There's no bidding and no partnership, but the card counting and ducking will feel familiar.
The twist that keeps Hearts interesting is shooting the moon. If one player takes every heart and the queen of spades, the penalty goes to everyone else instead. Hearts is a great choice when you have exactly four players who prefer to play for themselves, and it sharpens the same skill of tracking which cards have already been played.
Contract Bridge
Bridge is the deepest partnership trick-taking game, with an elaborate bidding system. It takes longer to learn, but if you love the bidding in Spades, Bridge is the summit.
In Bridge, the auction decides both the trump suit and the number of tricks the declaring side must take, and the declarer plays both their own hand and their partner's, which is laid face up on the table. The depth is enormous, but so is the learning curve. Many players get there by way of simpler games like Spades and Pitch first.
Oh Hell
Oh Hell, also called Up and Down the River, has every player bid the exact number of tricks they'll take, with hand sizes changing each round. It's the closest cousin to Spades bidding without partnerships.
Most versions reward hitting your bid exactly and give nothing, or a penalty, for missing by even one trick. Because the total of all bids is often not allowed to equal the number of tricks available, at least one player is always going to miss, which makes the late rounds especially tense. It plays well with three to seven people.
How do these games compare to Spades?
Here is a quick comparison in plain words. Spades and Bridge have you bid on a number of tricks, Pitch has you bid on points, Euchre has you choose trump and commit to a majority of tricks, Oh Hell asks for an exact trick count, and Hearts has no bidding at all.
On trump, Spades always uses spades, Hearts has no trump, and Pitch, Euchre, Bridge, and Oh Hell all let trump change from hand to hand. On length, Euchre and Pitch are the quickest, often fifteen to twenty minutes a game, while Spades and Hearts take a bit longer and Bridge can fill an evening.
Which game should a Spades player try first?
If you love the partnership and bidding of Spades, start with Pitch or Euchre. If you love the card counting and the danger of being stuck with the wrong card, try Hearts. If the bidding is your favorite part and you want something with years of depth, Bridge is the natural next step. And if you like Spades for its nil bids and exact counts, Oh Hell will feel right at home.
Group size matters too. Spades, Euchre, Bridge, and Hearts are at their best with exactly four players. Oh Hell handles odd numbers comfortably, and Pitch works with anywhere from two players up to teams at a table of eight. If your game night never has the same headcount twice, a flexible game like Pitch saves you from sitting anyone out or switching games halfway through the evening.
Tips for Spades players switching to Pitch
Spades habits mostly carry over to Pitch, but a few need adjusting. First, stop counting tricks and start counting points. A hand where your team wins only two tricks can still score three points if those tricks held the ace of trump, the jack, and most of the tens. Second, remember that you pick trump in Pitch. If you win the bid, lead from the suit where you hold the ace or king, since that card will usually take High.
Third, value tens far more than you would in Spades. Tens are worth 10 toward the Game point, more than an ace, king, and queen combined. When your partner is winning a trick, slide your tens onto it. Finally, be careful with your opening bid. In Pitch, a bid of 2 is the normal starting point, and stretching to 4 means promising every point in the hand.
Where to start
Pitch is the quickest of these to pick up and the fastest to play, which makes it ideal online. pitch.ac lets you play solo against AI players, host a private table with a 4-letter code, or join live matchmaking for free.
There is no download or sign-up needed, just a name. Tables run from 2 to 8 players, games can go to 7, 11, or 21 points, and familiar house rules like stick-the-dealer can be switched on before the first deal. If you get competitive, free Showdown tournaments run every Wednesday and Sunday evening.