Spades is a card game similar to Bridge, except that in this game, Spades is always the trump suit and each player gets only 1 chance to bid.
There are many ways to play Spades. CardShark Spades uses the rules and playing options which minimize luck factors and maximize the test of the cardplayer's skill.
Spades can be played with two pairs of partners or "cutthroat", where each player is on their own. The cutthroat variety can be played with any number of players, but four players is the ideal number.
The preferable form for a computer Spades game is Cutthroat, since in Partners, your results are not based on your own skill versus the computer, but on your skill aided or detracted from (depending on the quality of the program) by a computer partner.
CS-Spades plays four-handed cutthroat. You play one hand and the computer plays the other three hands individually. "Individually" means that the computer does not "cheat" -- it does not look into other hands or play any differently against the human opponent than it does against the other computer hands.
In fact, there is an External Deal option which will allow you to use CS-Spades to play one hand against three other human or computer opponents. In this mode, you only tell The CardShark what cards are dealt to him, what the others bid, and what they play for each trick.
The goal in Spades is to bid as many tricks as you think you can take without going over that number. At the end of the hand, you get 10 points for every trick bid and made and only 1 point for every trick that you made but didn't bid.
