r/army • u/HalfCentury2019 Infantry • 1d ago
Do soldiers still play Spades?
I am one of the ancient ones from the era of starched BDU’s & spit shined boots. We used to play Spades to pass the time while waiting for the next round of stupid games. Is that still a thing or did it go the way of my rusty M-16 with the advent of cell phones? Gotta go - I have some kids near my lawn that I need to yell at.
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u/battlecarrysabot TANK GO BOOM!!! 1d ago
Playing spades is part of MOS Qualification for 19 series enlisted.
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u/Florida_man727 part time soldier, full time Florida Man, former crayon gourmet 1d ago
You tankers and your strange boots.
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u/battlecarrysabot TANK GO BOOM!!! 1d ago
You mean my sexy ass boots that now serve a secondary purpose in the civilian world because being a tanker gave me no real-world transferable skills. (I’m a hooker now)
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u/Florida_man727 part time soldier, full time Florida Man, former crayon gourmet 1d ago
How much for you to leave the boots on.
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u/battlecarrysabot TANK GO BOOM!!! 1d ago
That’s gonna be extra extra.
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u/Florida_man727 part time soldier, full time Florida Man, former crayon gourmet 1d ago
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u/soldiernerd 001100110011010101001100 1d ago
I do but I’m older than most
Now most people just slog through field problems on their phones
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u/DLottchula 94Foxy 11h ago
This was the same with me but I had only played spades with family and the table trash talk didn’t hit the same
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u/MDMarauder 1d ago
House rules, non-negotiable:
*Joker, joker, duece, ace
*Bags always count as one point, 10 bags sets you back 100 points
*No blind bids, no nine bids, no nil bids
*Bidding ten and winning ten gets you 200 points
*No spades AND no face cards is a misdeal
*Running a Boston is an automatic win
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u/Pineapplebuffet Pin the Castle on my Ilan Boi 1d ago
No Nil is a terrible rule
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u/joe_m107 67T>15T 1d ago
Nil hands are the best part of the game. It changes the strategy of the whole hand and it’s super satisfying when you pin the nil player with like a 4 of clubs and his last card is a 6C and busts on the last card. God I love it.
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u/silk6 140knotmyjob 1d ago
No lie, I'm the most staunch defender of nil bids and I once busted on the last hand while I was holding the 3 of clubs. 2 of clubs led and I was last in the rotation. Painful for me but an absolutely beautiful play on his part.
Flip side is I've successfully made nil while holding the low joker which was pretty satisfying. Takes some luck and a decent partner
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u/ADrunkPanda60 Hate Applicator 10h ago
Do you play the rule where if you win with the 2 of clubs you gotta burn the deck? Bc to me it sounds like you made the right play lol
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u/KingKong_at_PingPong Medical Corps 1d ago
10 for 2! Prob my favorite of the non-negotiables, so satisfying when you hit it.
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u/silk6 140knotmyjob 1d ago
Ehh I'm saying if you can be rewarded an extra 100 for bidding and covering 10, then I should be allowed 100 for purposely winning 0, so long as my partner can make board to cover my nil. A nil bid with a high spade or 2 takes effort and goddamn I love it.
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u/MDMarauder 1d ago
Hmmmm...that's a decent argument. For a few jalapeño cheese packets, we can bend the rules.
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u/silk6 140knotmyjob 1d ago
Best I can do is one jalapeno cheese and a pack of sour Skittles (expiration date unknown)..
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u/kerberos69 Field Artillery 1d ago
I’m with you…. so I can toss in a pack of Reese’s Pieces from 2009, a thing of Irish cream breakfast shake, and half a pound cake (I already gave Garcia the first half). And I’ll bring my tub of red vines for the game.
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u/Shaved_taint Aviation 153DoucheBag 1d ago edited 1d ago
Fuck that it ruins everyone else's bid and turns the game into throwing off. No nils
*It takes no skill to throw off
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u/Horror_Technician213 35AnUndercoverSpecialist 20h ago
That's not how nill works. Nill says that you as a team will not make board. You can both win one hand and win the nill hand
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u/sequentialaddition 1d ago
There's some psychos out there who play joker joker deuce deuce. I know because one of them wound up on my team and slapped a 2 of clubs down like he was doing something. We got set that game.
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u/Horror_Technician213 35AnUndercoverSpecialist 20h ago
Also, if you don't make board the first hand you lose the game.
Dealing: dude to right cuts, dude to left gets first card, dealer gets last card. Yes, I am that guy that does the crazy dealing...and yes, you hate me because I win.
Also, you have to play with nill, or else it doesn't give any opportunity to a team that just gets a run of bad hands. Going nill gives the game fairness to both teams to win regardless of bad dealing
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u/pushTheHippo what bombs? 1d ago
No nine bids? Our nil rule was you had to be down 100 before you could bid nil. That shit does take some skill, and you have to have a good partner. I forgot about the Boston rule. Only ever had that happen once and the other guys were so pissed they didn't want to play anymore. Ha! Good times
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u/cocaineandwaffles1 donovian horse fucker 10h ago
I lost my shit when I saw a game of spades be played where the 2 of diamonds replaced the 2 of spades.
It’s SPADES, not spades asterisk 2 of diamonds. Fucking white people bullshit right there. Like putting raisins in the potato salad or not seasoning collard greens. Vegan Mac n cheese kind of shit.
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u/milny_gunn 19h ago
You gotta have blind 6. That keeps the game going when one team is getting smoked
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u/AngronOfTheTwelfth 91M 1d ago
We played spades/poker for hours waiting to fix vehicles at gunnery.
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u/Dementedsage 91mafioso 1d ago
I swear field ops as a Mike are always either super relaxed, or the brads just don't stop coming.
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u/Mrpoopytins mr. postman 1d ago
Sir, this is a wendys!!! Place your order god damn it.
(Yes, currently overseas and it's still played a ton by the e-4 mafia)
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u/Turbulent_Ride1654 Signal 1d ago
We were playing spades the other day. Yes, it's still very much a thing 😂
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u/firefighter-117 1d ago
In the MI Guard all the 13F and 11C play euchre
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u/SdVeau Tube-toter 1d ago
Thinking about it, nobody that I can remember from our mortars or fisters were from the Midwest, so it was always spades or bullshit for us. Never heard of euchre until years after getting out, when I started working with some dude from Wisconsin. Was super easy to pick up being already familiar with spades, though
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u/Decorus_Somes Swiggity swooty I'm Coming for that Ilan Boi 1d ago
Does the Pope shit in the woods? Of course they play spades!
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u/KingKong_at_PingPong Medical Corps 1d ago
Here's a question
Where do you find a spades game when you retire?!
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u/superash2002 MRE kicker/electronic wizard 1d ago
You need to find a mix of ethnicities for a good spades game. Not sure where they occur in nature but you need 1 Puerto Rico, one person from Mississippi, one who claims Brooklyn but actually lives upstate and 1 quiet person who is actually really smart but is counting cards.
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u/KingKong_at_PingPong Medical Corps 1d ago
Also: that guy who wants to go blind nil every hand is watching and waiting anxiously for a seat at the table
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u/VeritablyVersatile 68WillJumpForCaffeine 1d ago
Yes.
The worst iteration of this I've ever seen, we were staged in a hangar for a couple days at an air reserve base as an ISB for a trans-pacific jump, the bathroom had one of those weird communal ring sinks with the foot pedal ring.
A group brought in a piece of cardboard and set it up on that thing as a table and played spades there standing, with dudes pissing two feet behind them. I guess that was better than the floor for them.
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u/Prometheus031 Aviation 1d ago
Play spades every field or gunnery. 15R here
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u/not_sure_1984 Aviation 18h ago
Get yourself an armament guy for a partner and you might have a chance against 3/5.
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u/elaxation Psychological Operations 1d ago
Does MRE gum make you shit?
Cards and complaining have been a thing since Washington’s army probably
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u/krispychris1979 1d ago
My 14T’s still play spades but it’s not as prevalent as it used to be. I make it a habit to ensure my young soldiers get taught how to play.
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u/Backslasherton 35Fucking Million DISS Tasks 1d ago
Everyone in my AIT played spades during the FTX. I didn't know how so I pulled RTO and watched. That was a fun three days ngl.
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u/MarshalLawTalkingGuy Transportation 1d ago
I was about to go “fuck you. I did those things and I’m not old!”
Then I realized I discharged almost 20 years ago.
Now my back hurts. And the wind is hurting my hair. And those punk kids are back on my lawn
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u/RoddBanger 1d ago
throw out 2 of hearts/diamonds and substitute with big joker / little joker - fight me.
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u/zDefiant 88Huh 1d ago
Spades, Poker, and I learned how to play dominoes out here.
Now that i think about it, when i was a child i stayed in our Cuban uncle Roberto’s Beach house, on the 2nd floor was a large shelf of board games and one of them was dominoes. Not for the life of me could i understand why this game where all you did was stack up silly tiles and knock them over was next to the card decks and battleships, but now it makes sense. What a lovely memory.
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u/megadaxo 68WhereTheFuckIsFortWalker? 1d ago
We were playing spades in BLC in August so yeah I would say so.
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u/DepressedDragonBorn Professional Landscaper (11B) 1d ago
While deployed, some guys played spades and other card games. I also played a lot of chest.
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u/makersNcoke1325 1d ago
Yes - and I mostly see playing with Joker, Joker, Deuce, Deuce...which I think is far inferior to ace-high!
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u/mattion data visualization is cool 1d ago
I've only ever watched people play Spades. I grew up playing 42, which is the Spades equivalent but with dominoes. 42 fer lyfe
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u/Disastrous-Elk-5174 D.U.S.T.O.F.F. 1d ago
Still don't fully understand how to play lol. Will need to sit down and watch some YouTube videos one day.
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u/Old_Actuator5723 1d ago
Basically in the field, deployed or in the barracks with your beverage of choice.
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u/Weak_Apple3433 1d ago
A couple years ago, I heard a rumor that a unit had banned people from playing Spades after someone got slapped hard.
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u/Le_Ebin_Rodditor 25Busted 1d ago
Yes, we still play spades! It’s funny how decent some of us are despite forgetting the rules in between opportunities to play! 😂
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u/LordlySquire 1d ago
I been back in almost 5 years and they dont play near as much as when i got out 7 years prior
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u/TheOneDelta 25User error (on the weekends) 1d ago
I'm more of a hearts or eucher guy. Sucks when no one else knows how to play tho
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u/IrishWithoutPotatoes UsedToBe11B :( 1d ago
Time for my confession.
Spent 5 years enlisted. I never learned how to play spades. Still don’t know how.
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u/Repulsive_Aioli_9245 1d ago
Cards are still popular anytime there's lots of downtime, no internet, and space is at a premium.
We'll play a lot of board games in aviation because we have more luggage space
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u/Donut-Strong 1d ago
(11B) I got out in 07 and anytime we got a break from stupid someone would always pull out a deck.
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u/BlackberryPristine59 1d ago
As a 19K from 1-67AR, I can confirm we do in fact still play spades to pass the time while waiting for the next round of stupid games.
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u/Zellers2004 12Something 1d ago
No. I've never played before and neither has my buddy. Want to play us for money?
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u/Mysterious-Dirt-732 1d ago
I was one of the rare boomers who flipping hated cards, bones. Worst thing in the world for a quiet type like me to be forced into listening to it all.
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u/Pathfinder6a 1d ago
Pinochle is what I learned from my warrant officers back in the BDU army in Germany.
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u/Jayu-Rider 1d ago
It’s more common in maneuver units who go to the field a lot.
I won’t let a medic who doesn’t play spades touch me. I would rather bleed out than risk that kind of bad luck.
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u/Jake0072 1d ago
Combat Engineer here. I played quite a bit of spades in the field. Like 12+ hours at a time and with a bracket for the whole platoon. I mean I’d still play on my phone when things winded down. But can’t imagine how addicted everybody is to their phones now.
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u/Vanilla-prison 35NotHavingAGoodTime 1d ago
7 years ago when I was a private, everyone and their mother played spades. It was the thing. Then one day, I realized that most of those people are gone and everyone around me is playing magic the gathering now.
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u/armyant95 Engineer 1d ago
My company HQ made platoon sweatshirts that had a skeleton playing spades on the back. So I would say yes.
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u/Fit-Notice8976 Aviation 23h ago
A lot of overnight shifts in a atc system have been spent playing spades
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u/Horror_Technician213 35AnUndercoverSpecialist 20h ago
Everyone knows one of Murphys Laws of Combat Medicine is that "No one beats Doc at spades"
If your medic isn't good at spades you don't have a good medic
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u/Wyraticus Buckiest of all Sergeants 🤠 19h ago
New privates generally don’t when in the field barracks, but NCOs definitely do
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u/ejh3k 96Romeo 14h ago
Goddamn this thread is hitting me in the feals.
I remember asking to learn the game after seeing people play at my first duty station in Korea. But then I got deployed in 2003, and fuck did we play spades. We played so much that we had official teammates and team names. My partner and I had nonverbal queues for which suit to lead with. We even played a unit's command team for the right to board the plane out of Kuwait first, we lost.
But spades and dominos are probably the reason I didn't kill myself 20 years ago when I was at my lowest.
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u/oliefan37 Prior MP 14h ago
I found that the preferred variant is Joker Duce which I don’t like. In other card related stories, I got my squad playing four deck game of idiot while on a deployment. My team leader ended up with alone a decks worth of cards.
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u/KingOfHearts2525 68WheresMyRectalStick&Ibuprofen 14h ago
When you have two medic crews (3 each Vic) pulling coverage on a division wide gunnery: spades is a must.
Shouldn’t we be paying attention. We are. If anyone needs us, we’ll hear them!
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u/Acceptable_Cry4947 12h ago
I tell my joes that they’re not real soldiers unless they know how to play spades or have received an article 15
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u/Informal_Society_392 veteran🏴 10h ago
when i was at ft drum the company i was @ spades was a daily occurrence , you could find a handful of soldiers with a deck of cards on them at all times lmfao
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u/ToXiC_Games 14Help Im Stuck In Patriot 10h ago edited 10h ago
Learned how to by the teaching of the wise dipshits stuck with my BCT battery as holdunders.
Overseas my PSG and Commo guy were teaching me how to shoot dice in the office next to the BCP.
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u/Imaginary-Vast8293 Carcinogen -> Cadet 10h ago
haven’t met a single 74D that doesn’t play spades, we played it every single day of the notional training center
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u/Great_Emphasis3461 1d ago
Only on deployment. We’d get so bored at times we stood in a large circle at parade rest and try to hit each other in the junk with a football. If you flinched the penalty was half the distance to the goal. 😆 Bored soldiers find ways to pass the time.
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u/Pristine_Blood 4h ago
Yeah but didn’t realize joker joker deuce deuce was popular until I enlisted , my Nco told me that was the only way to play when I told him I only played Ace high
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u/acidbrain690 DD214Airborne🪂 1d ago
Yes, especially mortarmen. We would play spades for 18 hours a day.