Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a three part pancocojams series about the card game "Spades".
This pancocojams post presents selected comments from several online articles and from one YouTube video about how Black people play the card game "Spades".
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/09/how-african-americans-play-card-game.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. The title for that post is "How African Americans Play The Card Game Spades (article excerpts)."
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/09/anthony-spice-adams-unk-king-of-spades.html for Part III of this pancocojams series entitled "Anthony "Spice" Adams - "Unk: The King Of Spades" & "When An Oldhead Takes Control of a Spades Game" (YouTube videos & comments)."
The content of this post is presented for cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
SELECTED ONLINE COMMENTS ABOUT HOW AFRICAN AMERICANS PLAY THE CARD GAME SPADES
The articles that are referenced in this post are excerpted in Part I of this pancocojams series on the card game Spades.
Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
WARNING: The video that is referenced in this pancocojams post and the articles that are referenced in this post contain profanity and the word that is commonly referred to as "the n word". Those words in this pancocojams post are given with abbreviated spelling.
Discussion thread #1
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2472vPF0qU&ab_channel=CrankLucas "WHEN YOUR PARTNER CANT PLAY SPADES (2018)" by Crank Lucas, September 21, 2018
Summary statement: "HoodSportz presents SPADES
Here's an example of some of the things spades players deal
with when their partner is a below par player."
Comments:
2018
1. K
"I usually don't comment until after I've watched the video but please crank don't do this
Spades creates more problems than it solves
I love Spades I wish there was a rule that said only people who know how to play Spades are allowed to play
please don't give people a reason to try Spades out who don't know what the f*** they're doing
-snip-
This is the way this comment is written in that YouTube video's discussion thread.
2. Geo Mag
"Lol playing with a non spade player is very frustrating"
**
3. Just stuff
"Spades will break families apart lol"
4. Low Key
"
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.
**
5. Robby Ivy
"Never been a card player. I'm telling you I have seen guns,
knives, and cast iron skillets pulled
out.....When they break out the cards at the barbeque I'm out."
**
Reply
6. gary funderburk
"itsallaboutlove 24-7-365 That's why you check them at the
cook out before playing. Also no talking while playing. And last but not least.
Let someone who you know and neutral hold the cash. Cuz nobody wants problems
lol 👊😂"
**
Reply
7. Clayton Phillips, 2021
"😳😳😳
that's why i don't care for learning how to play because black people literally
take that game way to serious"
**
8. K3nny
"I only play spades when I'm locked up. Prison spades has a
lot of differences (at least where I've done time). There is no sandbagging
rule. They don't play deuces high or jokers. Spades don't have to be broken.
The minimum bet is board (4), so there is no nil. Most people don't do blind
bids for double points. The scoring system is different. Each counted book is 1
point and you play to 35. Talking across the table is automatic 3 book penalty
just like getting caught renegging. If you bid a wheel and get it, it is 20 points.
If you bid a Boston and get it, it is automatic win. Spades is one of the best
ways to pass time. We always played for hours on end. Sometimes we changed it
up and played dirty hearts for water or push-ups."
**
Reply
9. yung souichi
"I can already tell I'm too dumb for this game."
**
Reply
10. K3nny
"That's okay, so is 90% of the people who play it. Once you
find a good partner, you better stick with them.
Jokes aside, it really isn't a hard game to learn. Bad
players are just people who don't pay attention to what has been played already
or have a habit of cutting their partner."
**
Reply
11. yung souichi
"Well, hopefully I won't have to go to prison to learn. It
seems like dominoes was more prevalent where my father was (he's still locked
up), at least that's what we always played when we visited. I can still play
bones pretty well."
**
Reply
12. K3nny
" @yung souichi Dominoes is just as common as spades where I
was. I played sometimes, but preferred cards. What sucks is when they keep
slamming the hard plastic dominoes on the steel tables at 2am when people are
trying to sleep."
**
Reply
13. Israel Turner
"Everything you said is 100% correct. And we played for zoos
and water too"
**
Reply
14. gary funderburk
"K3nny Hell yeah bro. When i was locked up with ol dude i was
teamed with we knew each other game after two hands. Our record if i remember
correct was 58-5. Only reason we lost cuz of 10s we couldn't stop. Its about
the teamwork my dude."...
Reply
15. Cody Guthrie, 2021
"
**
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: This comment refers to the partner in the video comment when he forgot that the Joker was considered a spade according to the rules the players were using for that game.]
16. Paul Price
"The joker ain't a spade, it's homeless. That was funny"
Reply
17. KEITH MONTGOMERY
"
**
Reply
18. K
"Yes I have seen that happen but it is more common that the new player will renege by using a 2 of diamonds and say that's not a spade it's a diamond...😠"
**
19. Gifted Ent
"I don’t play spades with jokers... 👀"
**
20. Bobby Stallworth
"Real players take the jokers out"
**
21. The Grain
"Can't play baby spades bruh Ace high no
jokers no kitty"
**
Reply
22. Manny Stylz
"🤣🤣 So true. Amateurs
play joker joker deuce. Serious players Ace high only. And you BETTER not mess
up OR ELSE"
**
23. Quique
"I've never played Spades w/ Jokers. How
does that work? I mean their are 13 cards per person which make up a total of
52 but if you add 2 jokers wouldn't you have to take out 2 cards to make it
even? If so which? Pinochle on the other hand is a better & more complex
game."
**
Reply
24. Ceej hundo
"Quique u take out the 2 of hearts and
diamonds fam"
**
25. Daryl Carr, 2019
"Okay, first of all, texting your spades partner is the same
"violation" as actually talking to him/her across the table! I know
Crank had to do this for the video, but still..."
**
26. Eric Callahan, 2020
"you cant text during the game lol!"
****
Discussion Thread #2
From https://www.theroot.com/how-to-play-black-spades-part-1-1842460153 "How to Play Black Spades, Part 1" by Michael Harriot, 3/25/20
1. Dave replies to Michael Harriot [the article's author], 3/25/20 9:34am
'"I learned the High Art of Spades from the military. The
rules are much the same, probably due to the integration of the military and
white folks penchant for lifting cool things and calling it ours. I suspect the
biggest difference between the two forms is the number of fist fights that end
the games. (You play Spades for 12 hours straight and see if you don’t punch
your partner when they get you Set for the third time.)"
2. MrNails replies to Dave, 3/25/20 10:24am
"White dude here, and same. I learned from my black friends in the military, who had also proclaimed that spades is a game played in prisons and the military. I didn’t know so didn’t argue. 95% of the rules here applied to the game I played. Though to be perfectly honest, I prefer the Ace-high game. I don’t need all those trump cards!....
3. The Ghost of James Madison's Rage Boner reply to Dave,
"Same. I played so much godd---ned* Spades in the Navy. Navy
Spades, because the enlisted ranks are often minority-majority, is a weird
hybrid of Black and White Spades. We usually played Ace High because people
were always losing the jokers or playing with decks where someone who’d used
them for other games had thrown the jokers out, but the sh-t*-talking was
endless and intense and most of the reason we played. But no liquor, obviously.
-snip-
This word is fully spelled out in this comment.
4. Non Sleeping Giant reply to Michael Harriot, 3/25/20 10:44am
"After having a decidedly non-black education up to that point, I decided to go to an HBCU out of high school. I had to rethink everything about the black experience once I got my first cussing out by my spade partner for dropping a book. I remember that loud proclamation of my deficiencies more vividly than the time I ran a Boston."
-snip-
HBCU = Historically Black Colleges And Universities
**
5. John Hascall reply to Michael Harriot, 3/25/20 10:58am
"Excuse my dumbassitude, but having only ever played Ace High, how the F do you play with the Jokers -- I have to assume you toss out two other cards -- which ones?
6. Dragonflyness reply to
"Usually the red 2's."
**
7. HoustonDude2016 reply to Michael Harriot, 3/25/20 11:12am
"I found a great spades partner. With other partners, we were OK, but together, we could practically read each other’s mind.
My wife hated him.
I’m going to miss her."
8. Mimi reply to Michael Harriot,
"I’ve been playing spades since about 6 or 7 years old and
have never ended a game because someone had a bad hand (no trump, spades, etc.)
or because someone had a “run” (we didn’t call it a Boston - I’m guessing
that’s an East coast thing). If you had no trumps you had to play smart, hope
your partner had something better and try to set your opponents. If you lost,
you just take the next. Gotta play with the hand you’re dealt."
**
9. HuskyBro reply to Michael Harriot, 3/25/20 3:28pm
"running a Boston
10. Blaquestarr reply to Michael Harriot,
"Thank you for this. I need to have my partner read these
tutorials, because he refuses to let me teach him or play with me. He also
leaves the room whenever I’m hanging with his college friends and I break out a
deck of cards to play. They all went to a PWI, so they are scared to play
spades with me... which means I’m doing it right.
I grew up in a religious household and wasn’t allowed to own
any cards that weren’t skip or Uno because playing cards mean gambling.
However, I learned still learned how to play spades at church. They taught me
how to do score so they wouldn’t have to do it. After a couple of years of
being the numbers girl, they eventually let me on the table. I became a spades
player in college where I learned that every region has different house rules
and found my trash-talking art. I always had a razor tongue and wit, but there
are some words you can’t use in the sanctuary (or at a church picnic). My HBCU
spades experience refined my playing style til now, these youngins can’t even
come to the table. *sigh* I want a real game of spades soooo bad...."
-snip-
PWI= Predominately White Institution [university/college]
****
Discussion Thread #3
From https://www.theroot.com/how-to-play-black-spades-part-2-the-glossary-1842513840 "How to Play Black Spades, Part 2: The Glossary" by Michael Harriot, 3/26/20
1. DarkSabreX to Michael Harriot, 3/26/20 4:41pm
"Why is there no mention of “Running a yard”? I logged my
Spades time in Chicago, and ain’t nobody there calling it a Boston. I get 10+
books, I just ran a yard on that ass."
-snip-
Here's the definition that Michael Harriot gave for "Boston" in that article:
"Boston: When one team wins all 13 books.
A Boston is significant because it means a team won every possible book in the hand. It requires a great hand, remarkable skill and flawless execution. As we discussed earlier, some house rules dictate that a team that bids and makes a Boston automatically wins the game."
**
2. BedandBreakfastMan reply to Michael Harriot, 3/26/20 7:10pm
"Man, this brings back memories. Horrible, horrible memories.
I remember going out to a bar as a “youngster” (translation - anyone in their
twenties to a black person 40 or older) and while there was drinking and
dancing going on in the bar, there was also a table in the corner where there
was ALWAYS a spades game going on. Me and my equally drunk friend not only made
the mistake of calling “next” but got our collective asses so thoroughly kicked
that we had to leave the bar. Have you ever had your sh-t* handed to you
by a 60 year old woman who not only beat you but talked sh-t* about you
while she did it? I DID!"
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.
**
3. Enkidu reply to Michael Harriot, 3/26/20 8:38pm
" “In white spades, books are called “tricks.” No one knows why, but I suspect they find it hard to believe that black people can make books. They probably thought it was a trick.” *
Back from when I was but a wee whiteling I can remember my parents playing spades with friends, and books vs. tricks was an issue. Now I understand that they must have been playing by white rules and tricks at our house and black rules and books at the Garrets’ house."
-snip-
*This is a quote from Nichael Harriot's article.
****
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