Harvard Students Deal A Winning Hand With Spades Clinic, Uniting The Ivy League In Card Game Fun

The informative packet details everything from taking score to trash-talking.

Two Harvard University students are in the spirit of giving back by introducing a classic card game to their classmates. Hosting a spades clinic, the scholars broke down the holiday favorite so that the Ivy League can join the fun.

The presentation was led by Alliyah Gary and Chelsea Grain Jefferson, two Black women studying at Harvard Business School, as they hosted the interactive session to give their cohort lessons on how to win the competitive game. With printouts teaching students the basics, including how to take score and bidding, to more cultural elements associated with the game, including some words for trash talk, the game broke color boundaries as students of all backgrounds took part in the practice.

The card-dealing duo showcased the event in a shared post to Instagram.

“This holiday season, we hosted a spade clinic in the spirit of giving back,” shared the women in academia. The special packet, labeled “Spades Clinic: Culture 101,” detailed all the rules and regulations of the game, as made public by Medium.

In the article, the authors explained their journey to creating the printouts, stating that they wanted to encourage others in their community to play. However, they understood that a lack of knowledge on how to engage resulted in hesitation. Thus, the spades clinic was formed.

“Inconveniently, it was actually hard to find materials to use to teach the clinic, so in typical Harvard fashion, we made our own,” stated Gary and Grain Jefferson. “We also passed out an article about its history/significance and put some key rules up on a slide so people could reference them as they played.”

In the information packet’s glossary, spades vocabulary such as “cut,” meaning when one places a spade down to win over another suit, as well as “renege,” when one places another card down despite having a card that matches the suit at play, were listed. Including all the nuances of gameplay, including when and when not to speak to one’s partner, the printout is a comprehensive list of all one needs to get started.

According to The New York Times, spades has been traced back to Cincinnati in the late 1930s, and has become a staple in Black households during family and friend gatherings. Depicted in beloved Black films such as The Best Man series, to more recent movies like The Blackening, the card game is a pillar of African-American culture that has been passed down for generations. With these detailed directions now available to teach any player the tricks, spades is getting a new level of legitimacy, right in time for the holidays.