Bid in the auction, pick up the kitty, and make your contract. Solitaire Arcade supports Australian and American 500; choose rules on the setup screen.
Read the full How to Play 500 guide. Also see Australian 500 vs American 500, How to Play Spades, and How to Play Hearts.
Reach 500 points before the other team. Each hand turns on a contract: how many tricks the bidder’s team must win, and which suit is trump. Make it and you score the bid value; fail and you lose that value. Defenders score 10 per trick. Whether those points alone can finish the game depends on the ruleset.
Choose Australian or American rules before difficulty. Australian uses a continuing auction until three pass, treats six-level bids as real contracts, labels Misère / Open Misère, and usually requires a won bid to finish at 500 (defender points cap at 490). American uses one round of bidding, allows 6-level inkles from the first two seats, labels Nullo / Open Nullo, and lets defenders reach 500 on trick points. Shared core: 43-card deck, bowers, kitty, Avondale scoring, play to ±500.
The winning bidder leads. Play moves clockwise. Follow the suit led if you can. Highest trump wins; otherwise highest of the led suit. Ten tricks per hand.
Contract values follow the Avondale table (6 Spades 40 through 10 No-Trump 520). Made contracts score their value; failed contracts lose it. Defenders score 10 per trick. Misère/Nullo is 250; Open Misère/Open Nullo is 500.
Learn how 500 scoring works: the contract table, failed bids, defender points, Misère, and the race to 500 or down to -500.
In 500, a Jack can change suits. Learn trump ranking from the Joker down, how the right and left bower work, and why the left bower counts as trump.
Misère flips 500 upside down: the bidder tries to take no tricks. Learn how Misère and Open Misère work, what makes a safe hand, and how to defend.
Learn how to bid in 500: count likely tricks, value bowers and trump, use the kitty as an upgrade, know when to pass, and choose a contract you can actually make.
