When playing Spades, what do you do if you catch the other team throwing a spade too soon?

Question

Obviously this would be with a real deck, not the computer version. One of the players was caught breaking spades when they still had more of the suit thrown (hearts), because he threw a low heart down on the next hand. We nixed the whole round and redealt because we couldn't come up with a solution that pleased everyone. Is there an official rule for this?

Answer 1

Greetings...

The action you are describing is called a renig.

If the renig is caught before the trick was turned (closed), then the player may return the incorrectly played card to his hand (and all subsequent players also do the same) and make a replay.

If the renig is caught after the trick is turned, then what happens depends on which set of rules (or house rules) you are playing.

The common house rule is that the renig book is forfeited (and taken by the offended players) as well as a two book penalty (total penalty is three books).

Most tournaments would issue a game loss for a renig.

Until that time...