The player with the best hand gets half of the pot. The other half of the pot goes to the player who has the highest spade card face-down. If a player has the King of Spades, but it was dealt to that player face-up, that does not count...it must have been dealt face-down. The Ace of Spades is obviously the nut Spade unless previously dealt face-up, and any player who is dealt the Ace face-down knows that they will automatically receive half the pot.

When the game ends, it might end up being the 6 of Spades that is the highest spade dealt face-down, for example, and that player would get half the pot for it.

Variations:

- Some people play this game where players must call their hands either "best hand" or "high spade" before everybody shows their hand. By calling your hand, you are indicating which of the two you are going for. In other words, if you call "best hand" but end up having the highest spade face-down, you do not get half of the pot for that spade, because "high spade" is not what you were going for. After everybody has called their hand, those who called "best hand" compare hands to determine who wins half of the pot among them, while the players who called "high spade" compare their highest spade card face-down for the other half of the pot.

- Low Chicago: The exact same rules apply except in this game, the pot is split between the player with the best hand and the player who has the LOWEST spade card face-down. The dealer who calls this game needs to specify whether or not the Ace of Spades will be counted as the lowest spade card, or whether it is the Two of Spades. This is a discrepancy because the Ace is typically considered the highest card of the suit, but nevertheless, it can be used to make a straight from Ace to five and is therefore, a low card. When I call Low Chicago, I call the Ace of Spades as the lowest possible spade card and not the two.

- Black Mariah: This term is used to describe a hand that is not only the best hand at the table but is also the hand that was dealt the highest spade card face-down. That player would thus win the entire pot. When the game Black Mariah is called, it is a game that only ends when a single player has the best hand at the table AND is dealt the highest spade card face-down. If the best hand and highest spade are in two different hands, then everybody re-antes, and the game is redealt by the player to the left of the dealer, and replayed. This continues until a single player has the best hand and highest spade face-down. One of the only ways that this game can be ended is by continually betting the maximum bet after being dealt the Ace of Spades (or a high enough Spade), bluffing the other players out of the hand. You may not have the best hand at the table, but players who do not continue to see bets are out of the game. When only one player is left in the game, the game is obviously over, assuming that one player has at least one spade card face-down.

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