Whist

Whist

Whist is a classic 4-player partnership trick-taking game played with a standard 52-card deck. It is the direct ancestor of Bridge — Bridge added bidding and a dummy hand to Whist’s core structure. Whist dominated European and North American card culture from approximately 1750 to 1900, documented in Edmond Hoyle’s 1742 A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist.

Teams

Four players in two partnerships: North/South vs East/West. Partners sit opposite each other.

The Deal

The entire deck is dealt clockwise, one card at a time, to all four players (13 cards each). The last card dealt — given to the dealer — is turned face-up to establish the trump suit, then taken into the dealer’s hand. Trumps beat all non-trump cards.

The Play

The player to the dealer’s left leads any card. Each player must follow suit if possible. If unable to follow suit, a player may play any card (including a trump). The highest card of the led suit wins the trick unless a trump was played — the highest trump wins. The winner of each trick leads the next.

Scoring

A book is the first 6 tricks won by a partnership. Points are scored only for tricks above the book:

• Each trick above 6 = 1 point
• Maximum: 7 points per hand (all 13 tricks)

Honors (optional): The four highest trumps (Ace, King, Queen, Jack) are honors. A partnership holding 3 of the 4 honors scores 2 points; holding all 4 scores 4 points (in some rules, 2 points). Honor scoring must be agreed before the game.

Game and Rubber

Short Whist: First partnership to 5 points wins the game.

Long Whist: First partnership to 9 points wins.

A rubber is the best of three games. The first partnership to win two games wins the rubber.

Variants

• Long Whist: 9-point game
• Short Whist: 5-point game (standard above)
• Bid Whist: adds a bidding round before play, transitional form toward Bridge