What Is Whist?
Whist is the elegant ancestor of Bridge and Spades — one of the oldest trick-taking games still played today. Four players form two partnerships. All 52 cards are dealt, 13 to each player. There is no bidding — the trump suit is simply determined by the last card dealt. Then all 13 tricks are played, and the team that wins more than six tricks scores a point for each trick above six. Simple rules, deep strategy.
What You Need
- One standard deck of 52 playing cards
- Four players in two partnerships — partners sit across from each other
- Score pad
Understanding Tricks and Following Suit
A trick is one round of card play. One player leads a card. Going clockwise, every other player must play a card of the SAME SUIT as the card that was led — this is called following suit. If you have no cards of the led suit, you may play any card. The highest card of the led suit wins the trick — unless someone played a trump card, in which case the highest trump wins. The winner of each trick leads the next one.
Setting Up the Game
- Decide partnerships — partners sit directly across from each other.
- Shuffle all 52 cards.
- Deal all cards one at a time clockwise until every player has 13 cards. The very last card dealt — the 13th card to the dealer — is shown face-up to all players before the dealer takes it into their hand. Whatever suit that card is becomes the trump suit for the entire hand.
- Players sort their hands by suit.
How to Play — Step by Step
- The player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick by playing any card from their hand face-up to the center of the table.
- Going clockwise, each other player must follow suit — play a card of the same suit as the led card. If you have even one card of the led suit, you must play it. You cannot choose to play a different suit.
- If you have no cards of the led suit, you may play any card — including a trump card. Playing a trump when you cannot follow suit is called ruffing.
- After all four players have played one card, determine who won the trick: the highest trump card wins, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit wins.
- The player who won the trick takes all four cards and places them in a face-down pile in front of their team. They then lead any card they choose to start the next trick.
- Continue until all 13 tricks are played.
Communicating With Your Partner
In Whist, you cannot speak to your partner about your hand. All communication happens through the cards you choose to play. Experienced players read meaning into which card leads a suit — for example, leading the highest card you have in a suit signals strength, while leading a low card often signals weakness but length.
Scoring
After all 13 tricks are played, count each team’s tricks. Every trick won ABOVE six scores 1 point. So winning 6 tricks = 0 points. Winning 9 tricks = 3 points. Winning all 13 tricks = 7 points.
The first team to reach 5 points wins a game. The first team to win two games wins the Rubber and earns a 2-point bonus.
Winning
Win two games (called a Rubber) to win the match.
Tips for New Players
- Lead from your longest suit — if you have five Spades, leading Spades repeatedly is likely to establish winners as opponents run out of Spades.
- Lead the top of a sequence — if you hold King, Queen, Jack of Hearts, lead the King. If partner has the Ace, they will let it win and now your Queen is the highest remaining Heart.
- Count trump cards as they are played — knowing how many trump remain in opponents’ hands helps you decide when it is safe to lead non-trump suits.