Whist

How to play Whist

1. Four players play in two teams, and partners sit opposite each other. Playing alone, you and Green, your computer partner, play Purple and Blue. With 2 Players, Orange and Green play Purple and Blue: each person has a computer partner.
2. The deal. All 52 cards are dealt, so everyone gets 13 cards. The last card dealt belongs to the dealer and is turned face up: its suit is trumps for the whole hand. Everyone sees it, and everyone knows the dealer holds it until it's played.
3. The lead. The player on the dealer's left leads the first trick by playing any card.
4. Follow suit. Each player in turn plays one card. If you have a card of the suit that was led, you must play one. If you don't, you can play any card: a trump to try to win the trick, or a card from another suit to throw it away.
5. Win the trick. The highest trump in the trick wins it. If nobody played a trump, the highest card of the suit led wins. Aces are high and twos are low. Whoever wins a trick leads the next one.
6. Score the hand. After all 13 tricks, the side that won more than six scores 1 point for each trick over six. The first six tricks are called the book, and they score nothing. As 13 is an odd number, exactly one side scores in every hand.
7. The deal moves one seat to the left, and a new suit is turned up for trumps. The first side to 7 points wins, or 5 for a shorter game.

Scoring

Only tricks score in this version: there are no bids, and no points for holding high trumps. A slam is worth 7 points, so it wins a game to 7 in a single hand.

Controls

• Play a card: tap it. The cards you're allowed to play stand up with a yellow edge, so when you have to follow suit, only that suit stands up.
• Keyboard: use ← and → or Tab to move along your cards, and Enter to play one.

At the start of each hand the turned-up card is shown in the middle of the table before it goes to the dealer. The trump suit stays at the top of the screen, next to the score, and the dealer's seat shows the turned-up card until it has been played. Your hand is sorted with the trumps first and the other suits in alternating colours. Each seat shows how many tricks that player has won, and the score at the top adds them up for each side. With 2 Players, a cover screen hides the cards whenever the device passes to the other player.

Computer levels

The computer players only know what a person in their seat would know: their own cards, the turned-up card and every card played so far, and by whom. They never see another hand or the order of the deck. The level you pick is for your two rivals. Your computer partner always plays at Hard.

Tips to win

• Count the trumps. There are 13 of each suit. Once you know how many trumps have gone, you know when your own trumps are the highest left.
• Draw trumps when you're long in them. With five or more trumps, or the top trumps, lead them to pull the other side's trumps out, so your aces and kings can win later.
• Second hand low, third hand high. When you play second, keep your high card back for later, because your partner plays after you. When you play third, play high to beat the card your rivals led.
• Don't trump your partner's winner. If your partner is already winning the trick, throw away a low card instead.
• Return your partner's suit. When you win a trick, leading the suit your partner led first often helps them win with their high cards.
• Remember the dealer's card. Everyone knows the dealer holds the turned-up trump until it's played. If it's an ace or a king, plan for it.
• Throw away from your weakest suit. When you can't follow suit and don't want to trump, keep your sure winners and your guarded kings (a king with one more card of its suit).
• The seventh trick matters most. Six tricks score nothing, and the seventh decides which side scores at all. When the hand is close, play safe for it.

About Whist

Whist grew out of older English trick-taking games and was the great card game of the 1700s and 1800s. In 1742 Edmond Hoyle published A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, one of the first books of rules for a card game, and his name is still used for books of card game rules. Its name is usually explained as an old word for "quiet", which suits a game played in careful silence. Bridge grew out of whist around 1900, and Spades and Bid Whist come from the same family. In Britain, whist drives, evenings where pairs of players move from table to table, are still held in village and church halls.

The rules here are those of classic partnership whist: all 52 cards dealt, the dealer's last card turned up for trumps, and a point for each trick over six. American Whist plays to 7 points and doesn't score honours. English Short Whist plays to 5 points and also gives a side 4 points for holding all four top trumps (ace, king, queen and jack) between the partners, or 2 points for three of them. This version scores tricks only, to 7 points or 5 for a shorter game. Bid Whist, where the players bid for the right to name trumps, and Knockout Whist, where players drop out until one is left, are different games.

Questions

Updated 10 November 2026