Learn How To Play Whist

Whist first came into being around the 18th century, when a party of gentlemen was the first to play this game. Supposedly, the discovery or formulation of whist took place in 1728 at the Crown Coffee House in London, and since then, card fanatics have been playing and refining this entertaining forerunner of bridge.

Nowadays, whist is played by card enthusiasts of all ages both at home, in public, and at Whist Drives, where players from a local area come together around the game in droves.

The Basics

Whist is played in groups of four. Each pair of two players seated opposite each other (known as partners) will compete against the other pair (opposing partners) for the win. Before the game begins, players will elect to play as “lady” or “gent”. No one has yet come up with a more suitable set of names, as ladies often play “gent” and vice versa, so the whist community has stuck using these two genders as identifiers. The purpose of these definitions is to decide who cuts and shuffles; this will be the “gent” players. The two gents cut the cards to decide who shuffles and who deals. The gent who cuts the lowest card shuffles and deals to the player on their left. The player who deals starts with the first card of the game.

It is important to note that there are many versions of the game. These rules are for partnership whist.

The Point of Whist

Each partnership attempts to score points by taking any “trick” that is higher than 6 points in value. The highest-scoring partnership wins the game.

The Rules

A standard deck of 52 cards is used to play. It’s best to use a pack that has two contrasting back designs to keep things clear and simple. While one deck is used for play, the other can be shuffled to deal next.

The cards rank as follows:

In the classic version of the game, each player receives 13 cards from a 52-card deck ranking A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The last card dealt (to the dealer) should be shown and established as the trump suit. This will become part of the dealer’s hand when they play the first trick.

The dealer deals one card at a time, placing them face down and beginning to their left.

Play is clockwise and begins with the player on the dealer’s left, who may play any card.

Every player plays a single card, following the first player’s suit if possible. If it’s impossible to follow suit, the player can play any other card.

Every four cards played make up a “trick”. The winner of each trick will begin the next round.

Each trick can be won by a player having the highest cards possible.

Any trick that does not contain a trump will be won by the player holding the next high card of the suit. Each winner leads on.

Every odd trick (this is a trick that adds up to a value higher than 6) adds one point to the winning side.

Now, Enjoy Whist

There is nothing more to do now than just enjoy the game! Have fun playing whist with your family or friends.