Whist Card Game Rules: How to Play Classic Whist

These whist card game rules explain the classic four-player partnership game that gave rise to bridge, spades and many other trick-taking games. Whist is wonderfully simple: no bidding, one trump suit chosen by the last card dealt, and a point for every trick your team wins beyond six. That makes it ideal for learning trick-taking skills, and it still offers plenty of depth for experienced players. Below are the standard rules for 4 players, the scoring table, and popular versions for 2 and 3 players, including German whist, knockout whist and bid whist.

Quick rules

• Four players in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite.
• Deal all 52 cards, 13 each. The dealer's last card is shown to everyone and its suit is trump for the hand.
• The player left of the dealer leads to the first trick. You must follow suit if you can.
• The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless a trump is played, in which case the highest trump wins.
• The winner of each trick leads to the next.
• Your team scores 1 point for each trick over six (the first six tricks are the "book").
• The first team to 5 points wins a game (7 in the American version). Best of three games wins the rubber.

What you need

• A standard 52-card deck, no jokers. Cards rank A (high), K, Q, J, 10 down to 2.
• Paper and pencil, or our scoreboard, to track points and games.
• Four players. For other numbers, see Variations.

Setup

1. Draw cards to form partnerships: the two highest play against the two lowest. Partners sit across from each other.
2. The player with the highest card deals first. The deal passes to the left after each hand.
3. The dealer deals all 52 cards one at a time, face down and clockwise, so everyone has 13.
4. The dealer's last card is turned face up. Its suit is trump. The dealer picks the card up into their hand when it is their turn to play to the first trick.

How to play

Playing tricks

1. The player to the dealer's left leads any card.
2. Going clockwise, each player plays one card. You must follow the suit that was led if you have it.
3. If you have no cards of the suit led, you may play a trump (to try to win the trick) or discard any other card.
4. The trick is won by the highest trump played, or, if no trump was played, by the highest card of the suit led.
5. One player from the winning team collects the trick face down. The winner of the trick leads next.
6. Continue until all 13 tricks have been played.

Revoking

Failing to follow suit when you could have is a revoke. Under traditional rules the penalty is 3 points (taken from the offenders or added to the other side), so check carefully before playing off-suit.

Scoring

Rule books differ here. Traditional English short whist plays games to 5 points and counts honours, but a team on 4 points cannot use honours to reach game. American whist plays to 7 points and ignores honours. Pick one before you start.

How to win

The first partnership to reach the target (5 or 7 points) wins the game. Extra points over the target do not carry over. A rubber is best of three games, and the team that wins two games wins the rubber.

Variations

• German whist (2 players): deal 13 cards each and turn up the top card of the stock; its suit is trump. The winner of each trick takes the face-up card and the loser takes the next card unseen, then a new card is turned up. When the stock is empty, the last 13 tricks are played out and count. Whoever wins the most of those tricks wins.
• Whist for 3 players (dummy whist): deal a fourth hand face up as a dummy. The player who sits opposite the dummy plays it as a partner against the other two, and the dummy seat rotates each hand.
• Knockout whist (2 to 7 players): deal 7 cards each in the first round, then one fewer each round. A player who wins no tricks in a round is knocked out. The winner of the most tricks chooses trumps for the next round. The last player standing wins.
• Bid whist: a popular partnership version with a bidding round, jokers, a kitty of extra cards, and the option to play "uptown" (high cards win) or "downtown" (low cards win).
• Solo whist: players bid to win a certain number of tricks on their own against the other three.

Tips and strategy

• Lead from your longest suit. Once the high cards are gone, your low cards in that suit can win tricks.
• With a strong trump holding, lead trumps early to pull them out of your opponents' hands.
• Second player plays low, third player plays high. This old rule of thumb saves high cards for when they matter.
• Return your partner's lead suit. It tells them you are working together.
• Count trumps. There are 13 of each suit, so after a few rounds you will know who still holds them.

House rules to agree first

• Game target: 5 points with honours, or 7 points without.
• Whether the revoke penalty applies in friendly play.
• Whether to play single games or best-of-three rubbers.

If you enjoy whist, try related trick-taking games: spades, hearts, oh hell, euchre and bridge.