Description

The most basic version of the game features fixed partnerships with no bidding. The game uses a single deck, and follows the basic mechanics of most trick taking games: the starting player leads a suit, and then the other players are forced to follow unless they have none of that suit left, in which case they are allowed to either toss a useless card of another suit, or to play a trump.

The object of Whist is to acquire tricks in excess of 6, each 1 of which scores 1 point. In this basic form the game usually goes to 5, though 7 and 9 point variations were also common. The trumps in standard Whist were determined by facing the last card to be dealt.

In addition, like most card games, there are a large variety of variants. A common one involves pre-determing the trump suit, and running them in order from hand to hand. (For instance: Hearts first, then Diamonds, Spades, and finally Clubs, and then start over again)

Another, less popular and luck oriented variant involves giving a 4 point bonus to a partnership if it held the 'Honours' run of A - K - Q - J in the suit that was trump for that hand or 2 points if it had 3 of the 4. As this is based on the cards as dealt it is a very luck based option, and as such has fallen out of common use though it was once considered a standard way to play the game.

Other variants include bidding (quite common, and turn the game into something closely resembling Spades) and two player adaptations.