How to Play Whist: Rules, Scoring and Strategy

Before bridge, there was whist. This partnership game was the serious card game of the 18th and 19th centuries, and it still survives at British whist drives today. Learning how to play whist takes about five minutes: four players, 13 tricks, one trump suit and no bidding. Here are the full rules, the scoring, the best-known variants and the habits that win tricks.

What you need

You need four players, one standard 52-card deck and a way to keep score. Players form two partnerships, and partners sit across the table from each other, so the turn alternates between the two sides. Cards rank from ace (high) down to 2 in every suit.

Whist is a classic English game. According to Wikipedia, it grew out of an older game called Ruff and Honours, and Edmond Hoyle published A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742. Bridge developed from whist and displaced it as the leading serious card game in the 20th century. You can read more in the Wikipedia article on whist.

The deal and the trump card

The deal passes to the left after each hand. The dealer deals the whole deck one card at a time, clockwise, starting with the player on their left. Everyone ends up with 13 cards.

The very last card belongs to the dealer, and it’s turned face up. Its suit is trumps for the hand. The card stays face up on the table until it’s the dealer’s turn to play to the first trick, when the dealer picks it up and it becomes part of their hand. Everyone at the table knows the dealer holds that card, which is useful information.

Traditional players often use two decks of cards. While one deck is dealt, the dealer’s partner shuffles the other and sets it aside for the next dealer. It saves time and doesn’t change the whist rules.

How to play whist: the tricks

The player on the dealer’s left leads to the first trick, and any card may be led. Play goes clockwise, and each player adds one card.

• Follow suit: if you hold a card of the suit led, you must play one.
• If you can’t follow: play any card. A trump wins unless someone plays a higher trump. A card of another suit is a discard and can’t win.
• Who wins: the highest trump in the trick wins it. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins.
• The next lead: the winner of each trick leads to the next one.

There’s no bidding and no contract. Both sides simply try to take as many of the 13 tricks as they can.

Playing a card of another suit when you could have followed is called a revoke, and the traditional laws of the game penalize it. In an online whist card game, the software stops you from revoking in the first place.

Scoring

After all 13 tricks are played, the side that took more of them scores. The first six tricks are called the book, and they’re worth nothing. Each trick over six is an odd trick and scores 1 point.

Tricks taken	Points
7	1
8	2
9	3
10	4
13 (all of them)	7

Since there are 13 tricks, one side always takes at least seven, so every hand scores something. In Britain the game was 5 points, usually played as a rubber, the best of three games. American players usually played to 7. Old “long whist” was played to 10. Tournaments often play a fixed number of hands instead and add up the odd tricks.

Honours

Traditional whist also scores honours. The honours are the A, K, Q and J of trumps. A partnership dealt all four between the two partners scores 4 points, and one dealt three of them scores 2. Honours are claimed after the play.

Two rules keep honours from taking over. Tricks are scored first, so a side that reaches game on tricks wins even if the other side held honours. And a side that already has 4 points can’t score honours that deal. Many players now leave honours out entirely, because they add a large luck element.

Popular whist variants

Whist has a big family. Pagat.com lists many relatives, from Solo Whist to Romanian Whist. These are three of the best known.

Rotating trumps

At many whist drives, trumps aren’t turned up at all. They follow a fixed cycle instead: hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs, then back to hearts. Some groups add a no-trump hand, so every fifth hand is played with no trump suit.

Bid Whist

Bid Whist adds an auction. In the basic rules on pagat.com, it’s played with the 52-card deck plus a big joker and a little joker. Each player gets 12 cards, and six go face down into a kitty. Bidding goes around the table once. A bid names a number of books over six (3 to 7) plus uptown, downtown or no trump. In uptown the high cards win, and in downtown the low cards win, with the ace still the highest.

The winner names trumps, takes the kitty and discards six cards. Those discards count as the bidding side’s first book. The jokers are the two highest trumps, and in no trump they have no value. Make the bid and you score 1 point for each book over six. Fall short and you lose the amount you bid. No-trump hands score double, and the first side to 7 points wins.

German Whist

German Whist is for two players. Each gets 13 cards, and the rest of the deck becomes a stock with its top card face up. That card’s suit is trumps. For the first 13 tricks, the trick winner takes the face-up card from the stock and the loser takes the next one, unseen by the winner. In the standard game only the last 13 tricks, played after the stock runs out, count toward winning. Despite the name, pagat.com notes there’s nothing German about it and suggests the game is British.

Knockout Whist

Knockout Whist suits two to seven players. The first hand has seven cards each, then six, and so on down to one. A player who takes no tricks in a hand is knocked out. Under the “dog’s life” rule, the first player to do so gets one card on the next hand and one more chance. The winner of the single trick in the final hand wins the game.

Whist strategy tips

Whist rewards memory and partnership more than luck. These habits will win you more tricks.

• Lead from your longest suit. Once the high cards in a suit are gone, the small cards in a long suit become winners.
• Lead the top of a sequence. With touching high cards like K-Q-J, lead the king. It forces out the ace and tells your partner what you hold.
• Second hand low, third hand high. Playing second, you can usually play low because your partner still has to play. Playing third, put up a high card to beat the player who led.
• Lead trumps with five or more. Drawing the opponents’ trumps stops them from ruffing your long suit later.
• Don’t trump your partner’s winner. If your partner is already winning the trick, throw a low card instead.
• Count the trumps. There are 13 in the trump suit. Track how many have gone, so you know when your small ones become winners.

Play whist online

Want to try the rules right now? Our free Whist game lets you play whist online with a computer partner against two computer opponents, on desktop or on your phone. It deals 13 cards each, turns up the dealer’s last card for trumps, highlights the cards you’re allowed to play and keeps a running count of tricks won. You can switch to rotating trumps, play to 5 or 7, and turn honours on. A Bid Whist mode adds the jokers, the kitty and the bidding round.

If you like whist, you’ll probably enjoy Spades too. It’s another member of the whist family, with spades as the fixed trump suit and a bid for every player.

Frequently asked questions

How many cards do you deal in whist?

You deal all 52 cards, one at a time, so each of the four players gets 13. The dealer’s last card is turned face up to set trumps, and the dealer adds it to their hand when they play to the first trick.

How do you score whist?

The side that takes more tricks scores 1 point for each trick over six. The first six tricks, called the book, score nothing. With the traditional honours rule, a side dealt all four top trumps also scores 4, or 2 for three of them. The first side to 5 points wins in British short whist.

Do you have to follow suit in whist?

Yes. If you hold a card of the suit led, you must play it. Only when you have none of that suit can you trump or discard. Failing to follow when you could is a revoke.

What is the difference between whist and bridge?

Bridge developed from whist. In whist, trumps come from the turned-up card and nobody bids. In bridge, the players bid for a contract that sets trumps and the number of tricks to win, and the declarer’s partner lays their hand face up as the dummy.

Can you play whist with two players?

Classic whist needs four, but German Whist is a two-player version. Each player gets 13 cards, and the first 13 tricks are played for cards from the stock before the last 13 decide the hand.

Conclusion

Whist is simple to learn: follow suit, win tricks and count everything over six. The depth comes from partnership play, remembering what’s gone and knowing when to lead trumps. Deal a hand of our free Whist to put it into practice, and if you need a quick break between rubbers, the Chrome dino game is always one click away.