The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (32 page)

When you both turn up cards with an equal value, it’s time for a war to break the tie. You’ll each lay three cards face down and a final card face up. Whoever has the highest tiebreaker card wins the hand and claims the spoils of war—all ten cards. If the tiebreaker cards are of equal value, you’ll have another battle and continue to do so until there are two different cards, and one player wins all of those cards. The player who collects the entire deck wins the game.

War can also be played with three or four players. The entire deck is dealt out, and during play the high card takes the other cards. When two cards match in a value, war breaks out, and all players participate—not just the two players with matching cards.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
Four

EQUIPMENT:
One standard deck of fifty-two cards

TIME:
One hour +

PARTNERSHIP:
Yes

COMPLEXITY:
Medium to difficult

Whist originated in England and has been around for quite a long time. It is considered the stepping stone to learning and playing the game of bridge and is easily understood by beginning card players.

Whist has its roots in two card games from the early seventeenth century, Ruff and Honors (English) and Triomphe (French). First a game played by the lower classes, it was taken up by higher-class gentlemen in approximately 1718. Whist was an extremely popular card game through the nineteenth century, taking second place only to euchre and later to bridge. Experts say that Louis XV, Napoleon, Queen Victoria, Benjamin Franklin, Ulysses S. Grant, and Edgar Allan Poe were all known at one time or another to play whist! Whist is no longer a commonly played game in the United States, but it is still recognized in England and is played in local tournaments called “whist drives.”

Standard whist is played without a round of bidding on a trump suit. Instead, a card will be turned up, and the suit of that card will be considered trump for that hand. Aces are high, twos are low. During play, the objective of whist is to take as many tricks as possible in each hand. Teams only receive points for each trick over six that they win.

A random dealer is chosen, and if you are the dealer, have the player to your left shuffle the cards. Have the player to your right cut the cards. Now take the cards and deal them out one at a time, face down, to each player until you reach the final card in the deck. This card is turned face up and is used to determine the trump suit. The card remains on the table until your first turn, when you pick it up and add it to your hand.

The game starts with the player to the dealer’s left laying his first card face up on the table, choosing any one card in his hand. Play continues clockwise around the table with each player laying a card of the same suit that was led. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card, including a trump. The person who played the highest card of the suit led or the highest trump wins the trick. The winner of each trick leads the next trick.

At the end of the thirteen tricks, the team with more than six tricks receives one point for each trick over six. The first team to reach five points wins the game and the team to win the best two out of three games (a rubber) wins.

There are multiple variations of whist that put a fun twist on play. In the game of Honors, a bonus is received if a team holds all four honors (ace, king, queen, and jack of the trump suit) at the end of the hand. If a team holds three of the four trumps, they receive two bonus points. In the American version of whist, the first team to win seven points wins the game. No rubber is played. In the variation of Long Whist, the first team to win ten points wins the game. In the game of Trumps, the trumps are fixed for each hand. The trump suit alternates through the four hands, and a no-trump hand can be played for the fifth hand if desired.

Whist is a team game, so in order to win you must communicate with your partner and be supportive of her choices. Partner games can be tricky, so pay attention to what your partner is playing and follow accordingly. If you win the bid, throw out your first card from the suit you are strongest in. This will be a signal to your partner. If you are not the player to win the bid, a way to signal to your partner that you are strong in one suit is to throw out your lowest card in that suit when you are unable to follow another suit. This shows your partner where you will be able to help. You must also pay attention to the first card thrown out by your partner so you know where his strength lies! Unfortunately, if you have no strengths and play a card, your partner might assume that you’re indicating strength when you aren’t.

If your partner is leading a trick, you’ll want to follow his lead. If he plays a high card, you’ll want to play your lowest card—it doesn’t make sense to waste his high card by playing one over it. If he plays a low card, you’ll want to play a high card to win the trick.

If you win a trick, you’ll want to play all of your winning cards before handing the lead back to your partner. You’ll also want to try to pick up all of the trumps before playing an alternate suit. This allows you to determine what remaining trump cards there are in the game.

If you are playing a no-trump hand in Bid Whist, pay close attention to the cards your partner is playing! If you are not going to try to win the trick, play your lowest card in the suit led. There’s no sense in throwing away cards that might be useful to you later. An exception to this rule is that if you only have two cards left in a suit, throw the high one first and the low one second. This is a signal to your partner that you are out of that suit.

Bid Whist is an African-American tradition that is thought to have originated in the United States during the period of slavery. Jokers were added as the highest trump cards, and the players determine the rank of the individual cards during a bidding process. The bidding round also determines whether there will be a trump suit, what that trump suit is, and the scoring of the game based on the number of tricks a team feels it can win. The objective of Bid Whist is to take as many tricks as possible in each hand through strategic play with your partner. In order to play Bid Whist you’ll need a standard pack of fifty-two cards plus two jokers.

A random dealer is selected and deals the cards one at a time, face down, until each player has twelve cards. The remaining six cards are then placed face down on the table to form a “kitty,” which is a group of cards that will come into play later in the game.

After the deal, there is one round of bidding. The player to the dealer’s left either passes or makes a bid containing a number and the term “high,” “low,” or “no trump.” In some games, “high” might also be called “uptown” or “straight,” and “low” might be called “downtown” or “special.” The number in the bid represents the number of tricks that you believe your team can take in excess of six tricks. High means that your team will declare the trump suit and that high cards win the tricks. Low means that your team will declare the trump suit and that low cards win the tricks. No trump means that there will not be a trump suit in that hand, and after bidding, your team will determine if high cards or low cards will win each trick.

Each consecutive player may choose to bid or pass. If you bid, your bid must be higher than the previous bid. You can bet a higher number than the previous number bid, or bid no trump to beat the same number low or high. While bidding, you do not name which trump suit you are going to call if you win the bid. If the first three players pass, the dealer must bid.

After bidding is complete, the high bidder names the trump suit, or, if the winning bid was no trump, the high bidder declares whether the game is going to played high or low. The high bidder then picks up the kitty and discards six cards in any combination from the cards in his hand and the cards in the kitty. These six cards are placed face down in front of the bidder and are considered the first trick won.

The high bidder starts the play by laying down his first card face up on the table. He may play any card in his hand. Play continues clockwise around the table. When it’s your turn, you must follow suit, if you can, by laying down a card of the same suit that was led. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card, including trump.

The trick is won based on the type of bid won. If a trump was declared, the cards rank depending on whether the bid was high or low. The trump suit always beats another suit, and within an individual suit the rank is big joker, little joker, ace, king, queen, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, and two for a high game. For a low game, the rank is big joker, little joker, ace, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, and king. If a trump was not declared, the cards rank as above without the trump suit beating any of the other suits, and jokers have no value. The winner of each trick leads the next one.

If the winning bid was no trump, and you lead a trick with either of the jokers, the next player to your left determines that trick’s suit with the suit of the card that he plays. Each player must then follow that suit if he can.

After the hand is played, each team counts their tricks. If you are the bidding team and win the number of tricks you bid (the number you bid plus six), you receive a point for each trick won above six. If you did not win the number of tricks you bid, you must subtract a value equal to the number of tricks bid from your score. If your team bid a no trump, the points gained or lost are doubled. The opposing team receives zero points for that hand, regardless of what happens with your team. The first team to score seven points wins the game.

A bid of seven high, low, or no trump is called a Boston. Since the number that was bid is added to six, this means that you are attempting to win all thirteen tricks. One variation of Bid Whist scores quadruple points on a Boston if the bid is won.