How to Play Whist: Trumps, Tricks, and Partnership Scoring

Whist is the classic four-player, partnership trick-taking game that gave rise to Bridge, Spades, and Euchre. There is no bidding to learn and no special cards to memorise. You simply deal out the whole pack, turn one card to set trumps, and try to win more tricks than the other side. This guide covers the deal, how trumps are decided, the rules for winning tricks, partnership scoring above six, optional honours, and a few tips to win more hands.

What is Whist?

Whist is a plain-trick game for exactly four players in two fixed partnerships. Partners sit facing each other across the table, so the seating alternates: partner, opponent, partner, opponent. The aim is for your side to win more tricks than the opposing side, and the very first points you score only count for tricks won beyond the sixth. It is one of the simplest trick-taking games to learn, which is why it stayed popular in clubs and homes for over two centuries.

If you already play Spades, Hearts, or Euchre, Whist will feel instantly familiar. It is essentially the ancestor of all of them, stripped back to the pure essentials of following suit and trumping.

The cards and the deal

Whist uses a standard 52-card pack with no jokers. In every suit the cards rank from high to low: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. There are no wild cards and no bowers as in Euchre.

Choose a dealer, who then deals the entire pack one card at a time, clockwise, so each of the four players ends up with exactly 13 cards. The deal rotates clockwise to the next player after each hand.

How trumps are decided

The trump suit is set by the cards themselves, not by bidding. The dealer deals their own final card face up on the table, and the suit of that exposed card becomes trumps for the hand. The dealer leaves it showing until it is their turn to play to the first trick, then takes it into their hand.

A trump card beats any card of a plain (non-trump) suit, no matter how high. Some groups prefer to fix the trump suit by a set rotation each deal instead of turning a card, but the turned-up card is the traditional method.

Playing the tricks

The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick, and play proceeds clockwise. Each player in turn plays one card, and the four cards played make up a trick.

• You must follow suit — play a card of the same suit as the card led if you have one.
• If you have no card of the led suit, you may play any card, including a trump.
• The trick is won by the highest trump in it. If no trump was played, it is won by the highest card of the suit that was led.
• The winner of each trick leads to the next one.

Because you cannot follow suit with a trump while you still hold the led suit, trumping in only happens once you have run out of a suit. The hand continues until all 13 tricks have been played and every card is gone.

Partnership scoring

Tricks are pooled by partnership, not counted per player. Whichever card your partner uses to win a trick, it belongs to your side. After all 13 tricks are played, count how many each side won.

The key rule: the first six tricks each side takes are called the book and score nothing. Only tricks above six count. So the side that won the majority scores 1 point for every trick over six (these surplus tricks are called "odd tricks"). For example, a side winning 9 tricks scores 3 points; winning 8 scores 2. If the sides split 7–6, the winning side scores just 1 point.

In the most common form, the first partnership to reach 5 points wins the game. Longer "American Whist" games are often played to 7 points, and a full match, called a rubber, is the best of three games.

Honours (optional)

Many traditional games add honours scoring. The four honours are the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack of the trump suit. After the play, a partnership that held all four honours between their two hands scores an extra 4 points; holding three of the four honours scores an extra 2 points. A side that already has 4 points cannot score honours that deal — they must win on tricks. If you find honours fiddly, simply leave them out and score on odd tricks alone.

Beginner strategy

• Lead from length and strength. Leading a long suit can exhaust opponents of it, after which your low cards in that suit may win late tricks.
• Watch the trumps. Drawing out opponents' trumps with your high trumps protects your plain-suit winners from being trumped later.
• Help your partner. Remember tricks are shared. Do not waste a high card to win a trick your partner is already winning.
• Hold your Aces wisely. An Ace in a plain suit is safest played before opponents run out and start trumping.
• Count tricks. Once your side has six in the book, every additional trick is a point — push hard for the odd tricks.

Where Whist fits

Whist is the perfect on-ramp to the wider trick-taking world. From here, try the bidding variant Bid Whist, the contract-style scoring of Oh Hell, or the trump-and-target play of Callbreak for a little more depth.

Play now

Ready to deal? Play Whist free in your browser on lovecardgames.com — multiplayer with friends or against smart bots, with no download and no signup. Turn up a trump and start winning tricks today.