Rules · 1 player vs computer, or 4 online

How to play Whist

Take more than six of the thirteen tricks, counting your partner's tricks with your own. Follow the suit that was led whenever you can; the highest trump wins the trick, and when nobody trumps, the highest card of the suit led.

The rules, step by step

1. 1

   The whole deck is dealt out, thirteen cards each to four players sitting in two partnerships — you and the player opposite are one side.

2. 2

   The dealer's last card is turned face up. Its suit is trumps for the deal, and the card itself stays in the dealer's hand for everyone to see until it is played.

3. 3

   The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick, and may lead any card at all.

4. 4

   Each other player then plays one card, clockwise. You must follow the suit that was led if you hold it; only when you are void in that suit may you play anything else, including a trump.

5. 5

   The trick goes to the highest trump played, or, if there is no trump in it, to the highest card of the suit led. A high card in a suit nobody led and nobody trumped wins nothing at all.

6. 6

   Whoever takes the trick leads to the next one. Thirteen tricks empty every hand and end the deal.

7. 7

   Six tricks are the book and score nothing; every trick over six is a point for that side. Here one deal is one game, so seven tricks wins it.

Three tips that change how you play

• Lead your longest suit. Once the other three have run out of it, the small cards you have left in it start taking tricks on their own — that length is where the extra tricks in a whist hand come from.
• Play low in second position and high in third. The player who has to beat the trick is the last of your partnership to play, not the first, so a high card thrown in early is usually a card spent on a trick you were going to win anyway.
• Count the trumps as they go. The exact cards matter less than how many are still out: once you know none are left, your long suit is safe to run.

The low trump that was worth more than the ace

Spades are trumps and you are sitting third to play. West leads the king of hearts, your partner plays the four, and you hold the ace of hearts, the two of spades and a long run of clubs. The obvious card is the ace: it takes the trick and it is the highest heart out. Play it and you have spent your best heart to beat a king that was going to fall to it anyway, and West still holds the queen and the jack. Play the two of hearts instead. West wins the trick with the king and leads hearts again, expecting to draw yours out; this time your ace takes the queen with it, and the two of spades is still in your hand. Two tricks later hearts come round a third time, you are void, and that same two of spades — the lowest trump in the deck — takes a trick that no ace could have. Same three cards, played in a different order, and the difference is a trick each way.

Three mistakes that cost beginners the game

Trumping a trick your partner has already won.

Look at who is winning before you reach for a trump. If the highest card on the table is your partner's, the trick is already yours as a side — spending a trump on it turns two winners into one and leaves you short when the suit comes round again.

Playing the ace the moment its suit is led.

An ace cannot be beaten except by a trump, so it does not need to be rushed. Held back one round it takes a king with it; played immediately it collects three low cards and the king wins the next trick instead.

Following suit with your highest card every time.

Following suit is compulsory; following it high is a choice. When the trick is already lost, the cheapest card that follows is the right one, and the picture card you kept becomes a trick later in the deal.

Common questions about Whist