Card Game 101 #12: Whist (4 Players)

Whist is a fun, easy-to-learn, trick-taking card game for two or four players. This blog covers only the four-player version. Take more tricks than your opponents to win! Read on to learn the basics of the four-player version of the card game Whist.

✔ A standard 52-card deck

✔ 4 players

First of all, choose the dealer. The dealer can be selected by the players themselves, or using the following method:

- Each player draws one card from the deck. The player who draws the highest number gets to deal (for this purpose, count aces as 1, jacks as 11, queens as 12, and kings as 13). If two or more players tie for the highest number drawn, have the tying players re-draw from the deck.

Next, the entire deck will be dealt, which means each player will be dealt 13 cards. The last card for the dealer is dealt face up. The suit of this card is the trump suit for the round.

In the four-player version of Whist, players are organized into two opposing teams, with teammates sitting across from each other. The objective of the game is to score points by winning more tricks than your opponents.

The player to the left of the dealer starts by leading any card to the first trick. A trick is created by each player playing a card into the middle. Players must follow the lead suit whenever possible. If a player cannot follow suit, that player can play any card.

The player with the highest ranking trump card wins the trick. If no trump card was played, the player with the highest ranking card in the lead suit will win the trick. The player who wins the trick leads the next trick, and play continues this way until all cards have been played.

At the end of a round, the team with more tricks than the opposing team scores points equal to the number of tricks won in excess of six. For example, if a team wins 8 tricks, their score will be 8 - 6 = 2 points.

The first team to five points wins the game.

The next blog in this series will be about the card game Garbage (thanks to Ethaboo444 for the suggestion). Expect it to come within a week.

Thanks for reading!