Whist

About this board game

Whist is a classic trick-taking card game for 2–4 players, with a typical play time of 60 minutes. Played with a single standard deck, it is best known in its basic form for fixed partnerships, no bidding, and carefully timed play.

Each hand begins with a player leading a suit. The other players must follow that suit whenever possible. If a player has none of the suit led, they may discard a card from another suit or play a trump. In standard Whist, the trump suit is determined by facing the last card dealt.

The goal is to win tricks in excess of six. Each trick beyond six scores one point, and the basic game commonly continues until a partnership reaches five points, although games to seven or nine points were also played.

• Players: 2–4
• Play time: 60 minutes
• Core play: trick-taking, following suit, and trumping
• Basic format: fixed partnerships with no bidding

Whist has a wide range of variants. One common approach predetermines the trump suit and cycles through suits from hand to hand. Another adds points for holding the “Honours” run of ace, king, queen, and jack in the trump suit, though this luck-based rule has become less common.

Other versions introduce bidding, creating a game that closely resembles Spades, while two-player adaptations are also available. Widely played during the 18th and 19th centuries and frequently mentioned in literature from that period, Whist has a long-standing place in traditional card-game history. BoardGameGeek lists its release year as 1663.