 A 19th-century whist marker by the British printing Co. De La Rue | |
| Origin | England |
|---|---|
| Type | Trick-taking |
| Players | 4 |
| Skills | Tactics, strategy |
| Cards | 52 |
| Deck | French |
| Rank (high→low) | A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Playing time | 30 min |
| Chance | Medium |
| Related games | |
| Bridge | |
Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game that was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play.
In 1674, The Complete Gamester described the game Ruff and Honours as the most popular descendant of Triumph played in England during the 17th century. Whist is described as a simpler, more staid version of Ruff and Honours with the twos removed and a 10 point game. In the 18th century, Whist, played with a 52-card pack, superseded Ruff and Honours. The game takes its name from the 17th-century word whist (or wist) meaning quiet, silent, attentive, which is the root of the modern wistful.
Whist was first played seriously by gentlemen in the Crown Coffee House in Bedford Row, London, around 1728, according to Daines Barrington. Edmond Hoyle, thought to be a member of this group, began to tutor wealthy young gentlemen in the game and published A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742. It became the standard text and rules for the game for the next hundred years. Short Whist, played with a rubber of two 5-point games in Britain, and a game of 7 points in American Whist grew in popularity. Whist with the old 10 point game became known as long whist.
In 1862, Henry Jones, writing under the pseudonym "Cavendish", published The Principles of Whist Stated and Explained, and Its Practice Illustrated on an Original System, by Means of Hands Played Completely Through, which became the standard text. In his book, Jones outlined a comprehensive history of Whist, and suggested that its ancestors could include a game called Trionf, mentioned by a sixteenth century Italian poet named Berni, and a game called Trump (or Triumph), mentioned in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.
Many subsequent editions and enlargements of Jones's book were published using the simpler title Cavendish on Whist. Whist by now was governed by elaborate and rigid rules covering the laws of the game, etiquette, and play, which took time to study and master. By the later 19th Century official rules of Short Whist were maintained by The Portland Club in London and The Whist Club in New York. The superior American system of leads and signals was adopted in the last edition of Cavendish.
In the early 1890s, Whist was quickly replaced by the new game of Bridge in clubs. Whist was still played as a social game, in club individual duplicate cardplay competitions, and later at charitable social events called whist drives. There are many modern variants of whist still played for fun, though whist can still be played online following the same rules as 300 years ago.
A standard 52-card pack is used and the game is played clockwise. By the time of Whist, the ace had been promoted to top honour, so the cards are ranked (highest to lowest): A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Whist is played by four players who draw cards to decide partnerships and the dealer. The two lowest cards play together, and choose their seats facing each other. Highest card is dealer and second highest is their partner.
Dealer chooses a pack, which their side will deal throughout, and passes it to the player on their left to be shuffled. Dealer then picks up the pack, and may give it a last shuffle, before passing to the player on their right to cut. Dealer then completes the cut and deals 13 cards to each player one at a time, dealing their last card face up to set trumps.
The play at Whist is the simplest form of Triumph and has been used by many other games. Eldest hand, the player on dealer's left, leads to the first trick. Dealer picks up the trump card when it is their turn to play. Players must follow suit if they can. If they cannot follow suit, players may either discard (play a losing card) or Ruff (play a trump card). The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led, unless trumps are played to the trick, when the highest trump wins.
Before the next trick starts, a player may ask to review the cards from the last trick. The winner of the trick leads to the next trick.
The first six tricks won by a pair do not score any points. A point is scored for each “odd trick” (trick in excess of six) won by a pair.
Long Whist was originally played with a game of 9 or 10 odd tricks, and usually played with honours.
In American Short Whist, a game was seven odd tricks.
Short Whist in Britain was played with a game of five odd tricks, and the first pair to win two games won the rubber. Honours were optional with a pair holding three of the top four honours getting one trick bonus, and all four top honours a two trick bonus.
Modern Short Whist is commonly played with three honours worth two points and all four honours worth four points. A pair with four points is unable to win game by honours and needs to make an odd trick.
When playing for stakes a game is one point. A game where opponents score only 1 or 2 tricks is a double game, and game where opponents don't score any tricks is a triple game. There is a two-point bonus for winning the rubber.
Whist can be scored with a pen and paper, or with whist markers.
A skilled player tries to determine who holds the cards they do not hold, and to give their partner information about which cards they themself hold, in order that in the final tricks of the hand they may know where most or all of the cards lie. There is no bidding in whist as there is in bridge, so partners can only get information about each others' hands from the cards played.
There are a large number of conventions about what card to play, especially when leading and in the early hands of the game, which serve not simply as a strategy for winning tricks but as a way to inform one's partner about cards held.
For example, on the very first lead of the game it is conventional for a player to lead their strongest suit, usually their longest. If a player leads an Ace then a King of the same suit, that conventionally means those were the only two cards in that suit; but if they led King then Ace, that would mean they also held some low cards in that suit.
As Whist is the simplest form of Triumph played with full 52-card pack and developed formal rules, it formed the basis of many subsequent trick-taking games. McLeod classifies this family into a number of sub-groups: the auction whist, Boston, classic whist and exact bidding groups, and games played by numbers of players other than four. The following is a selection within each sub-group.
The auction whist group is a family of games with the characteristics of whist – an auction for the right to choose trumps won by the highest contract or largest number of tricks – and fixed partnerships.
In these trick taking games the object is to win exactly the number of tricks that you bid.
A whist drive is a social event at which progressive games of whist are played across a number of tables which are numbered or ordered into a sequence.
In it, the winning (or sometimes losing, dependent on the local custom) pair of a hand "progress" around the room, i.e. one person moves up the table sequence and one person moves down. On arriving at the new table, the next hand is played.
By convention the pair who sits has shuffled and deals after the arriving pair has cut the pack.
A progressive whist drive is normally 24 hands, with each hand being a different trump. Trumps normally follow the sequence: hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades.
Sometimes a break for refreshments is taken after 12 hands.
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