The goal
With your partner, win more than six of the 13 tricks. Each trick above six scores a point; first team to 5 wins.
Setup
Four players in two teams, partners opposite. One 52-card deck, ace high.
The deal
Deal all cards one at a time, 13 each. Turn the dealer’s last card face up: its suit is trump.
A turn
- Left of the dealer leads: plays the first card of the first trick.
- Follow suit (play the suit led) if you can; if not, play any card, trump or not.
- Highest trump wins, otherwise the highest card of the suit led.
- The winner leads the next trick. The dealer picks up the trump card when it is their turn to play to the first trick.
Special cards
- Any trump beats every card of the other suits.
Scoring
- Only the team with more tricks scores.
- 1 point per trick above six (the odd tricks).
- Optional honours: one team holding the ace, king, queen and jack of trump scores 4, three of them 2.
Winning
The first team to reach 5 points wins the game; the first team to win two games wins the match, called the rubber.
House rules
- Honours. The ace, king, queen and jack of trump. Holding all four between partners scores 4, three of them scores 2. Not usable to reach the last point of a game.
- American whist. The same game, played to 7 points instead of 5.
- Long Whist. The older form of the game, played to 10 points.
