Rules

How to play Whist

Updated October 2026 · 4 players · About 30 minutes

Whist is a card game for four players in two teams. You deal out the whole deck and play 13 rounds. In each round, every player plays one card, and the best card wins all four. Your team tries to win more rounds than the other team. Whist is the direct ancestor of Bridge, and Spades and Hearts later borrowed its way of playing. Of the games played in rounds like this, it is the plainest. It has no special cards and no auction before play: nobody makes an offer or a promise before play starts.

What you need

Four players in two teams, and one full 52-card deck. Partners sit across from each other. Play goes clockwise. Aces are high. If the small numbers on a standard deck are hard to read, our guide to large-print playing cards may help.

The deal and the trump suit

To pick teams and the first dealer, spread the deck face down and let each player draw one card. In this draw only, the ace counts as the lowest card. The two players with the highest cards are partners against the two with the lowest. The player with the lowest card deals first. (Some groups let the highest card deal first instead.) If two or more players tie (for example two 7s or two aces), only those players draw again. The new cards only decide which of them is higher; everyone else's first card still counts. Some groups break a tie by suit instead; agree which way before you draw. After each deal, the dealing passes to the left.

A deal is one dealing of the cards and everything played with them.

1. Deal the whole deck, 13 cards each, one at a time, starting on the dealer's left. The dealer gets the last card.
2. The dealer turns that last card face up. Its suit is the trump suit for this deal. A trump card beats a card of any other suit, even an ace. If hearts are trump, the 2 of hearts beats the ace of spades.
3. The face-up card stays on the table until the dealer's turn to play in the first round. Then the dealer takes it into their hand.

People often get this wrong: the face-up card is one of the dealer's own 13 cards from the moment it is turned. The dealer plays it like any other card, and it counts when the dealer must match the suit of the round's first card. It is face up only to show which suit is trump. Once it is in the dealer's hand, anyone may ask which suit is trump, but not which card was turned.

If the cards come out uneven (one player has more than 13 and another has fewer), the dealer loses the deal, and the next player on the left deals. If a card is shown by accident while dealing, the team that did not show it may ask for the cards to be dealt again by the same dealer, or let the deal stand. Nobody loses any points either way.

Playing a round

The player on the dealer's left starts the first round. After that, the winner of each round starts the next one.

1. The player who starts plays any card. That card is the first card of the round, and its suit is the first suit.
2. The other players each play one card, going clockwise. If you have a card of the first suit, you must play one, even when it is the trump suit. If you have none, you may play any card, including a trump.
3. The highest trump wins. If nobody played a trump, the highest card of the first suit wins. A card that is neither a trump nor of the first suit cannot win, even an ace.
4. The winner sets the four cards aside, face down, in a stack in front of them, in the order they were played. Nobody plays those cards again. At the end of the deal they are counted. They can also be looked through if someone thinks a card of the wrong suit was played (see “If someone plays the wrong suit”). After 13 rounds, the deal is over.

No rule makes you try to win a round. You may play a low card on purpose, although sometimes every card you are allowed to play would win. If you have none of the first suit, no rule makes you play a trump either. These are choices, and choosing well is the whole skill of the game.

Partners may not talk about their cards, hint, or signal. The cards you play are the only message allowed. Any other way of passing information is cheating, not strategy.

Scoring

When all 13 rounds are done, each team counts the rounds it won. The first six rounds your team wins score nothing. Each round after those is worth 1 point.

Thirteen rounds cannot split evenly, so one team always wins more rounds than the other. Exactly one team scores points for rounds in every deal. Scores add up from deal to deal until a team reaches the winning score. American whist plays to 7 points, with no bonus points. Our practice game plays this way. British short whist plays to 5 points, and is usually played as a match of up to three games: the first team to win two games wins the match. Its traditional rules also include bonus points (see below).

If someone plays the wrong suit

Playing a card of another suit when you have a card of the first suit is a mistake with a cost. What happens depends on how soon someone notices.

• Noticed in time. The player who made the mistake takes the card out of the round but does not put it back in their hand. It lies face up on the table next to that player, and the player plays a card of the first suit instead. This works until the winner sets the four cards aside, face down. It also stops working as soon as the player who made the mistake, or that player's partner, plays a card in the next round. That can happen first if the winner starts the next round before setting the four cards aside. Anyone who played after the mistake may take their card back and play a different one, without penalty.
• The wrong card. It stays face up on the table. The other team may order it played at any later point where it could be played without breaking a rule, for example when its owner starts a round, or has none of the first suit. Say hearts are the first suit, and a player who still has a heart puts down the 7 of clubs. The player takes it out of the round, leaves it face up on the table next to them, and plays a heart. Later, when that player starts a round, the other team may order, “Start with the 7 of clubs.”
• Noticed too late. After that, the mistake can no longer be put right. At the end of the deal, the team that did not make the mistake may look through all the face-down rounds, and may claim the mistake until the next deal begins. When it does, it picks one of three things. It can take three rounds from the team that made the mistake and count them as its own. It can add 3 points to its own score. Or it can take 3 points off the score of the team that made the mistake. These are the British rules. In American whist the penalty is smaller: two rounds move from the team that made the mistake to the other team. Penalty rounds and points are counted first, then the points for rounds, then bonus points.
• After a penalty. When the other team claims a penalty, the team that made the mistake cannot win the game in that deal, however many points it makes. Its score stops 1 point short of the winning score. For example, in a game to 5, a team on 3 points that wins 10 rounds would reach 7, but its score stops at 4. It can win in a later deal.

Practice a deal of Whist

Whist has no auction before play, and nobody chooses the trump suit, so everything you learn is about the play: which suit to start a round with, when to play high, and when to leave a round to your partner. The practice game partners you with the computer against two computer opponents. The Coach tells you why a card won when a low card beats a high one, and points out mistakes. Press Hint when you want advice.

Three things beginners get wrong

Starting a round with a suit you have few cards in

Start with the suit you have the most cards in, not counting the trump suit. Keep your trump cards for later. If your two highest cards in that suit are the ace and king, or the king and queen, start with the higher one. (Queen and jack are not high enough.) Otherwise start with your fourth-highest, counting down from your highest. That lower card keeps your higher ones for later. If the suit has only three cards, start with your highest. If no suit has three or more cards, start with your highest card that is not a trump.

After a few rounds, the other players have no cards left in that suit. Then your cards left in it can win, unless someone plays a trump on them. Starting with a suit where you have only two cards usually helps the other team. The other players probably hold more of it, so they can beat your cards.

Do not hold an ace back forever. Play it when it is likely to win a round, because once another player has none of that suit, a trump can beat it.

Playing a trump whenever you can

Having none of a suit lets you play a trump. But a trump is one of your strongest cards, so do not use it on a round your team is very likely to win anyway. That is when you play last and your partner is winning, or when your partner's card is an ace, or another card that only a trump can beat (such as a king once the ace has been played). A trump there uses up one of your strongest cards for nothing. If a player after you could still beat your partner's card with a higher card of the first suit (a 9, for example, when higher cards of that suit have not been played yet), a low trump may be the right play. Check who has played, and who still has to play, before you decide.

Thinking rounds only matter once you have six

Not scoring for the first six rounds you win is just how the scoring works. It is not a plan for how to play. With only 13 rounds, every round you do not win is one the other team wins. Going from 6 rounds to 5 costs you no points, but it gives them one more point. For them, 7 rounds scores 1 point, and 8 scores 2. Every round counts, even the ones that look lost.

Questions people ask

Can other players ask which card the dealer turned face up?

No. Once it is in the dealer's hand, anyone may ask which suit is trump, but not which card it was.

How is Whist different from Bridge?

Bridge adds an auction before play, where players offer to win a number of rounds and the highest offer picks the trump suit. It also has a “dummy”: a hand laid face up on the table. Whist has neither. The dealer's last card sets the trump suit, and all four players play their own cards throughout.

Does the trump suit always come from the dealer's last card?

Not always. Some groups use a set order of suits, agreed in advance, instead of turning a card face up. See Common variations below.

Do you win the moment your score reaches the winning score?

No. Whist only adds up a deal's score after all 13 rounds are played. So a game always ends between deals, never in the middle of one.

Common variations

• Bonus points on or off — the most important choice. Agree first.
• Winning score — 5 points is short whist, the British standard, usually played as a match of up to three games: the first team to win two games wins the match. Long whist goes to 10 points, usually with bonus points. American whist goes to 7 points and has no bonus points.
• Barred at four — a limit on bonus points in a game to 5. A team that starts the deal with 4 points may not score bonus points, only points for rounds. That way it cannot win the game on the cards it was dealt: it has to win at least 7 rounds. The traditional British rules include this limit, and they check each team's score at the start of the deal. If your group checks at another time, tell the other players before the first deal.
• Trump by rotation — instead of turning a card face up, the trump suit follows a set order agreed in advance. For example: hearts in the first deal, diamonds in the second, spades in the third, clubs in the fourth, and then start over with hearts. Some groups add a no-trump deal after clubs, so every fifth deal has no trump suit, and only the highest card of the first suit can win. Everyone knows the trump suit before the deal, and the dealer's last card is dealt face down like the rest.
• Bid Whist — an American team version with an auction before play. Players make offers (called bids). Each offer promises to win at least a certain number of rounds beyond the first six. The player with the highest offer gets to name the trump suit, or to play with no trump suit. That player also gets the kitty: a small pile of cards dealt face down into the middle of the table before the rest are dealt (four cards from a 52-card deck, five if one joker is added, six if two jokers are added; every player then gets 12 cards instead of 13). The player picks up the kitty and throws away the same number of cards.
• Knockout Whist — for two to seven players, with no partners. Each player starts with seven cards, and every new deal gives one card fewer. Anyone who wins no rounds in a deal is out of the game, until one player is left.
• German Whist — for two players, built around a draw pile. Each player is dealt 13 cards. The other 26 cards go face down in the middle as the draw pile, and its top card is turned face up. That card's suit is the trump suit. In the first part, the winner of each round takes the face-up card into their hand, the loser takes the next card without showing it, and the new top card is turned face up. Both players are back to 13 cards each time. These 13 rounds score nothing. They only help you build a stronger hand. When the draw pile runs out, nobody draws any more, and 13 more rounds are played with the hands you built. Whoever wins more of those last 13 rounds wins the deal.
• Dummy Whist — for three players. A fourth hand, the dummy, is dealt like the others and then laid face up on the table, opposite one of the players. That player plays the dummy's cards as well as their own: when it is the dummy's turn, the player picks one of the dummy's cards and plays it. The player and the dummy are a team against the other two players. That way three players still get a game with two teams.

Whist needs nothing but a deck. See our deck picks if yours has seen better days. Or try Hearts, which has the same kind of rounds but the opposite goal: you try to end up with as few points as possible.