Without rugby, there would be no American football. Without cricket, there would be no American baseball. Without Whist, there would be no Bridge, Contract Bridge, Auction Bridge, or any of the other Bridge-derived games that evolved from their common ancestor Whist.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when Whist was at the height of its popularity, few people would have called it a simple game. Yet Whist is a simple game. This is surprising when you consider the complexity of its offspring.
HOW TO DEAL Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and deal thirteen cards to each player. The final card is turned face up for all players to see and fixes trump for the round. The trump remains on the table until the dealer’s first turn, at which point the dealer returns the trump card to his own hand. Card rankings are standard, with aces always high.
SCORING Teams compete to be the first to score 7 points. Points are awarded only to the team winning more than six tricks, and 1 point is awarded for each trick in excess of six. If your team wins eight tricks, for example, you score 2 points (8−6 = 2).
HOW TO PLAY The player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick with any card. All other players must follow suit if they can; otherwise they may play any card (including trump). Dealer: Don’t forget to pick up (and/or play) the trump card just before playing your very first card.
Tricks are won by the highest trump played or, if none, by the highest card in the leading suit. The trick winner leads the next trick. Scores are tallied after all thirteen tricks are played. The deal rotates left.
In Britain, where Whist is still very popular, it’s far more common to play to 5 game points (instead of 7). Otherwise, the rules are identical.
VARIATION 2: HONORS WHIST
The nineteenth-century version of Whist typically awarded points for honors— the A, K, Q, J of trump. Any team that captures all four honor cards scores a bonus of 4 points, or a bonus of 2 points for capturing three of the four honor cards. When scoring points at the end of the hand, honor points are tallied after the normal trick scores. This means the team scoring for tricks wins, in cases where both teams score 5 points or more in the same hand. The final restriction is that a team that starts the hand with a score of 4 cannot earn any points for honors in that hand.