How to Play the Whist Card Game: Rules, Scoring & More

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Plus, learn the rules for a popular variant called Bid Whist

Co-authored by Elaine Heredia, BA Reviewed by Ashton Wu

Last Updated: December 31, 2025 Fact Checked

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• Classic Whist
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• Bid Whist
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• Video
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• Q&A
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Whist is the 18th-century ancestor to many trick-taking card games, such as Bridge or Hearts. In its original form, it's a fun game of strategy and communication between 4 players. A more recent and complex variant, called Bid Whist or Contract Whist, has the players bet on how many tricks they can take before the game begins. Keep reading to learn the rules, gameplay, and scoring for the classic version of Whist and Bid Whist!

How to Play Whist: Basic Gameplay

To play Whist, you'll need 4 players and a 52-card deck. The dealer gives 13 cards to each player and reveals the last card to show the trump suit. On their turns, the players lay a card face-up until there are 4 cards, or a trick. Whoever plays the highest trump card takes the trick and scores points.

Steps

Section 1 of 2:

Classic Whist Rules, Gameplay, & Scoring

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1. 
   1
   Gather 4 players and divide them into two teams. Whist is always played between two teams of 2 players each. Arrange the players in a circle, with each player sitting between their opponents and across from their partner.

   • For example, the two members of Team A and the two members of Team B sit down in ABAB order.
2. 
   2
   Shuffle a 52-card deck and deal 13 cards to each player. Have all players agree on who gets to be the first dealer, or decide randomly. The dealer passes a card from a standard 52-card deck to the player to their left and continues clockwise. Each player (including the dealer) should receive 13 cards.

   • Remove any Jokers from the deck before dealing.
   • If playing with strangers or in a tournament, one player shuffles, a second player cuts the cards, and a third player deals them. This reduces the opportunity for cheating and is a common standard for all card games.
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3. 
   3
   Reveal the last card dealt to all the players. The suit of this card (hearts, spades, clubs, or diamonds) is the trump suit for this round and will always "beat" cards from the other suits.

   • This is the only card that should be revealed to all the players. The rest must stay hidden in their owner's hand until played.
   • The trump card is part of the dealer's hand. Make sure everyone gets a chance to look at it before the dealer picks it up with the rest of their hand.
4. 
   4
   Inform everyone of the order of the cards. Each card is ranked according to the standard system, with Aces being the highest value.

   • Card values from lowest to highest: 2, 3, 4, (...), 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace.
5. 
   5
   The player to the dealer's left plays a card face-up. This card remains on the table where it's visible to everyone. This is called leading, since it's the first card on the table at the start of the round. A player may lead with any card.
6. 
   6
   The next 3 players take turns playing a card of the same suit. Moving clockwise (left of the dealer), each player places a card from their hand face-up next to the previous cards on their turn.

   • If a player has any card in hand with the same suit as the original card, they must put a card down of that suit.
   • If they have no cards of the original suit, they may play any card from their hand.
   • If more than one suit is face up on the table, only the original suit led restricts what cards someone can play.
   • Example: Player A leads with a 10 of Clubs. Player B chooses from the Clubs in their hand and puts down a King of Clubs. Player C doesn't have a single Club, so they choose from any card in their hand and put down a 3 of Diamonds. Player D has the Jack of Clubs in hand as their only Club and must play it.
7. 
   7
   Determine who wins the trick. The stack of 4 face-up cards is called a trick. One player will take the trick and put it face down to one side to be used later for scoring. Follow these simple rules to determine who wins the trick and gets to take it:

   • If one or more cards from the trump suit were played, whoever played the highest trump card wins.
   • If there are no trump cards in the trick, whoever played the highest card of the suit led wins.
8. 
   8
   The winner of the last trick leads for the next one. After moving the last trick to their personal pile, the winner places another card down. Every trick follows the same rules:

   • The leader may play any card from their hand.
   • The other 3 players take turns in clockwise order from the leader. Each player must play a card of the same suit led if they have it. Otherwise, they may play any card from their hand.
9. 
   9
   Play tricks until everyone is out of cards. Everyone should run out of cards on the same trick since the cards were dealt evenly.

   • To make scoring easier, stack your tricks and alternate each one's orientation.For example, orient the first trick North-South, the second in East-West, the third in North-South, and so on.
10. 
    10
    Tally each team's score. You score points as a team, not as an individual. Each team must add up their players' tricks, then subtract 6 from the total to get their score for each round. The team with fewer tricks doesn't score any points.

    • Example: If Bob took 3 tricks this round and his partner Sam took 4, they would add their tricks to get 7. After subtracting 6, Bob and Sam would earn 1 point for the round.
11. 
    11
    Play additional rounds until a team scores a total of 5 points. To set up for the next round, shuffle all the cards again and make the player to the last dealer's left the new dealer. The team to score 5 points first wins Whist!
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Section 2 of 2:

How to Play Bid Whist or Contract Whist

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1. 
   1
   Shuffle two different Jokers into the deck. Players should agree which Joker is the "Big Joker" and which is the "Little Joker". The deck should now contain 54 cards.
2. 
   2
   Deal 12 cards to each player and stack 6 cards in a separate pile. The pile of 6 cards is called the kitty. Players may look at their hands, but the kitty stays face down.
3. 
   3
   The player to the dealer's left makes a bid or passes. A bid is a bet (or contract) that the player's team will be able to take a certain number of tricks. Each bid must include a number from 3 to 7. This is the number of points the bidding player claims they can make after taking tricks and subtracting 6 from their total. Here are the bids you can make:

   • Uptown bid: The player promises to score a certain number of points while following the usual ranking of the cards for scoring. The uptown (or normal) card ranking from lowest to highest is: 2, 3, (...), 10, J, Q, K, A, Little Joker, Big Joker. Both Jokers are considered trumps.
     • An unspecified bid (e.g., "5) is assumed to be an uptown bid.
   • Downtown bid: A downtown bid promises to win a certain number of points and follow a partially reversed card ranking. The downtown card ranking from lowest to highest is: K, Q, J, 10, (...), 2, A, Little Joker, Big Joker. Both Jokers are considered trumps.
   • No trump bid: A player promises to play a round without a trump suit. For example, a bid of 7 no trump promises that the bidder's team will win 7 points (all 13 tricks) and that there will be no trump suit this round.
     • If a no trump bid wins, Jokers are worthless in this round and can never win a trick.
     • You can't make a no trump uptown or no trump downtown bid.
4. 
   4
   Each player bids or passes on their turn. Each bid must be higher than the last bid spoken, following these rules:

   • A downtown bid beats an uptown bid of the same number.
   • A no trump bid beats any other bid of the same number.
5. 
   5
   When the other 3 players pass, the last bid spoken wins. If the first 3 players to speak all pass, the dealer must make a bid and automatically wins the bidding. The rules declared in that bid are now in effect this round, once the winner makes some decisions:

   • If the winning bid was a trump, uptown, downtown, or unspecified bid, the winner decides which suit is the trump suit this round.
   • If the winning bid was a no trump bid, the winner decides whether to play with uptown or downtown ranking.
6. 
   6
   The winning bidder looks at the cards in the kitty. The 6 cards in the kitty count as the first trick for the winner. There are additional special rules associated with these cards:

   • Unless the winning bid was no trump, the winner reveals the cards in the kitty to all players.
   • The winner may secretly exchange any number of cards in his hand for an equal number in the kitty. The other players can see how many cards are being exchanged, but not which ones.
7. 
   7
   Play a round of whist. Apart from the special rules determined by the winning bid, including the value of Jokers, the trick-taking portion of the game is unchanged. Since the winner of the bidding portion took the first trick (the kitty), that player leads for the next trick.
8. 
   8
   Determine scoring. The bid-winning team counts the number of tricks they took this round, including the kitty set aside while dealing, which counts as 1 trick. Only the team that won the bidding this round can score points, but they have the potential to lose points as well.

   • If the bid-winning team succeeded in its points goal, they score points normally. (Remember that a team's first 6 tricks provide no points. Each additional trick is worth one point.)
   • If the bid-winning team failed to meet its goal, it loses points equal to their bid. For instance, if the winning bid was 7 points (13 tricks) and that team only wins 3 points (9 tricks), their score reverts to 0. Then they must subtract 7 points for a total score of -7.
9. 
   9
   Play additional rounds until a predetermined score is reached. A common system is to play until one team earns 5 points total (and wins the game) or -5 points total (and loses).
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• Question

  Can you put a played card back into your hand?

  

  Community Answer

  No. That can be considered cheating.

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• Question

  How do I decide who starts as the dealer?

  

  Community Answer

  The dealer is decided by some random assignment, such as who is dealt an ace first. Or, in less formal settings, whoever wants to deal first can do so.

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• Question

  What is the best card to lead?

  

  Community Answer

  If you have one, an ace! Higher cards are good, but keep low trump cards for later; they can easily be destroyed at this point.

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Tips

• During a whist tournament with multiple tables playing simultaneously, have each table play a certain number of rounds rather than play to reach a certain score. This helps each table finish at roughly the same time!
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• Use each suit in turn as the trump instead of revealing a card. For example, start with hearts, then diamonds, then spades, then clubs. For the fifth round, you either return to hearts or play a round with no trumps at all (and return to hearts for round 6).
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