Whist Basics

Whist is a trick-based card game for four players. In cards, a trick refers to the cards played by each player in sequence, with the highest card played winning.

The basic rules of whist are straightforward. In its simplest form, two pairs of players compete against each other in an effort to claim the most tricks. The team that wins the most tricks over several rounds of play is declared the winner. Despite these simple rules, whist offers a great deal of strategic complexity. This complexity is increased by addi-tional rules that have developed over the years and that can be incorporated into the game to create a number of whist variations.

Whist evolved from a 17th-century British card game called ruff and honours, as noted by Charles Cotton in his 1674 book The Compleat Gamester, or, Instructions How to Play at All Manner of Usual and Most Genteel Games. Over the next 200 years, whist achieved its greatest popularity. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, whist had the reputation of being the card game of bourgeois lifestyle and sophistication. The game spawned a healthy amount of literature on the tactics and strategies of play, especially as the role of bidding (also known as auction and contract) increased as a part of whist game play.

Though whist continues to hold a place in British social life through local tournaments called “whist drives,” by the early 20th century, bridge had largely pushed whist aside as the game of choice among serious card players.