- World Hydrological Input Set-up Tool. WHIST; Download; Forum; More information; HYPE OSC; Copyright © 2011 SMHI. All Rights Reserved. Design by growldesigngrowldesign.
- Whisht definition is - hush —often used interjectionally to enjoin silence.
- The classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Whist is a game designed for 2 or 4 players. Whist’s most classic form involves 4 players, but has since been superseded by the 2-player variant, which adds the multi-phase stages which rewards thinking ahead. All you need to play Whist is the standard 52-card Anglo American deck with Jokers removed. The older people had always played bzique or whist, but rather somnolently of an evening.
Whist is a classic English trick-takingcard game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries.[1]
Whist is played by four players. They play in two partnerships with the partners sitting opposite each other. Players cut or draw cards to determine partners, with the two highest playing against the two lowest. The players then cut for deal. Unlike contract bridge, there is no bidding process. Trumps are decided by cutting a deck of cards. Therefore the game can be played by people who know nothing about modern bridge bidding.
Although the rules are simple, there is scope for scientific play.[2] Originally it was a gambling game played in clubs and coffee houses.
History[change | change source]
Whist is a descendant of the 16th century game of trump or ruff.[3][4] The game takes its name from the 17th century whist (or wist, or whisk) meaning quiet, silent, attentive, which is the root of the modern wistful.[5]
Whist is first described by Charles Cotton in his The Compleat Gamester, published in London in 1674. It appears again in Seymour's Court Gamester of 1719, and we know that whist was played in some coffee houses in London. About 1728, a group led by the first Lord Folkestone played in Crown's coffee house in Bedford Row, London. They began to develop its potential as a partnership game.[6]
Edmond Hoyletutored wealthy young gentlemen in the game and published A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742. It became the standard text and rules for the game for the next hundred years and helped the game become fashionable. There are over 150 editions of this little book.[7]
In the 1890s, a variant known as bridge-whist became popular.[3][8] It evolved in stages to become auction bridge, and finally contract bridge in the late 1920s.
The traditional game of whist is still played at social events called whist drives.[9]
Rules and etiquette[change | change source]
The rules are how it is played; the etiquette is how the players should behave.
A standard 52-card pack is used. The cards in each suit rank from highest to lowest: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Whist is played by four players, who play in two partnerships with the partners sitting opposite each other. Players cut or draw cards to determine partners, with the two highest playing against the two lowest. The players then cut for deal.
It is against the etiquette to comment on the cards in any way. One may not comment upon the hand one was dealt nor about one's good fortune or bad fortune.
The play of the cards[change | change source]
Many basic ideas in card-play were discovered by whist players, and survive today in contract bridge. An example is the finesse. This is an attempt to win a trick with a card lower than your best. For example: holding AQ73 in the South hand, the partnership lacks the K. North leads a low card, next hand plays low and South plays the Q. If it wins, an extra trick has been made.
Signalling between partners by means of the card-play was well understood and used. Examples are: leading the top card in a sequence, such as K from KQJx, and also leading 4th highest from any suit (which implies you hold one or two top honours in that suit). In 1834 Lord Henry Bentinck invented the 'high-low' signal, which encourages partner to continue the suit. Some advanced ideas were known. Alexandre Deschapelles (1780–1847), a Frenchgenius at both cards and chess, invented a play now known as the Deschapelles coup. It is the sacrifice of a high-ranking card to get entry to partner's hand.[10]
Duplicate whist[change | change source]
The technique of running events where all players sitting in the same direction play the same cards was invented for whist. A duplicate whist drive has placings N/S and placings E/W. Modern movements for contract bridge events are developments of that duplicate whist system.[10]
The basic movement was invented by John T. Mitchell, a Scot who moved to the U.S. He invented the boards which hold the cards, and the movement for whist drives, in the 1890s. In the basic Mitchell movement all N/S pairs sit, while E/W pairs move one table up each round. When they move, boards go down one table. The effect of this is to divide the tournament into two halves, but later movements can avoid this. By allowing many pairs to play the same set of boards, tournament whist was invented. The idea, with variations, is still used today for bridge tournaments.[10]
References[change | change source]
- ↑Harbin, Robert 1972. Waddingtons family card games. Pan Books, London.
- ↑Phillips, Hubert 1960. The Pan book of card games. London: Pan.
- ↑ 3.03.1Pole, William 1895. The evolution of whist. London: Longmans, Green.
- ↑Parlett, David Oxford dictionary of card games, p. 340. ISBN0-19-869173-4
- ↑'Whist' word origin
- ↑Parlett, David 1991. A history of card games. Oxford University Press. Chapter 17, From Whist to Bridge, p220. ISBN0-19-282905-X
- ↑Rather, John C. & Goldwater, Walter 1983. According to Hoyle... 1742–1850. New York: University Place Book Shop.
- ↑Hellespont'. 1901. Hellespont on bridge. The laws and principles of bridge stated and explained and the practice illustrated by means of hands played completely through. London: De La Rue.
- ↑Cambridge Dictionaries Online Whist drive
- ↑ 10.010.110.2Francis, Henry G (ed) 1984. The official encyclopedia of bridge. 4th ed, ACBL. New York: Crown. History of bridge p175; Mitchell movement p286; Deschapelles p599; John T. Mitchell p688.
- Daniels, David 1980. The golden age of contract bridge. NY: Stein & Day. ISBN 0-8128-2576-4. The first three chapters of this book are a history of whist, and its development into bridge-whist and auction bridge.
- Butler, William Mill 2017 [reprint of 1st ed 1897] The Whist Reference Book: wherein information is presented concerning the noble game, in all its aspects, after the manner of a cyclopedia, dictionary, and digest all combined in one. Fb&C Ltd. ISBN 0265589975, 9780265589977
Types of Whist
This page describes the classic game of Whist which was played widely in the 18th and 19th centuries. Whist was derived from the older game Ruff and Honours, and in the twentieth century, bridge has displaced whist as the most popular card game internationally among serious card players. Nevertheless, whist continues to be played in Britain, often in local tournaments called 'whist drives'.
Nowadays there are many other games called whist - the name has become attached to a wide variety of games based on classic whist, but often with some kind of bidding added, for example:
- Knockout whist (a children's game in which a player who wins no trick is eliminated)
- Solo whist (played in Britain; a game where individuals can bid to win 5, 9 or 13 tricks or to lose every trick)
- Whist (Wiezen) and Suit Whist (Kleurenwiezen) (Belgian games similar to Solo Whist, but more elaborate)
- Bid whist (a partnership game with bidding, played in the USA)
- Minnesota whist (in which there are no trumps, and hands can be played to win tricks or to lose tricks - also the very similar game of Norwegian Whist)
- Romanian whist (a game in which players try to predict the exact number of tricks they will take - similar to Oh Hell)
- Israeli whist (another game somewhat related to Oh Hell, in which one tries to bid the exact number of tricks one will take)
- German Whist (a British two-player adaptation of Whist without bidding)
- Danish Whist, which exists in two forms: one with fixed partnerships, and one in which partners are chosen by calling an ace.
Whist Rules
The classic game of whist is a plain-trick game without bidding for 4 players in fixed partnerships. Although the rules are extremely simple there is enormous scope for scientific play, and in its heyday a large amount of literature about how to play whist was written.
Players
There are four players in two fixed partnerships. Partners sit facing each other. The game is played clockwise.
Cards
A standard 52 card pack is used. The cards in each suit rank from highest to lowest: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.
Deal
Whistlin Diesel
The cards are shuffled by the player to dealer's left and cut by the player to dealer's right. The dealer deals out all the cards one at a time so that each player has 13. The final card, which will belong to the dealer, is turned face up to indicate which suit is trumps. The turned trump remains face up on the table until it is dealer's turn to play to the first trick.
It is traditional to use two packs of cards. During each deal, the dealer's partner shuffles the other pack and places it to the right. The dealer for the next hand then simply needs to pick up the cards from the left and pass them across to the right to be cut. Provided all the players understand and operate it, this procedure saves time and helps to remember whose turn it is to deal, as the spare pack of cards is always to the left of the next dealer.
Play
The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick. Any card may be led. The other players, in clockwise order, each play a card to the trick. Players must follow suit by playing a card of the same suit as the card led if they can; a player with no card of the suit led may play any card. The trick is won by the highest trump in it - or if it contains no trump, by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next.
Scoring
When all 13 tricks have been played, the side which won more tricks scores 1 point for each trick they won in excess of 6.
The partnership which first reaches 5 points wins the game. This will normally take several deals.
Whisk Card Game
Variations
Honours
Honours are the top four trumps - A K Q J. A partnership which between them held all four honours in their hands score an extra 4 points, which they claim at the end of the play. A side which held three of the four honours can claim 2 points for them. A team which at the start of the already has 4 points towards the 5 required for game cannot score honours on that deal.
If on the same deal one side scores for tricks and the other side scores honours, the tricks are scored first. That means that if both sides would have reached 5 or more points, it is the side scoring for tricks that wins the game.
Whistlindiesel Shot
Although scoring honours was part of the traditional game, nowadays many players do not count them. Scoring for honours introduces a larger luck element into the game.
Determination of Trumps
Instead of determining trumps by facing the last card in the deal, an alternative is to fix the trump suit in advance. In this case it is normal to go through the trump suits in a fixed sequence - for the first deal hearts are trumps, for the second deal diamonds, then spades, then clubs, then hearts again, and so on. This method is commonly used in tournaments, such as whist drives.
It is also possible to introduce no trumps into the sequence - so that every fifth hand is played without trumps.
Scoring
The number of points required for game varies. In America a target of 7 was customary. In Britain the game was 5 points up, but it was usual to play a rubber which was the best of three games - that is, the winners were the first side to win two games. There was also 'Long Whist' in which game was 10 points.
When playing a tournament, it is inconvenient to have people at different tables play varying numbers of deals before moving. Therefore it is usual to play a fixed number of deals, rather than a game. Each player's score is the total number of odd tricks (tricks above six) that their side has taken over the deals played.
Other Whist WWW Sites
Doncaster Whist Club is an active and friendly club that runs whist drives in various formats four evenings per week.
Rules of classic Whist are also available at the Card Game Heaven web site.
The collection HOYLE Card Games for Windows or Mac OS X includes a Whist program, along with many other popular games.
You can play classic Whist online at CardzMania.com.
You can download a freeware classic Whist program from Thanos Card Games.
Whist can be played online at TrapApps.
Jean-François Bustarret's page Le Whist has rules in French.
AOL games (formerly games.com / Masque publishing) has an online Whist game.
With the Whist program from Special K Software you can play classic Whist against computer opponents.
At DKM Whist from the CardSharp suite you can play Whist online against three computer opponents.