How to Play Whist: Popular variants in Moldova and rules

Whist is a card game for 3 to 6 people, in which you don't win by collecting as many hands as possible, but by guessing exactly how many you'll have. Before the round, each player announces how many tricks they think they'll take, and whoever guesses right scores points.

What is Whist?

Whist is a card game played on "tricks". A "trick", or a hand, is the total of the cards played in one round, and whoever plays the highest card collects them all.

Before each round, every player says how many tricks they think they'll make, and the goal is to hit that exact number, no more, no less. A player who thinks they'll make 3 tricks and makes 3 scores more than one who makes 4 without having announced them.

If you'd also like to discover the world of casino games, you can start with the guide on online gambling, available at a licensed online casino.

What you need to play

You need a standard 52-card deck, at least three players and a sheet to keep score. That's it.

You don't always use all the cards. Eight are dealt per person, starting from the highest, and how many stay in play depends on how many of you are at the table. With 3 players, the lowest card in play will be the 9. With 4, it drops to the 7, and so on. The order of values is the classic one: the Ace is the highest, followed by the king, queen, jack, then 10, 9 and the rest.

Whist belongs to the same family as the game of Bridge, only its rules are easier to pick up.

How a round is played

Let's have you see how a round goes, so it's perfectly clear:

• The first player, the one to the dealer's left, plays a card on the table.
• The others are required to respond with a card of the same suit.
• If a player doesn't have the suit asked for, they play a trump, in case the round has one.
• If they have neither the suit nor a trump, they throw down any other card.

The trump in whist is the round's special suit, which beats all the other suits. A trump card, however small, defeats any card in an ordinary suit. For example, if the trump is hearts, a 2 of hearts beats an Ace of clubs.

How the cards are dealt in Whist

Whist isn't played in a single round, but in a series of several games, in which the number of cards gradually rises and falls. You start with games of one card per person, as many rounds as there are players at the table. Then the number goes up by one each turn, up to 8 cards per person.

For example, at a table of 4 players, the sequence looks like this:

• 1, 1, 1, 1
• 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
• 8, 8, 8, 8
• 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
• 1, 1, 1, 1

The dealer, the one who deals, changes each round in a clockwise direction, so everyone takes a turn in this role.

Bidding the tricks

Tricks are announced in turn, starting with the player to the dealer's left. Once said, the announcement is final. There's one essential rule: the sum of all the announcements is not allowed to equal the number of cards in each person's hand in that round.

In practice, it's impossible for everyone to hit their prediction. The last to bid, usually the dealer, is required to announce a figure that breaks that balance, so someone will always miss. In a round with 6 cards, for example, the sum of the announcements can't be exactly 6.

How the score is calculated

• If you hit exactly the number of tricks you announced, you get 5 points plus one point for each trick made.
• If you make more than you announced, you're penalised 1 point for each extra trick.
• If you make fewer, you're penalised 1 point for each missing trick.

Popular variants in Moldova

The most widespread is the one described above, with several sets of games from 1 to 8 and back. Some groups, however, start straight from 8 cards, go down to 1 and then climb again, which simply reverses the order. Other tables change the scoring, awarding a bonus to whoever announces and makes a large number of tricks.

Our advice, after many games, is to set the exact rules from the start, with all the players.

Conclusion

Once you get the 3 basics, the split into several games, the bidding of tricks and the scoring, the rest is very easy. It's learned in 5 minutes, but you get the hang of it even better after a few games, when you start remembering which cards have already been played.

Slot.md is the only legally licensed online casino in the Republic of Moldova, so everything you play happens within a safe and supervised environment.

Gambling is intended exclusively for people over the age of 21 and should be treated as entertainment, not as a way to make money.

Frequently asked questions

1. How many players are needed for a game of whist?

Whist is played with 3 to 6 players. It's an individual game, not a team one, and many consider the 4-player version to offer the best balance.

2. How many cards does each player get?

The number varies over the course of the game, from a single card up to 8 per person. A standard 52-card deck is used, from which only the highest cards are dealt, depending on how many players are at the table.

3. What does it mean to bid the tricks?

It means announcing, before the round, how many hands you think you'll win. The announcement is final, and the goal is to hit that exact number, because the scoring rewards precision.

4. When is it played without a trump?

In the 8-card games, when the whole deck is dealt out and there's no card left to turn over to set the trump. These rounds are played strictly on suit.

5. How is the winner decided?

You add up the points from all the rounds. The player with the highest total score wins, meaning the one who hit their predictions most often.