Whist Card Game

Yes, on this page. The table runs in your browser with three computer players, your partner and two opponents, at Easy, Standard or Expert, with nothing to install and no sign-up. Your practice match is saved in the browser, so a refresh offers to continue it.

Four players in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite, get thirteen cards each. The dealer's last card is turned face up and its suit is trump. The player left of the dealer leads; everyone must follow suit if they can, and the highest trump, or the highest card of the suit led if no trump was played, wins the trick. After thirteen tricks the side with more than six scores one point per extra trick. First to 7 wins.

By default the dealer's last card is dealt face up and stays on the table until the first lead, then the dealer picks it up. In Options you can switch to rotating trump instead: hearts, spades, diamonds, clubs, then a no-trump hand, repeating in that order.

One point for each trick over six. Seven tricks score one, eight score two, and taking all thirteen scores seven, which wins a game to 7 on the spot. Only the side with the majority of tricks scores on a hand.

The ace, king, queen and jack of trump. With the honours option on, a partnership dealt all four scores four extra points and one dealt three scores two, whether or not it won the hand. Honours cannot take a team to the target: only trick points can win the game. Honours are off by default.

This table seats four. There is no two-hand variant on this page.

A hand is thirteen tricks and scores between one and seven points, so a game to 7 is at least one hand and usually several. Set Game to 5 in Options for a shorter match, or 9 for a longer one. The computer speed setting changes how quickly the computer players play.

Yes. It is the ancestor of Bridge and the base of Bid Whist, Oh Hell and Spades, and it is still played at clubs and whist drives. Several browser sites offer it, and this page adds difficulty levels, a hint and a strategy guide.

Whist has no bidding: trump is turned up or rotates, and each trick over six scores one point. Bid Whist adds an auction, uptown and downtown directions, two jokers and a kitty. Bridge adds a much larger bidding system, a dummy hand and contract scoring. Our Bid Whist page plays the first of those variations.

The practice table on this page stays free. To play with friends, open a HopLobby lobby and send one link: our party games run in the browser too.

Choose Easy, Standard or Expert in Options; your partner plays at the same level as the opponents. Easy plays its highest card most of the time and slips now and then. Standard leads from length, returns its partner's suit, plays second hand low and third hand high, and counts trumps. Expert simulates the cards it cannot see before every play. No level can see your hand or anyone else's.

Yes, in practice. Hint shows the card the Standard computer would play, with a one-line reason, and Deal with a guide walks you through your first hand. Last trick shows the trick just played.