How to Play Whist
Description
The ancestor of bridge — four players, two partnerships, thirteen tricks, and no bidding. Just play the cards as well as you can and count the tricks at the end.
Objective
Team up with the player across from you and win more tricks than the other pair.
Setup
Four players in fixed partnerships, seated opposite each other.
Everyone gets thirteen cards.
The dealer's last card is turned face up to set the trump suit, then joins their hand.
Rules
The player left of the dealer leads the first trick.
Follow suit if you can; if you can't, you may play anything, including a trump.
Highest trump wins the trick — if no trump was played, highest card of the suit led wins.
Whoever wins a trick leads the next one.
Winning
Each pair scores one point for every trick they take beyond six.
The pair with more points at the end of the game wins.
Play to an agreed target — typically five or seven points — across multiple hands, or as the table decides.