9. The Whist Family

Back in the 1890's the games editor of an English maga­zine received a letter to this effect:

"My son, aged 9, has seen his elders playing Whist and now wishes to learn the game. Can you recommend to me some simple game I can teach him, which will serve as an introduction to Whist?" The editor replied,
"Yes, I can recommend such a game. The game is Whist."

The fact is that the rules of Whist are simple and few. They can be learned in two minutes. Whist is just about the simplest of all card games to play at. What is not so easy is to play Whist well, for its extraordinary scope for skillful play lets the expert pull miles ahead of the beginner.

WHIST

Number of Players: 4, in partnerships.

Cards: Each receives 13 cards, dealt one at a time. The last card of the deck, belonging to the dealer, is exposed to all the players. This card decides the trump suit for that hand.

Rank: In every suit the cards rank
(Highest) AKQJ 10 98765432 (Lowest)

The Play: The player at left of the dealer makes the first lead. The hands are played out in tricks. A player must follow suit to the lead if he can. Otherwise he may play or lead as he pleases. A 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 makes the lead for the next trick.

One member of each partnership gathers together all the tricks won by his side. The tricks are not thrown together in a single pile, but are overlapped so that each batch of four cards remains separated from the others.

Object of Play: To win as many tricks as possible.

Scoring: The side that wins a majority of the tricks scores 1 point for each trick over 6. These are called odd tricks.
In addition, points are scored for honors. The honors are the A, K, Q, and J of trumps. If two honors were dealt to each side, there is no score. If one side received 3 honors, it scores 2; for all 4 honors, the score is 4.

Remember that honors are scored by the side to which they are dealt, not won in play. Both sides may score in the same deal, one side winning a majority of tricks and the other side holding a majority of honors.

Game: Points for odd tricks and honors are accumulated, and the side first reaching a total of 7 points wins a game.

DUMMY WHIST

This is an adaptation of the game to 3 players. Four hands are dealt as usual, the extra hand or "dummy" being dealt opposite the dealer. The latter plays the dummy as well as his own hand against the two live opponents. Of course, dealer must be careful to play from his two hands in proper turn. He has a great advantage over his opponents, since he sees all 26 cards on his side. The fairest scoring is to play 3, 6, or 9 deals—each player having the same number of turns to deal—then the player with highest cumulative score is declared the winner.

BRIDGE WHIST

This is the same as basic Whist in the play, but has a num­ber of complications arising from a different way of deciding trumps.

No trump card is turned. The dealer may name trumps, if he wishes, or he may pass. If he does pass, his partner must name the trump. Any of the four suits may be named trumps, or the player may call "no trumps," meaning that the hand will be played without a trump suit.

After the trump (or no trump) is named, either opponent may declare "I double." After such a double, either member of dealer's side may declare "I redouble" or "I double back." The sides may redouble alternately without limit, until one side quits. Then the cards are played.

After the opening lead, by the player at left of the dealer, dealer's partner puts his hand face up on the table. The dealer then plays the "dummy" and his own hand, just as in Dummy Whist.

The side winning a majority of the tricks scores each odd trick as follows:

If trumps were _ sp  cl    dia  he   NT
Each odd trick counts          2    4     6     8    10
Each double or redouble that was made multiplies by 2 the score of the winners.

Points are scored also for honors, but are kept separate from points for odd tricks. The side that first reaches 30 in odd tricks wins a game. The side that wins 2 out of 3 games wins a rubber, and earns a bonus of 100.

The honor count is considerably "gingered up" over that of

Whist. At a trump declaration, the honors are the 5 top trumps. They are scored thus:
Side with 3 honors or chicane,
Multiply odd-trick value by 2 4 honors, divided between partners,
Multiply odd-trick value by 4 4 honors in one hand,
Multiply odd-trick value by   8
4Â Â Â Â Â honors in one hand, 5th in partner's,
Multiply odd-trick value by  9
5Â Â Â Â Â honors in one hand,
Multiply odd-trick value by 10
(The direction "Multiply odd-trick value by ..." gives the amount scored for the honors, which do not affect the scor­ing of the odd tricks.)
Chicane is a hand without a trump.
At no trump, the honors are the 4 Aces. They are scored:
Side with 3 Aces ______ Â 30
4 Aces, divided________ 40
4 Aces in one hand_____ 100
If one side wins all 13 tricks, it scores a bonus of 40 for
grand slam. For winning 12 tricks, a little slam, there is a bonus of 20.

The score is kept on paper. The scoresheet is divided into two halves by a vertical line. All the scores for one side (WE) are entered in the left column, and the scores of the other (THEY) in the right. The sheet is also divided by a horizontal line, somewhat below the middle. Only odd-trick scores are entered "below the line," and they are accumu­lated to determine when a game (30) has been won. All other scores go "above the line." When the table breaks up, each column is added up to determine the grand total won by each side—for odd tricks, honors, slams, rubbers.

NULLO GAMES

In all nullo games the object of play is to avoid win­ning tricks, or avoid taking certain cards in tricks. Most of the games are especially easy for children to learn, because they have practically no other rules. Only in Omnibus Hearts do we find the added wrinkle that you DO want to win some cards while you DON'T want to win others.

FOUR JACKS (POLIGNAC)

Number of Players: 4, 5, or 6.

Cards: With 4 players, 32 cards—a full deck with all 2's to 7's discarded. All the cards are dealt; each player thus receives 8.
With 5 or 6 players, 30 cards—same as above, but the two black 7's also discarded. Each player receives 6 or 5 cards.

The Play: Player at left of the dealer leads first. The hands are played out in tricks. There is no trump suit. Each trick is won by the highest card played of the suit led. The object is generally to avoid winning any Jack. But before the opening lead, any player may announce that he will try to win all the tricks. This is called capot.

Scoring: To begin a game, equal numbers of counters are distributed to all players. Payments for Jacks and capot are made into a common pool, which is divided equally among all the players when the game ends. Whenever one player is down to his last counter, all players take equal numbers of counters from the pool.

If capot is announced and made, every other player must pay 5 counters. But if the capot player fails to win all the tricks, he alone pays 5 counters.

When capot is not announced, the player who takes the Jack of Spades (called Polignac) must pay 2 counters into the pool, and 1 must be paid for each of the other three Jacks.

SLOBBERHANNES