Bid Whist♠

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Players and cards

4 play, partners opposite, with ordinary 52 cards plus 2 distinguishable jokers, big and little: 54 total. Play clockwise. Choose dealer randomly then rotate left. A team aims for +7 while avoiding −7. No monetary stakes are needed.

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Deal and opening

Shuffle, cut on the right and deal 12 each, setting 6 face down as kitty. Do not put the first 4 or last 4 cards into it. Dealer’s left starts a single auction circuit: each speaks once, passing or overcalling. After three passes the dealer must bid.

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Bid, direction and kitty

Bid 3 through 7 for that many books beyond 6: a bid of 4 needs 10 of 13 counted books. Specify uptown, downtown or no-trump. Higher number wins; at equal number no-trump outranks a suit bid, while uptown and downtown tie and cannot overcall each other.

A suit winner names trump; a no-trump winner chooses uptown or downtown. Then take the 6 kitty cards and bury any 6 face down. The burial already counts as one team book; play the remaining 12. Bidder leads first.

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Playing a turn

Uptown ranks high to low A–K–Q–J–10–9–8–7–6–5–4–3–2. Downtown ranks A–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–J–Q–K: ace remains highest. With trumps, big joker then little joker outrank every trump.

Follow suit if able. Otherwise play anything; trumping and overtaking are optional. Highest trump, otherwise highest led-suit card, wins and leads next. A joker belongs to the trump suit; it must follow a trump lead if no other trump is held.

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Jokers at no-trump

At no-trump jokers cannot win. Discard one only when void in the led suit; there is no replacement from kitty. If a joker is led, the first non-joker establishes the requested suit; before it any card may be played. Highest in that established suit wins. The selected uptown/downtown rank order remains.

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Scoring

Count 12 played books plus kitty: 13 total. If the bidding side takes at least its bid plus 6, score actual books beyond 6, not merely the bid. On failure subtract the bid, with no capture credit. At no-trump double either result. Defenders always score 0. For an established revoke transfer 3 books from the offending side; if it owns fewer than 3, treat opponents as winning all 13.

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Ending the game

Start each team at 0. After a completed deal, +7 or more wins and −7 or worse loses. Only bidders change score, so there is no simultaneous finishing tie. Otherwise rotate dealer and shuffle captures together with kitty. Awarding defenders points is a different profile.

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History and selected variant

Bid Whist developed within the Whist family and is especially associated with African-American card culture in the USA. The sources establish no sole inventor. We fix Pagat’s 54-card profile: minimum 3, ace high downtown, and jokers retained at no-trump. Minimum 4 and different joker handling require separate agreement.

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Worked example

In downtown with spades trump, A leads 3♥; B follows A♥, C K♥ and D 2♥. B wins: ace beats two and king is lowest. If B’s team bid 4 and takes 10 counted books including kitty, it scores +4. With 9 books it would score −4; at no-trump these results would be +8 or −8.

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Common questions