Whist Help

Whist Rules

Whist is played with 4 players using a standard 52-card deck. The default rules are described here. See Rule Options for the supported variations.

You form a team with the player sitting across from you. The game consists of multiple hands. Each team accumulates points as the hands are played. The first team to reach 5 points wins.

There are three stages to a hand: dealing, playing, and scoring.

Dealing

At the start of the game, the dealer is chosen randomly. The deal then rotates clockwise after each hand. Each player is dealt 13 cards. All cards are dealt face down except the dealer's last card, which is dealt face up for everyone to see. Its suit determines trump for the hand. The card remains face up until it is the dealer's turn to play on the first trick, when it is returned to the dealer's hand.

Play

The hand consists of 13 tricks. Each trick contains 4 cards, 1 card from each player. The player who plays the first card is the leader, and the suit of that card is the suit led. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick unless a trump card is played; in that case, the highest trump wins.

Cards rank from low to high as follows.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A.

The player to the left of the dealer makes the first lead and may lead any card from their hand. Play proceeds clockwise, with each player playing one card. Players must follow the suit led when able. A player who cannot follow suit may play any card.

After each player has played a card on the trick, the winning player takes the trick and places it aside until the scoring stage. This player is the leader of the next trick. The play stage continues until players have no cards left in their hands.

Scoring

After all tricks have been played, the number taken by each team is counted. The team that takes more than 6 tricks scores 1 point for each trick over 6. The other team scores 0 points. For example, if your team takes 8 tricks and the opponents take 5, your team scores 2 points and the opponents score 0.

The scores for the hand are added to the teams' total scores. The first team to reach 5 points wins the game.

Web Links

There are many helpful websites discussing Whist. Here are a few we found especially useful.

• Wikipedia
• Bicycle Cards
• Pagat.com

Learning Features

NeuralPlay Whist offers many features to help you learn and improve your play. These features may be enabled, disabled, or adjusted in Settings. The features include the following.

• Hints. By default, the AI shows a hint when you ask for one. In Settings, you may ask the AI to always show a hint, or ask the AI to check your play and show a hint only when its choice differs from yours.
• AI tricks taken estimate. When enabled, each hint shows the estimated number of tricks that will be taken for each legal play. This is an expected value averaged across many simulations. The AI-suggested play may differ from the play with the highest estimate because of partnership strategy or simulation noise.
• Card counter. When enabled, a counter shows which cards have been played.
• Competitive mode. Enable competitive mode to play without assistance. Hints, undo, viewing all hands, and other learning aids are disabled.

Rule Options

NeuralPlay Whist offers popular rule options so you can customize the game to your liking. Options include the following.

Playing

• Trump determination. Choose how trump is determined.
  • Dealer's last card. The dealer's last card is dealt face up, and its suit is trump for the hand.
  • Alternating suits. Trump follows the repeating sequence hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs. The dealer's last card is not turned face up.
  • Alternating suits with notrump. Trump follows the repeating sequence hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs, and notrump. The dealer's last card is not turned face up.
  • Always notrump. Every hand is played without a trump suit.
  • Always clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades. The selected suit is trump for every hand.

Scoring

• Honors bonus. Award bonus points to a team holding 3 or 4 of the top trump honors: J, Q, K, and A. Standard honors awards 2 points for 3 honors and 4 points for all 4. Half honors awards 1 point for 3 honors and 2 points for all 4. Honors may also be disabled. There is no honors bonus in a notrump hand. Honors points are added to the score, but cannot by themselves reach the game-over total; a team must score trick points to win the game.

Game Over

• Game over at. End the game when a team reaches a selected number of points, or after a selected number of hands. In a fixed-hand game, the team with the higher score after the final hand wins; the game may end in a tie.
• Points to game over. Choose the number of points required to win the game.
• Hands to game over. Choose the number of hands to play.

Computer Players

NeuralPlay computer players offer 6 levels of play. Level 1 is reasonably easy and good for beginners. Level 3 should be fun for most players. Level 6 is the most challenging.

The computer players use different AI methods depending on the level. Levels 1 and 2 use simple methods designed for beginners.

Level 3 uses a rule-based AI. Its rules include examples such as "In third seat, do not trump partner's high card" and "In fourth seat, play just high enough to take the trick when an opponent is winning." These rules provide consistent, logical play.

Levels 4 through 6 use Monte Carlo simulation to determine the best play. The AI deals the unknown cards randomly, tries each legal play, and plays the hand to the end to get a result. This is repeated for many possible deals. The average result for each legal play is computed, and the play with the best average result is chosen.

Levels 4 through 6 differ in how many possible deals they simulate. In general, more simulations produce more accurate estimates and better play. The tradeoff is that more simulations take more time, so level 6 may play more slowly than level 4, depending on the device.

Because levels 4 through 6 do not follow a fixed set of rules, you may observe either surprisingly good plays or odd mistakes that do not appear logical. Overall, our tests show that these levels play better than the rule-based level 3. The randomness also makes the computer players feel more human and less predictable.

If you prefer more consistent, logical, and predictable computer partners or opponents, level 3 may be best.

We are continuing to research and develop improvements to the computer players.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change the hand sorting?

See Settings → Hand Sorting. You can change the rank order and suit order, and choose to alternate red and black suits.

How do I reset my game settings to the defaults?

Go to the main screen and choose Menu → Reset.

What are North, South, East, and West (and N, S, E, and W)?

These are the player positions around the table. You are always South. North is your partner, and West and East are your opponents.

What does "claim" mean?

Claiming means that you or your team expect to take all the remaining tricks. When your hand is clearly high, you may claim to speed up play. The AI checks the claim; if it succeeds, the remaining tricks are awarded and the hand ends.

How do I contact NeuralPlay with suggestions and feedback?

Please contact us at support@neuralplay.com.