VINT

also called Russian whist card game resembling both whist and bridge. It is sometimes called Russian whist because of its popularity in that country toward the end of the 19th century, when bridge was becoming popular in the Western world. Vint is similar to bridge in the auction to determine the bid and the trump, and to whist in the play of the cards. Like both games, it is a four-handed game with partnerships of two. In bidding, the suits rank, from low to high, spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts, and no-trump. Contract is established after eight consecutive passes. Regardless of the trump situation, each contracted odd trick (those beyond the book of six tricks) scores (below the line) 10 times the value of the contract (10 if the bid was one trick, 20 if it was two, and so on). The first side to make 500 below the line wins. Above-line bonuses are 1,000 for winning a game, 2,000 for winning the rubber (two games); for taking 13 tricks, the bonus is 2,000 + 5,000 if six was bid, 10,000 if seven was bid. A player who defeats a contract gets 100 times the trick value per undertrick.