WHIST

card game belonging to a family that includes bridge whist, auction bridge, and contract bridge, each of which developed in succession from the original game of whist. The essential features of card games in the whist family are: four people usually play, two against two as partners; a full 52-card deck is dealt out evenly so that each player holds 13 cards; and the object of play is to win tricks, each trick consisting of one card played by each player. Before play begins, one suit may be designated trump, in which case any card in that suit beats any card of the other suits. In whist, trump is determined by turning up the last card dealt. The game is generally conceded to have originated in England, and the name whist, or whisk, first appeared there in the early 17th century. At first whist was a game for the lower classes, but early in the 18th century it was taken up by gentlemen in London's coffeehouses. In 1742 the first book wholly devoted to it, Edmond Hoyle's Short Treatise on Whist, was published and became a best-seller. The game then became extremely popular throughout fashionable English society, spreading quickly to Europe and America and remaining for 150 years the king of card games (until it was supplanted by its successor, bridge whist). Whist is played as follows. The two players facing each other are partners against the other two. The cards are dealt singly, and the last is turned up to determine the trump suit. The dealer takes this card into his hand when it becomes his turn to play to the first trick. The player at the left of the dealer leads by playing any one of his cards face upward on the table, and each player in turn, clockwise, contributes a card of the same suit if he can; if he cannot, he may play any card, including a trump. The four cards played constitute a trick, which is gathered up, or taken, by the side that played the highest card of the suit led or the highest trump. The winner of a trick leads to the next, and play continues until every card has been played. The side winning the most tricks scores a point for each odd trick (i.e., each trick after the first six taken). As far as strategy is concerned, the best results are achieved by winning tricks with the lowest sufficient card and by capturing high cards played by the opponents whenever possible. The players try to gauge the whereabouts of the unplayed cards and, by collaborating with their partners, to win tricks, not only with high cards and trumps but with low cards that become winners when all the higher cards in the suit have been played. The development of an optimum strategy is difficult, for each player's hand is known only to himself, and information can be exchanged only by signalingi.e., playing one's cards in a sequence that, by convention, conveys a message. The best strategy in whist, however, as in its successor games, is simply to lead from one's longest and strongest suit. The widespread employment of this strategy led to a most valuable device, formulated by Robert F. Foster in 1889 and known as the rule of 11. This rule is based on the practice of leading the fourth-highest card of one's longest suit. By subtracting the number of the card led from 11, one knew the number of higher cards not held by the leader. The preoccupation with increasingly elaborate signaling devices turned whist into a ritual, and by the late 19th century players were ready to adopt the new game of bridge whist, which was introduced in New York and London in 189394 and quickly supplanted whist as a fashionable game. By 1897 almost all the leading whist players had switched to bridge whist. Bridge whist introduced several innovations into whist that allow more scope for the play of the intellect. In whist, the trump suit was determined simply by turning up the last card dealt to the dealer, and each player held and played his own hand. In bridge whist, by contrast, the trump suit is named by the dealer, or, at the dealer's option, by his partner. There is also the option of requiring that the hand be played without a trump suit (no-trump). The dealer's partner always becomes the dummy, and his hand, exposed after the opening lead is made, is played by the dealer. Bridge whist's scoring is more elaborate than that of whist, for, after the dealer (or his partner) has declared the trump suit, either of the opposing players can double, which means doubling the scoring values of the tricks. The side that wins the majority of the tricks in a hand scores, for each odd trick (any over the first six), the following: if spades are trumps, 2 points; clubs, 4 points; diamonds, 6 points; hearts, 8 points; and no-trump, 12 points; these values can be doubled and redoubled as previously determined. The first side to score 30 or more points wins a game, and the first side to win two games wins the rubber and a 100-point bonus. The exposure of the dummy in bridge whist gave the other three players a basis for reasoning and inference that had been lacking in whist and thus made the play of the hand a much more cerebral activity. The new method of determining the trump suit introduced another element of volition, and the no-trump call brought with it a new range of tactical problems in the development of long suits. The new game was known at first simply as bridge but was renamed bridge whist to distinguish it from auction bridge. The latter game was introduced in the first decade of the 20th century and had completely supplanted bridge whist in popularity by the 1920s. See also bridge. Whist itself continues to have a following in Great Britain and parts of North America, but it is insignificant compared to that of contract bridge. Variations of whist include solo whist, Boston whist (Boston), and vint.