How to Play Minnesota-Style Whist

Whist is a centuries-old “trick taking” card game. It originated in England, but there are now dozens, maybe hundreds, of regional variations. Here’s how to play a variation commonly known as Minnesota-style Whist.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Four players (age ten and older)
• Standard deck of playing cards, without the jokers

1. Divide the players into two pairs. Sit opposite your partner.

2. Randomly choose someone to be the dealer for the first hand. Dealer duties will rotate clockwise with each subsequent hand.

3. Deal out the entire pack of cards one at a time, beginning with the player on your left and proceeding clockwise. Each player should end up with a hand of thirteen cards, facedown in front of them on the table.

4. Look at and sort your cards and try to figure out—-without seeing your partner’s cards—-whether the team can take at least seven of the thirteen tricks. Aces are high and there is no trump.

5. Place any black card from your hand facedown on the table in front of you if you believe you can take seven of the thirteen tricks. If you don't, you should place a red card facedown on the table. This is called “bidding.”

6. Starting with the person to the dealer’s left, each player should flip over his bid card until a black card is revealed. As soon as a black card is turned over, the bidding is over and that player and his partner are “going high”—-trying to take a majority of the tricks. If all four players turn over a red card, the hand is “going low,” which means that both pairs are trying not to take a majority of the tricks.

7. Know that if the hand is “going high,” the player to the right of the person who bid high leads the first trick. If the hand is “going low,” the player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick. Regardless of whether the hand is high or low, the winner of each trick leads the subsequent trick. To help you keep track of who leads, remember the rhyme “Black (high), back. Red (low), ahead.”

8. Play each trick until all the cards are gone. Place the tricks that each pair has taken in front of one of the partners. Ace is the highest card, followed by king, queen, jack, ten and so on, down to two. There is no trump.

9. Points are awarded at the end of the hand as follows. If one of the teams bid high and succeeded in taking a majority of the tricks, they are awarded one point for each trick over six. Thus, seven tricks = one point, eight tricks = two and so forth. If one team bid high but the other team won the majority of the tricks, they have “set” the bidding team and are awarded double points. Thus, seven tricks = two points, eight = four points, nine = six and so on.

10. Consider that if all four players bid low, the objective is to make the other team take the majority of the tricks. Thus, the points are awarded to the team that takes less than seven tricks, as follows. Six tricks = one point, Five tricks = two and so on.

11. Know that each hand can be either high or low—-there is no limit on how many times a team may bid high. Continue playing hands until one team reaches 13 points. That team has won the game. A match is a best-of-three game series.

Tips & Warnings

• During the bidding process, the card you use, whether red or black, should be a low card (such as a two, three or four.) This will ensure that your opponents know as little as possible about the high cards in your hand.
• Don’t bid high unless you have a really great hand. Most Whist hands (upwards of eighty percent) are “low” hands. Many novice Whist players bid high much more often than they should.

[char540]

on 7/12/2009 Good tips - good explanations