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Step 1
As soon as you are dealt your hand, sort it by suits and arrange it in order from lowest cards to the ace within suits. This will give you a good idea of what kind of hand you have.
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Step 2
After you’ve sorted your hand into ascending card values within suits, decide whether you want to bid high or low. As a general rule, assume that your partner can't take more than one or two tricks. That means, if you want to bid high, you should have at least five or six “winners” in your hand. A winner is a high card that you know will take a trick because it’s the highest card in that suit (the ace) or because you have all the higher cards of that suit in your hand. For example, if you have the ace of spades, the ace and king of clubs, and the ace, king, and queen of hearts, you have six winners. That would be an exceptionally strong hand, and you would definitely bid high.
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Step 3
Besides a hand similar to the one listed above, another strong high hand is one in which you have five or more cards in one suit and two or three winners in other suits. For example, you might have the ace of diamonds, the ace of clubs and the ace, queen, jack, eight, five and three of hearts. This is a very strong hand because you have such a strong run of hearts that as soon as you take over the lead, you will probably not relinquish it for the entire hand. Be warned, however, that simply having a strong run in one suit is not enough to bid high. You should have a few winners in other suits to ensure that you can take control of the hand. Otherwise, the suit you are strong in might never be led. Remember, no one else will be very strong in that suit. Be sure you have high cards in other suits to “back up” your run.
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Step 4
Most Whist hands are “low” hands. It’s a common mistake for beginners to bid high in nearly every round, even when they don’t have a strong enough hand. Don’t make this mistake. Your mindset when looking at your hand for the first time should be, “This is probably a low hand.” Bid high only if you’re sure that it’s a high hand.
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Step 5
If you bid high but you can't take control of the hand because your strong suits aren’t being led, you can hint to your partner what suit you want her to lead if she gets control of the game. The first time during the hand when a suit is led that you don’t have, slough the lowest card from the suit you want led. For example, if you have a great run in clubs but no spades, play your lowest club the first time spades are led to tell your partner you want her to lead clubs if she gets control of the hand.
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Step 6
The strategy when playing low is pretty straightforward. Similar to Hearts, you want to get yourself short suited in one or two suits as quickly as possible. Once you’re short suited in a particular suit, start sloughing off your highest cards from other suits. Sometimes short suiting yourself will require you to lead with high cards and take one or two tricks, but this short-term sacrifice leads to long-term success if handled correctly.
