Old-Time Card Games

If you were a serious card player in an era not so long ago, you'd be gathering your friends up for a rousing game of Whist.  Of course, in recent years, most dedicated card players have turned to Bridge instead, but Whist was extremely popular during the 18th and 19th centuries and is still played frequently in Great Britain today.  "Whist drives" are tournaments that are held all over England on the local level.

What separates Whist from other plain-trick card games is that it is done without bidding.  There are generally four players and the partners are fixed, a common feature that games of Hand 'n Foot also share.  Whist is played with a standard 52 card deck, with the aces being the high card.  The dealer deals starting to his left, and each player receives a total of 13 cards.  The final card of the dealer's is flipped up and that suit becomes trump.  The player to the left of the dealer leads the play and may play any suit that he or she pleases, other players must play the same suit as the first player unless they are unable to.  The trick is then captured by whatever the highest trump played was.  If there were no trumps played in the trick, then the highest card of the suit led claims victory.

Whist is a relatively simple game that has developed several variations in order to keep play fresh. In this way it is vastly different from Hand 'n Foot, which is much more complex to begin with and has required no alterations to keep games interesting.  Still, card lovers may like to try their hands at games of Whist once and awhile too.