German whist

Last updated
German whist
OriginBritain
Type Plain-trick game
Players2
Cards52
Deck French
Rank (high→low)A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
PlayAlternate
Playing time15 min
Related games
Whist

German whist is a variant of classic whist for two players in which the reward for winning the first 12 tricks is to add a particular card to your hand. Also called Chinese whist, it is probably of British origin.

Contents

There are several variations of this game, the most important difference between them being whether all 26 tricks count or only the last 13. The game is a skillful one, as in the second half both players can calculate exactly which 13 cards the opponent has, and plan their play based on that knowledge. [1]

Name

As well as German whist, the game goes under a variety of other names including Chinese whist and honeymoon whist. In Sweden the game is sometimes known as hamburger whist after the German city of Hamburg, [2] not to be confused with humbug whist (humbugwhist) which is a Swedish two-hand whist played with two blinds which may be exchanged by the players at the start of a hand.

History

German whist is a specific two-hand game that appears to originate in England. It should not be confused with the term "German whist" which is used generically to describe the culture and tactics of whist in Germany and also to describe whist packs sold in Germany. [lower-alpha 1] For example, Alexander Stephens in Johnson's Cyclopædia uses it to describe a four-hand variant of whist that was current in Germany in the late 19th century, [lower-alpha 2] [4] while "Portland" uses it to refer to the "bolder" way the Germans played whist compared with those in Britain. [5]

The specifically two-hand game of German whist was apparently popular "at Vienna among the diplomats" in the late 19th century. [6] Its rules are recorded as early as 1894 in the London periodical, Home Notes, in which the winner is the one who takes the majority of the 26 tricks, scoring in points their difference in tricks. [7] Three years later, it appears in America in R.F. Foster's Encyclopedia of Games. [8]

Rules

Players and cards

German whist is a two player game using a standard pack of 52 cards ranked A (high) K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 (low) in each suit.

The deal

The initial dealer is chosen by cutting the pack, and the turn to deal alternates after each hand. The dealer offers the pack to the non-dealer for cutting before dealing 13 cards, one at a time, non-dealer receiving first. The twenty-seventh card is placed face-up on the talon, i.e. the face-down pack. The suit of this first upcard becomes the trump suit for the entire hand. [9]

The play

The non-dealer chooses any card to play for the first trick and the other player must follow suit if able. If both cards are the same suit then the higher card wins. If they are of different suits the first player wins unless the second player played a trump to a side suit card, in which case the trump wins.

In the first stage of the game, the winner of each trick takes the face-up card and adds it to his or her hand, the loser then takes the face-down card below it without showing it to the opponent. The next card in the pack is then turned over and the winner plays first in the next trick. Thus the winner of the trick always gets a card known to the loser, while the loser of a trick receives a card unknown to the winner. The face-up card on the Talon has no part in the play of each trick. Each player stays with 13 cards in hand until the pack is exhausted. [9]

The second stage now begins, in which the remaining 13 tricks are played without replenishment until the cards in both players hands are exhausted. In this second stage of the game, won tricks are kept in front of the player who won them. [9]

Whoever wins the most tricks in the second stage wins the game. [9]

The game is "usually played for so much a point", the player with the majority of tricks receiving the difference between the number of his tricks and those of his adversary. Each hand is a separate game. [8]

Variations

In another version of the game the 27th card indicates whether the second stage of the game is to be played low or high. A black card means that the players should try to take as few tricks as possible, whereas a red card means they should try to take as many as possible.

One version of scoring is for the score count to begin at the 7th trick taken in the second stage. For instance in a high game 10 vs 3 cards gives 4 points to the one who took 10 tricks. If it was a low game, the 4 points goes to the other player.

Another variation is for all 26 tricks to be scored. This results in a score which is more affected by luck. [9]

Strategy

Although not all cards are shown (played or captured from the pack) after the first half of the game it is now possible to find out exactly which cards the other player has. The opponents cards are those which are not in the player's own hand and which have not been seen during the first half. It is no exaggeration to state that a significantly better player will always win, if not every hand at least most hands, independently of which cards the players randomly received in the initial deal.[ citation needed ]

The strategy for the two variants, in the first stage, is slightly different. In the first variant the player must balance winning the current trick against the probability of winning future tricks.

In the second variant the player must try to assemble the best possible hand for the endgame. This is however not as simple as it might appear. Assume hearts is trump and you begin the foreplay. You have four low hearts in your hand, but also several high-value spades, and the top card of the deck is the two of clubs. Now despite a "worthless" card to play for, playing one's highest trump might reveal the trump situation on the opponent's hand, and you will indeed reduce the numbers of trumps (which is not your strong suit), and finally, if the opponent plays a lower trump you will know that the opponent may have a large number of trumps (which is not the case if the opponent needs to play another suit) finally by "winning" the two of clubs, you will keep the advantage of deciding which suit is played next. In general it is a good idea to attempt to keep the lead, but not always at any cost.

Playing a card of same value as the card to play for is often good, when it comes to middle-value cards, such as 7 to 10, but even more important is to choose the suit wisely. It is also important remember that when the ace is gone, the king becomes the highest value card, and if the three top value cards in a suit are gone, then the jack is the highest card in that suit, etc. Also the lowest cards are important to know, especially when the play is low. The real "key" is however to know which suit to play, in order also to win lower-value cards, though not by playing too good a card from you hand. Do not focus so much on a bad card at the top of the deck, rather think of the suit to play. If the card to play for is one you wish to have, play a safe card. If the card to play for is a middle-value card, play a slightly higher card, but just enough high for the opponent to have difficulties to "come in".

When an ace is gone, the king becomes the highest card in the suit, etc. Try to remember which card is currently the highest in each suit. Count especially trumps. But don't be afraid to play trump, as long as it is likely your opponent actually also has trump. (If it is in your interest that the number of trump cards is reduced in the endgame especially) In "low" games try to build up long suits from the bottom. For example, 2-4-6-8-Q-K-A is a good sequence to have in a low endgame. Even better is 2-3-5-7-Q-K-A, from which you can give the lead to the opponent, provided at least one card of the same suit exists on the opponent's hand. But first play all single high cards as soon as possible. When playing low, it is very easy to get trapped and having to take all the last ten tricks due to a miscalculation. The twos are often more important than aces in high or trump games. (And as soon as a "deuce" vanishes in the foreplay, the three takes its place and so on.)

By counting every suit and the highest known card in every suit one may more easily determine which card one's opponent has (or close enough), when the endgame begins. Then you also know the best way to play the endgame cards. With exception of when playing low, the endgame is close to the playing part of bridge.

Humbug whist

Humbug whist (Swedish: humbugwhist) is a Swedish two-hand form of traditional whist. The cards are dealt to four hands. The last card is turned face up and indicates the trump suit. Each player must choose between keeping the hand dealt or discarding it and picking up one of the blind hands instead. Play is as per normal whist and points are awarded for each trick won over the first six. The traditional whist scoring system is used.

Footnotes

  1. See for example the "luxury" cards for sale in Lemcke's Illustrated Grammar of Skat. [3]
  2. In this version, game was 10 points excluding honours. The dealer's partner determined trump or passed the privilege to the left-hand opponent. The side making trump had to make one trick above the book; otherwise their opponents scored two for each trick they made over the book.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oh hell</span> Card game

Oh hell or contract whist is a trick-taking card game of British origin in which the object is to take exactly the number of tricks bid. It was first described by B. C. Westall around 1930 and originally called oh! well. It was said to have been introduced into America via the New York clubs in 1931. Phillips and Westall describe it as "one of the best round games".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trick-taking game</span> Type of card game

A trick-taking game is a card or tile-based game in which play of a hand centers on a series of finite rounds or units of play, called tricks, which are each evaluated to determine a winner or taker of that trick. The object of such games then may be closely tied to the number of tricks taken, as in plain-trick games such as contract bridge, whist, and spades, or to the value of the cards contained in taken tricks, as in point-trick games such as pinochle, the tarot family, briscola, and most evasion games like hearts. Trick-and-draw games are trick-taking games in which the players can fill up their hands after each trick. In most variants, players are free to play any card into a trick in the first phase of the game, but must follow suit as soon as the stock is depleted. Trick-avoidance games like reversis or polignac are those in which the aim is to avoid taking some or all tricks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whist</span> Trick-taking card game having origins in the 18th century

Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All fours (card game)</span> English card game

All fours is a traditional English card game, once popular in pubs and taverns as well as among the gentry, that flourished as a gambling game until the end of the 19th century. It is a trick-taking card game that was originally designed for two players, but developed variants for more players. According to Charles Cotton, the game originated in Kent, but spread to the whole of England and eventually abroad. It is the eponymous and earliest recorded game of a family that flourished most in 19th century North America and whose progeny include pitch, pedro and cinch, games that even competed with poker and euchre. Nowadays the original game is especially popular in Trinidad and Tobago, but regional variants have also survived in England. The game's "great mark of distinction" is that it gave the name 'jack' to the card previously known as the knave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bezique</span> 19th-century French card game for two players

Bezique or bésigue is a 19th-century French melding and trick-taking card game for two players that came to Britain and is still played today. The game is derived from piquet, possibly via marriage (sixty-six) and briscan, with additional scoring features, notably the peculiar liaison of the Q and J that is also a feature of pinochle, Binokel, and similarly named games that vary by country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euchre</span> Card game

Euchre or eucre is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the Midwestern United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 25, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. There are normally four players, two on each team, although there are variations for two to nine players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solo whist</span>

Solo whist is the English form of Wiezen, a simple game of the Boston family played in the Low Countries. It is a trick-taking card game for four players in which players can bid to make eight tricks in trumps with any partner, or a solo contract playing against the other three players. Thus it combines both partnership and cut-throat play. Scoring is with small stakes won or paid out on each hand.

Pedro is an American trick-taking card game of the all fours family based on auction pitch. Its most popular variant is known as cinch, double Pedro or high five which was developed in Denver, Colorado, around 1885 and soon regarded as the most important American member of the all fours family. Although it went out of fashion with the rise of auction bridge, it is still widely played on the western coast of the United States and in its southern states, being the dominant game in some locations in Louisiana. Forms of the game have been reported from Nicaragua, the Azores, Niobe NY, Italy, and Finland. The game is primarily played by four players in fixed partnerships, but can also be played by 2–6 individual players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bid whist</span> Card game

Bid whist is a partnership trick-taking variant of the classic card game whist. As indicated by the name, bid whist adds a bidding element to the game that is not present in classic whist. Bid whist, along with spades, remains popular particularly in U.S. military culture and a tradition in African-American culture.

Pitch is an American trick-taking game equivalent to the British blind all fours which, in turn, is derived from the classic all fours. Historically, pitch started as "blind all fours", a very simple all fours variant that is still played in England as a pub game. The modern game involving a bidding phase and setting back a party's score if the bid is not reached came up in the middle of the 19th century and is more precisely known as auction pitch or setback.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preferans</span> Trick-taking game

Preferans or Russian Preference is a 10-card plain-trick game with bidding, played by three or four players with a 32-card Piquet deck. It is a sophisticated variant of the Austrian game Préférence, which in turn descends from Spanish Ombre and French Boston. It is renowned in the card game world for its many complicated rules and insistence on strategical approaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jass</span> Card game

Jass is a family of trick taking, ace–ten card games and, in its key forms, a distinctive branch of the marriage family. It is popular in its native Switzerland as well as the rest of the Alemannic German-speaking area of Europe, Italian South Tyrol and in a few places in Wisconsin, Ohio, California, Oregon and Washington USA.

Cinch, also known as Double Pedro or High Five, is an American trick-taking card game of the all fours family derived from Auction Pitch via Pedro. Developed in Denver, Colorado in the 1880s, it was soon regarded as the most important member of the all fours family in the USA, but went out of fashion with the rise of Auction Bridge. The game is primarily played by 4 players in fixed partnerships, but can also be played by 2–6 individual players.

Shelem, also called Rok or similar, is an Iranian trick-taking card game with four players in two partnerships, bidding and competing against each other. Bidding and trump are declared in every hand by the bidding winner. Both the name and the point structure of this game are similar to the American game Rook, there being a possible connection between the two games. Though it isn't clear from which game it is derived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klaberjass</span> Card game

Klaberjass or Bela is a trick-taking ace–ten card game that is most popular in German communities. In its basic form it is a 9-card trick-and-draw game for two players using a 32-card piquet pack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euchre variants</span> Card game variants

The card game of Euchre has many variants, including those for two, three, five or more players. The following is a selection of the Euchre variants found in reliable sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack–nine games</span> Family of card game

Jack–nine card games, also known as the Jass group from the German term for the jack, form a family of trick-taking games in which the jack and nine of the trump suit are the highest-ranking trumps, and the tens and aces of all suits are the next most valuable cards. Games in this family are typically played by 2 or 4 players with 32 French-suited cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of card game terms</span>

The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific, but apply to a wide range of card games played with non-proprietary packs. It should not include terms solely related to casino or banking games. For glossaries that relate primarily to one game or family of similar games, see Game-specific glossaries.

Court piece is a trick-taking card game similar to the card game whist in which eldest hand makes trumps after the first five cards have been dealt, and trick-play is typically stopped after one party has won seven tricks. A bonus is awarded if one party wins the first seven tricks, or even all tricks. The game is played by four players in two teams, but there are also adaptations for two or three players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sjavs</span> Danish card game

Sjavs is a Danish card game of the Schafkopf family that is played in two main variants. In Denmark, it is a 3-player game, played with a shortened pack of 20 cards; in the Faroe Islands, where it is very popular, it is a four-hand, partnership game using a standard piquet pack of 32 cards.

References

  1. Swedish book "Kortoxen" by Einar Werner, 1989, ISBN   9789137087832, part "Hamburger Whist" (about half the book deals with rather advanced bridge)
  2. "Hamburger Whist" in the Swedish book "Kortoxen" by Einar Werner, 1989, ISBN   9789137087832
  3. Lembcke (1887), p. 67.
  4. Rheinhardt (1887), pp. 219–221.
  5. "Portland" (1894), pp. 347–348.
  6. Country Life (1901), p. 127.
  7. Home Notes (1894).
  8. 1 2 Foster (1897), pp. 146–147.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "German Whist". www.pagat.com. Retrieved 17 December 2023.

Bibliography

German Whist rules at pagat.com.