A standard deck of playing cards is used in this game but, like in Bridge, many people prefer to have two so that the game isn’t delayed by shuffling. Partners should sit facing each other and the game is played clockwise. Whist is a 4-player game, where there are two fixed partners. Bridge, of course, was the social standard in mid-20 th Century polite company and played around the world. By the 1890s, a new variant of Whist, known as Bridge, became popular. Edmond Hoyle, an English writer best known for his works on the rules and play of card games, is suspected to have been a member of this group and published his pamphletĪ Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742. Whist was purportedly first played by a party of gentlemen who frequented the Crown Coffee House in Bedford Row, London, around 1728. The idea of a trick-taking card game comes from the French physician and author Rabelais (1493–1553) who developed a game called “ La Triomphe” where tarot (the deck commonly used for fortune telling) cards were played and highest-ranking card takes the trick. which had become the dominant such game and enjoyed a loyal following for centuries. Derived from the popular 17 th Century trick taking game known as “ Ruff and Honours,” Whist literally takes its name from the old English word whist meaning quiet, silent, attentive, which is the root of the modern wistful.

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

How to play whist 2 player