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  The Rules of Contract Whist  
 

Playing the Game

In the first round each player will be dealt 10 cards. For a 10 round game the number of cards is decremented after each round so that in the last round each player will have 1 card. A 19 round game follows the same format as the 10 round game for the first ten rounds. After round 10 the number of cards for each round is incremented such that in the final round each player will have 10 cards.

The game is divided into two phases. These are the bidding and the playing phases.


Bidding

At the start of each round each player is dealt a number of cards and each player makes a bid. The aim of the bid is to predict the number of tricks that a person will win in that round. Each player can bid from 0 to the number of cards held, excluding the last player to bid. He/she is not allowed to bid such that the total bid adds up to the number of cards held. E.g If there are 10 cards and each player bids 3, 3, 3 then the last player to bid cannot bid 1.

Playing

One player designated the lead plays a card. The lead is free to play any card in his/her hand. Players that follow the lead must play a card in the suit lead if they hold any cards in that suit. If no card in the suit lead is held, then any card from his/her hand may be played.

Trumps

Each round is designated as a trump or no-trump round. Trumps will cycle in the following order: Spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs, no trumps.

Winning a Trick

1. No-Trump round

The winner of a trick is the person who plays the highest card in the suit lead.

2. Trump round

If no trumps are played, the winner of a trick is the person who plays the highest card in the suit lead. If any trumps are played, the winner of the trick is the person who plays the highest trump.

Lead

The lead is the player who has won the previous trick.

Scoring

The user can choose between two versions of scoring.

Score on lost bid

Each player will score 1 point for each trick won. If a player wins the same number of tricks that he/she bid then he/she will score a bonus of 10 points.

No score on lost bid

Each player will only score points when he/she wins the same number of tricks that he/she bid. He/she will score 1 point for each trick won, plus a bonus of 10 points.

The Winner


The winner of the game is the player with the most points after 10 rounds for a 10 round game, and after 19 rounds for a 19 round game

 
     
 

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