Q&A for How to Play Whist

No. That can be considered cheating.

The dealer is decided by some random assignment, such as who is dealt an ace first. Or, in less formal settings, whoever wants to deal first can do so.

If you have one, an ace! Higher cards are good, but keep low trump cards for later; they can easily be destroyed at this point.

Yes, they do bet money.

The game of Whist is based around trumps, and the trump circulates each round. The four suits are clubs, spades, diamonds and hearts. If the trump for a round is hearts, you have to play a heart. The highest card wins. If you don't have any hearts, you may play a card of another suit, but you won't be guaranteed.

If hearts are trump, the queen is a good high trump card - there are only 2 cards higher ranking. Otherwise, it is subject to being trumped by any one of 13 trump cards and could also lose to the ace or king of hearts.

Yes, you do, since the first team to reach a predetermined number of points wins the game.

No, you have to remember what cards have been played. As a priority, keep track of all cards played higher than the cards you hold. Especially count trump cards.

The dealing has gone wrong and the round should be played again, all equally having 13 cards so no extra card is possible.

No, from the moment 11 tricks are made by one team, it is an automated game, as 11-6=5 points.

No, it can't. This is a four person partner game.

There is no suit order, only ranking order of suits (i.e., 2,3,4 etc.). Each suit has an equal chance of being trump. Other than being the trump suit, no suit ranks higher than any other.

You can lead with a joker, but in a trump it is worthless and cannot take a trick, so the next person to play is the one determining the suit of the round.