Romanian whist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Romanian whist is a variant of whist which is similar to the English or American game Oh Hell! It is currently popular in Romania, and there it is called "whist".
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[edit] Rules
Romanian whist is a game for 3 to 6 players (best for 4). Each player plays alone.
From a standard pack use 8 cards for every player (24 for 3 players, 32 for 4 players and so on). The cards rank as follows: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, and so on. They have no value, because it is a game for tricks only.
[edit] Deal
The first dealer is chosen at random. Then the turn to deal rotates clockwise after each hand.
The number of cards dealt to each player varies during the game. For the first few deals each player gets only one card. This continues for as many deals as there are players.
After this the number of cards dealt to each player increases by one with every deal until eventually all the cards are dealt, that is 8 cards each. Then as many deals are played with 8 cards each as there are players.
Then the number of cards dealt decreases again until every player gets only one card. Once more there are as many deals with one card each as there are players.
Example: With 4 players the whole game would consist of 24 deals, and the number of cards dealt each time would be as follows:
1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1.
After the cards are dealt, the next card is put face up; the suit of this card is trump. In the games with 8 cards there is no card left to turn, and these games are played without trumps.
[edit] Bidding
Every player in order, beginning with the player to dealer's left, says how many tricks he thinks he will get. The sum of all tricks bid must not be the same as the number of cards dealt to each player. (Example: game with four cards, three players: The first player says "2", the next "1". The third player must not say "1", because that would make the sum of the tricks 4. He must say 0, 2, 3 or 4).
The rule that the bids must not add up to the number of cards dealt ensures that not everyone will succeed in their bid, but puts the dealer at a disadvantage, especially when only one card is dealt. It is for this reason that everyone must take a turn at dealing one-card hands at the beginning and end of the sequence of hands.
[edit] Play
The player to dealer's left plays the first card. The other players must play a card of the same suit if possible. Any player who has no card of the suit led must play a trump if they can. A player who has no cards of the suit led and no trumps can discard any card. The trick is won by whoever played the highest trump, or if no trump was played, by whoever played the highest card of the suit led. The winner of the trick leads to the next.
The objective is to win exactly the number of tricks you said you would win.
[edit] Scoring
The hand ends when all cards are played.
- The players who made their contract (exactly) get 5 points plus the number of tricks they made.
- If you take fewer tricks than you bid you lose one point for each undertrick.
- If you take more tricks than you bid you lose one point for each overtrick.
Examples: Suppose you bid 3 tricks. If you take exactly 3 you will win 8 points (5+3). If you take only two tricks you lose 1 point; the same if you take 4 tricks. If you take 1 or 5 tricks (two different from your bid) you will lose 2 points; if you take no tricks or 6 tricks you will lose 3.
The table for recording the points looks like this:
Peter John Peggy
-------------------------------------
1 1 6 0 5 1 -1
1 0 11 0 10 0 -2
1 1 10 1 16 0 3
-------------------------------------
2 0 15 2 14 2 10
and so on. On the extreme left is written the number of cards dealt. In the left column for each player is written the number of tricks he wants to get. The next column shows his cumulative score after the hand.
(In the example table, in the first deal Peter wanted to get 1 trick and made it, John wanted to get 0 tricks and succeeded, Peggy was forced to say "1" and didn't make it. And so on.)
[edit] Variations
- In the last games with one card the players don't look at their own card, but they hold it on their forehead. So each player can see the cards of the other players, but he doesn't know which card he holds himself. So he must guess how many tricks he can take from the sayings of the other players.
- Promotions: If a player wins 10 consecutive games (this means, if the player never fails to fulfill his contract), he may add 30 points to his total or if a player wins a number of games equal to the number of players plus one games, he may be awarded 10 points. The same number of points is subtracted if he fails to fulfill his contract just as many times. Games in which one card is dealt do not count as hands won or lost for promotions. In an 8-1-8 game, the one-card games end a winning or loosing streak.
- 0 Finish: If a player with the last game has exactly 0 points, he wins the game. (This variation is commonly played, but is not recommended, because it tends to destroy the game at the end - players may try to lose as many games as possible, to try to reach zero.)
- Eight to Eight Games: The 8-card hands are dealt first, then reducing to one card and increasing again to 8 cards. The number of 8 card hands at the beginning and end and one-card hands in the middle is equal to the number of players, so with four players you would have 8-8-8-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-1-1-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-8-8-8. These are called 8-1-8 games , as opposed to 1-8-1 games. In 8-1-8 games, you do not win if you have 0 points at the end of a game
- Progresive Scoring: Due to very low bidding among some of the players resulting in low scores for everyone when using the typical "scalar scoring", another scoring system involves winning 5 points per contract fulfilled and progressively higher points per trick won, thus earning 5 points if you bid 0, 5+1=6 points if you bid 1, 5+1+2=8 if you bid 2, and so on, encouraging players to bid higher.
