| Origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Players | 4 |
| Skill(s) required | Tactics and strategy |
| Cards | 52 |
| Deck | Anglo-American |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Playing time | 5–15 min. |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Related games | |
| Bid whist | |
Knock-out Whist is a member of the Whist family[1] known by a variety of names including Trumps in Britain, Reduction Whist, Diminishing Whist (from the way one less card is dealt each hand) and Rat. It is often simply called Whist by players who are unfamiliar with the game properly called Whist. It is a basic trick-taking game and is a good way to teach the concept of "tricks" to children.
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The ultimate object of Knockout Whist is to be the last player still "standing" at the end of the game, with the object in each round being to win a majority of tricks.[2]. A standard 52 card pack is used. The cards in each suit rank from highest to lowest: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. The game may be played by two to seven players.
For the first deal the dealer deals seven cards to each player and one card is turned up to indicate that its suit is the trump suit for the first round. (In subsequent rounds, the winner of the previous round selects the trump suit).
The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick; any card may be led. The other players, in clockwise order, each play a card to the trick and must follow suit by playing a card of the suit led if they have one. A player with no cards of the suit led may play any card, either discarding or trumping. The trick is won by the highest card of the suit led, unless a trump is played, in which case the highest trump wins. The winner of the trick leads to the next trick. Some rulesets disallow leading trumps before the trump suit has been "broken" by a trump being played to the lead of another suit (though of course leading trumps is always permissible if a player holds nothing else).
At the end of each hand any player who took no tricks is eliminated from the game. The player who took the most tricks gets to select trumps in the next hand. If two or more players tie for the highest number of tricks taken they cut cards or play Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who calls trumps. The deal rotates clockwise and one fewer card is dealt each hand (thus ensuring that the game must end, as eventually only one trick will be played). The game is won when a player takes all the tricks in a round, as after that there would only be one player remaining.