Whist

Whist is a card game derived from an older game called Ye Triumphe dating back to 1522, more popularly called Ruff and Honors. Ruff and Honors were actually two slightly different games played by similar rules, but with different numbers of cards.

Card-playing was a favorite among the wealthy for generations, until the manufacture of inexpensive card decks beginning in the 17th century enabled the masses to take up card playing as a leisure activity. Whist was one of the most popular games. In its heyday, a large amount of literature about how to play existed. In 1742, Edmund Hoyle, author of According to Hoyle, wrote a definitive textbook called A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist.

By the late 19th century, an elaborate and rigid set of rules detailing the laws of the game, its etiquette, and the techniques of play had developed. It took a large amount of study to master the game; hence, Whist tended to be the purview of leisure classes, particularly women in afternoon parlor visits or at mixed evening social occasions. Whist's halcyon days were in the 1700s to 1800s; in the 20th century, Bridge replaced it as the most popular international card game.

Still played in Great Britain, local tournaments are known as Whist drives. A drive will accommodate as many players as the venue will cater to, seated four to a table; tables are usually numbered consecutively around the venue. Whist drives are most commonly organized for social purposes and are a staple of Women's Rural Institutes—a social network of women's clubs in outlying villages throughout Britain. Whist drives with entry fees are used as fundraisers in rural settings and as community cohesiveness events.

In Whist, partners sit opposite one another and compete against the other two players at the table for that particular game. A trick is scored after each of the four players has played one of his or her cards into the center of the table. In a drive, partners split up once they lose. Winning partners will stay together, giving them an advantage that grows stronger as the drive continues. Experienced players will take partnering quite seriously. Usually a whist drive consists of 24 games (also known as hands). When playing a tournament, it is inconvenient to have people at different tables play varying numbers of tricks before moving, so usually the drive establishes a fixed number of tricks to play toward. This variation developed as Whist moved from home entertainment to rural settings in the 1900s.

Many variations of Whist have developed over time, probably through efforts to revive the game and make it more lively and interesting. Some examples are Pairs Sequence, Military, Progressive, Bid Whist, and Rainbow Whist; in each of these games the number of points played to and how partners split up varies.

Although still played in Great Britain, Whist's heyday is over, and its popularity in Europe and North America has waned to near oblivion, with the exception of Bid Whist; this variant enjoys continued popularity among retiree communities, among others. Associated with [Page 790]bygone ways and mannerisms, Whist overall could be considered genteel to the point of deathly boredom. The popular television series Red Dwarf had its hero drive away an alien with a Whist drive.

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