How to Play Bid Whist
Bid whist is a four-player partnership card game built on bidding and trumps. Two teams bid for the right to name trump, then race to take tricks. It uses a 54-card deck with two jokers, rewards partners who read each other well, and runs about fifteen minutes a game.
The goal is to reach plus seven points by bidding how many tricks your side will win and then winning them.
- Deal the cards and the kitty. Use a 54-card deck: the standard 52 cards plus the big and little jokers. Deal 12 cards to each of the four players and set six cards face down in the middle as the kitty.
- Bid a number and a direction. Starting to the dealer's left, each player bids once. A bid names how many books above six your side will take, from 4 to 7, plus a direction: uptown, downtown, or no-trump. The highest bid wins, and no-trump outranks a trump bid of the same number.
- Take the kitty and name trump. The winning bidder picks up the six-card kitty, names the trump suit (a no-trump bid skips this), and discards six cards face down. Those six count as the side's first book.
- Know the card order. Uptown, the Ace is high. Downtown, the low cards win, though the Ace stays on top. In a trump bid the two jokers beat everything, big joker first; in a no-trump bid the jokers cannot win a trick.
- Play the tricks. The bid winner leads. Follow the suit led if you can. A trump beats any plain card; otherwise the highest card of the led suit takes the trick. Partners sit across from each other and pool what they win.
- Score the hand. Make your bid and score a point for every trick past the contract, at least one for making it, and double for a no-trump hand. Miss it and your side is set, losing the number you bid. Only the bidding side scores. The first side to plus seven wins; minus seven loses.
Bidding: Uptown, Downtown, and No-Trump
Every bid is a number and a direction. The number counts books above six, from 4 up to 7, so a bid of 5 promises 11 tricks in all. The direction is where bid whist gets its character.
Uptown keeps the normal ranking, Ace high. Downtown turns the suits over so the low cards win, a 2 beating a King, though the Ace stays highest. A no-trump bid drops the trump suit altogether, and the jokers go dead with it, so only the highest card of the suit led can win. When two bids tie on number, no-trump outranks a trump bid, and it scores double.
The Kitty and the Jokers
The kitty is the bidder's reward and the reason to bid at all. Winning the auction hands you six extra cards to sort through, and the six you throw back count as your side's first book. Use the swap to dump a weak suit and leave yourself void in it, ready to trump.
The two jokers rule any trump bid. The big joker is the single highest card in the deck, the little joker sits just below it, and both outrank the Ace of trumps. Hold one and you own a trick; hold both and you open the hand in command. The exception is no-trump, where the jokers go dead and cannot win, so a pair of jokers is a strong reason to name a trump suit instead.
Scoring and the Boston
Only the bidding side scores. Make your bid and you take a point for every trick past the contract, with at least one point for making it on the nose, and a no-trump hand doubles the total. Fall short and your side is set: you lose the number you bid, dropping toward the losing mark. The other side never scores directly; it wins by setting you.
A game runs to plus seven, and a side that sinks to minus seven loses. The rarest result along the way is a Boston, a sweep of all thirteen tricks that comes from bidding the full seven. Most circles treat it as the crowning hand of bid whist.
Bid Whist vs Spades
Bid whist and spades are cousins, both four-player partnership games where two teams bid and take tricks. The differences are in the tools. Bid whist adds two jokers, a six-card kitty, and a choice of trump suit or none, while spades keeps a single fixed trump and asks each player to call an exact number of tricks.
| Feature | Bid Whist | Spades |
|---|---|---|
| Deck | 54 cards (52 plus two jokers) | 52 cards |
| Cards dealt | 12 each, plus a 6-card kitty | 13 each, no kitty |
| Trump | Bidder picks any suit, or no-trump | Spades, always |
| Direction | Uptown (high) or downtown (low) | High only |
| Bidding | Books over six (a "4" means 10 tricks) | Exact tricks, per player |
| Game to | 7 points (no-trump doubles) | 500 points, with bags and nil |
Bid Whist Strategy
Bid whist rewards the pair that reads its cards honestly and its partner closely. Five habits win more hands than any single clever play.
Count trumps before you count hope. A safe opening bid wants roughly five cards in one suit and three sure winners, say five trumps and two off-suit Aces. Three trumps and no Aces is a pass, not a 4-bid.
Spend the kitty on a void. The six cards you throw back are a free book, so use them to empty a weak suit entirely. A suit you cannot follow is a suit you can trump.
Let the jokers pick your contract. The two jokers are unbeatable in a trump bid but dead in no-trump, so a hand with one or both wants a trump suit named, not no-trump. Count them first when you decide how high to bid.
Pull trumps when you win the bid. Lead high trumps early to strip them from the opponents, so the winners you kept cannot be cut later in the hand. Then run your long suit.
On defense, setting is the goal. You cannot score, so aim to hold the bidders one trick short. Save your Aces for late, after the bidders have shown their high cards, so they cannot be trumped away early.
A Short History of Bid Whist
Bid whist is an American game with English roots. It grew out of whist, the plain-trick game that ruled English card tables through the 1700s and stayed the serious player's game until bridge pushed it aside around 1900. What bid whist adds is the auction, the bidding for trump and direction that plain whist never had.
The game became a fixture of Black American life. The card-game reference Pagat files it in the auction whist family and calls it a partnership game very popular among African Americans; NPR named it the community's grand elder to spades, a game of art, style, and table talk as much as tricks. Its roots probably reach back to the era of slavery, though the earliest history is not firmly recorded.
The clearest thread runs along the railroads. Pullman porters, many of them formerly enslaved men hired to staff the sleeper cars after the Civil War, carried bid whist across the country as they worked, playing on layovers and spreading it city to city through the Great Migration. Chicago became a center strong enough that the Sun-Times ran a weekly bid whist column through the 1990s. The game still lives at reunions, in clubs, and on a tournament circuit that has run for two decades, with players named from Thurgood Marshall to Michelle Obama.
Bid Whist Glossary
- Book
- One trick. Your side needs six books before any bid starts counting.
- Boston
- Winning all thirteen tricks in a hand, a full shutout, from a bid of seven.
- Uptown / Downtown
- The two directions a bid can take. Uptown plays Ace high; downtown flips the order so the low cards win, though the Ace stays highest.
- No-trump
- A contract with no trump suit, where the jokers go dead and cannot win. A no-trump bid outranks a trump bid of the same number and scores double.
- The kitty
- The six face-down cards the winning bidder takes and then discards down to twelve.
- Big / little joker
- The two highest trumps in any trump bid. The big joker outranks the little joker, and both outrank the Ace.
- Set
- Failing to make your bid. Your side scores nothing and loses the bid amount.
- Rise and fly
- A format for more than four players where the losing pair gives up its seats to the next team waiting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is bid whist the same as spades?
No. Both are four-player partnership games, but bid whist uses 54 cards with two jokers and a six-card kitty, while spades uses 52 and no kitty. In bid whist the winning bidder chooses any trump suit or no-trump and plays uptown or downtown. In spades, spades is always trump.
What is a Boston in bid whist?
A Boston is winning all thirteen tricks in one hand, a complete shutout. It comes from a bid of seven, the highest bid, where your side contracts to take every trick. Most groups award a bonus for it, though the exact reward varies by house rules. It is the boldest result in the game.
How do you play bid whist?
Four players in two partnerships each get 12 cards, with six set aside as the kitty. Players bid a number of books above six plus a direction. The high bidder takes the kitty, names trump, and leads. You follow suit, trumps win, and the first side to plus seven takes the game.
What is the difference between uptown and downtown in bid whist?
Direction decides which cards win. Uptown is the normal order, Ace high down to 2. Downtown flips it, so the low cards beat the high ones, a 2 topping a King, though the Ace stays highest. In a trump bid the two jokers sit above everything; in no-trump they cannot win.
What do the jokers do in bid whist?
In a trump bid the two jokers are the highest cards of all, big joker over little joker, ranking above even the Ace of trumps, so a joker is close to a guaranteed trick. In a no-trump bid it flips: the jokers have no rank and cannot win, which is why holding them argues for naming a trump suit.
How many players do you need for bid whist?
Four, split into two partnerships. Partners sit across the table from each other and combine their tricks toward a single score. That fixed four-player, two-team shape is part of why bid whist plays as a social, talkative game rather than a solo one.
How do you keep score in bid whist?
Only the bidding side scores. Make the bid and it takes a point for each trick past the contract, at least one for making it, doubled for a no-trump hand. Miss it and the side is set, losing the number it bid. The first team to plus seven wins; a team that drops to minus seven loses.
Why is bid whist popular in African-American culture?
Bid whist became a fixture of Black American life, carried across the country by Pullman porters who worked the rail lines during the Great Migration. It grew into a staple of family reunions, military barracks, and social clubs, prized for the table talk and bragging rights as much as the play.
Play Bid Whist Online
Play bid whist free against smart AI partners and opponents, or match up with other players online. Bid uptown, downtown, or no-trump, chase a Boston, and learn the game one hand at a time with no download and no signup.
Play the daily Bid Whist challenge or read the full rules.