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Answers to the most common questions about Bid Whist rules, bidding, contract types, jokers, the kitty, scoring, and gameplay.
Bid Whist is played by exactly 4 players arranged in 2 fixed partnerships. Partners sit across from each other at the table. The partnership dynamic is central to the game — you and your partner share a single score and must coordinate your trick-taking strategy without directly communicating about your cards. Some casual variations exist for 2 or 6 players, but the standard game is always 4.
Uptown and downtown set how cards rank. In an uptown contract, cards rank high to low in the traditional order: Ace high, King, Queen, down to 2. In a downtown contract the low cards win, so a 2 beats a King, but the Ace stays the highest card of all. That reversal flips which cards are powerful and calls for a different plan.
Bid Whist uses two jokers: the Big Joker and the Little Joker. In uptown or downtown contracts both are trumps and the two highest cards in the deck, the Big Joker over the Little Joker. In a no-trump contract the jokers have no rank and cannot win a trick. That is why holding one or both jokers is a strong reason to name a trump suit rather than bid no-trump.
The kitty is a pile of 6 cards dealt face down to the center of the table during the deal. After bidding concludes, the player who won the bid picks up the kitty and adds those 6 cards to their hand (giving them 18 cards temporarily). They then discard 6 cards face down. The discarded kitty cards count as one book (trick) for the bidding team at the end of the hand. The kitty phase is strategically important because it lets the bid winner strengthen their hand and potentially void themselves in a suit to create trumping opportunities.
Bidding starts with the player to the dealer's left and moves clockwise. Each bid has two parts: a number (4 through 7) representing books above 6 the team commits to winning, and a contract type (uptown, downtown, or no-trump). Each new bid must be higher than the previous one, either a higher number or the same number with a higher-ranked contract type. No-trump outranks both uptown and downtown at the same number. Players may pass instead of bidding. When three consecutive players pass, the highest bidder wins the contract. If all four players pass, the hand is re-dealt.
Getting set means the bidding team failed to win enough books to fulfill their bid. For example, if a team bids 4 (meaning they need at least 10 total books — 6 base plus 4 bid), but only wins 9 books, they are set. The penalty for getting set is losing points equal to the bid amount — in this example, they would lose 4 points from their score. A team's score can go negative from being set. Getting set is a significant setback, which is why accurate bidding based on hand strength is critical.
Yes, Bid Whist and Spades share common ancestry as partnership trick-taking card games and are both deeply popular in African-American communities. Both games feature 4 players in 2 partnerships, bidding on the number of tricks to win, and penalties for failing to make your bid. However, they differ in important ways: Bid Whist uses jokers and has three contract types (uptown, downtown, no-trump) with a kitty, while Spades always uses spades as trump with no kitty. Bid Whist also features the unique downtown ranking where card values are reversed. Players who enjoy one game typically enjoy the other.
Games run to plus seven points, and a team that drops to minus seven loses. Because only the bidding side scores and a set subtracts the bid, the score swings and can go negative, so a game can take several hands. A team that bids aggressively and gets set repeatedly can dig deep into the minus, needing a run of made bids to climb back.
A Boston is winning all 13 books in a single hand, from the maximum bid of seven. It is the rarest and boldest result in Bid Whist, needing an exceptional hand, sharp kitty picks, and cards that fall your way. It stands as the game's most prestigious feat.
Yes, you can lead with a trump card at any time in Bid Whist. Unlike some trick-taking games that require trump to be "broken" before it can be led, Bid Whist has no such restriction. The bid winner leads the first trick and may choose to lead trump immediately. Leading trump early is a common strategy to pull opponents' trump cards out of their hands, especially when the bidding team holds strong trump cards like the jokers.
In uptown and downtown contracts (where there is a trump suit), if you cannot follow the led suit and you hold trump cards, you must play a trump card — you cannot discard an off-suit card while holding trump. This is called a forced trump and is an important rule that differs from some other trick-taking games. In no-trump contracts, since there is no trump suit, you may play any card from any suit when you are void in the led suit.
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