Japanese Whist

Below are the rules to a two-player Whist game similar to the two-player Whist described on this page, as relayed by multiple Swedish-language sources including the book "Kortoxen". It's called Japansk Whist (Japanese Whist); however, it almost certainly has nothing to do with the island nation.

Cut cards to determine initial dealer. High card deals. The deal alternates each hand.

Each player is dealt 10 cards face-down and 10 cards face-up, in a 5x2 rectangle, plus a 6 card hand. However, they may only look at their hand after the first trick has been played, and must therefore play one of the face-up cards to the first trick.

Forehand declares trumps before the first trick is played.

Trick-playing follows the usual Whist rules. Only two cards are played to each trick; there are, therefore, 26 tricks in each deal.

After a face-up card is played, the underlying face-down card is not turned immediately, but only after the trick is finished.

The player who won the most tricks scores one point for each trick above 13. If the players took 13 tricks each, neither scores (alternately, dealer scores one point).

First to 13 points wins.

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This page was last updated 2016-12-08.