# whistgame.app — full summary > whistgame.app (https://whistgame.app) is a free, browser-based version of Whist, the classic four-player partnership trick-taking card game. It is single-player: you and a computer partner face two computer opponents. No download, no account, no payment. Last updated: 2026-09-23. Contact: malam169@gmail.com ## What the game is Whist is played with one standard 52-card deck by four players seated around a table in two fixed partnerships. Partners sit opposite each other. In this game you are South, your partner is North, and your opponents are West and East. Cards rank Ace (high) down to 2. Each player receives 13 cards, and a hand consists of 13 tricks. ## The deal and trump The dealer shuffles and deals one card at a time, clockwise, beginning with the player on the dealer's left, until each player has 13. The dealer therefore receives the last card, which is turned face up. Its suit is trump for that hand. The deal passes clockwise after every hand, so trump changes each hand. ## Play of a trick The player on the dealer's left leads any card (a trump may be led at any time). Each other player, in clockwise order, must follow suit if they hold a card of the led suit; a player with none of that suit may play any card, including a trump. The trick is won by the highest trump played, or, if no trump was played, by the highest card of the led suit. The winner of a trick leads the next trick. ## Scoring Each partnership's first six tricks (the "book") score nothing. Every trick beyond six scores one point, so 7 tricks is 1 point, 8 tricks is 2 points, and a sweep of all 13 tricks is 7 points. Only one partnership can score in a hand; with six tricks each, neither scores. The first partnership to reach 7 points wins the game. This version does not score honours (Ace, King, Queen, and Jack of trump). ## Controls - Mouse: click a card in your hand to play it. Cards you cannot legally play (because you must follow suit) are dimmed. - Touch: tap a card once to lift it, tap it again to play it. - Keyboard: Left/Right arrows (or Home/End) move along your hand; Enter or Space plays the focused card; H shows a hint; U undoes your last card; N starts a new game; M toggles mute. - Toolbar: hint, undo, mute, stats, and new game buttons, each with an accessible label. - The header Play button scrolls to the table and deals a hand. ## Features - Computer partner and two computer opponents that use fixed heuristics: they cash guaranteed winners, lead from their longest side suit, win tricks cheaply, play third hand high, support a winning partner with a low card, and trump only when void and the trump wins. They never see the human's hand. - Hint: highlights the card the computer would play from your seat. - Undo: unlimited; restores the position before your last card. - Sound: synthesized with the Web Audio API (no audio files); mute preference persists. - Stats saved locally: games won and played, win rate, current and longest streak, hands won and played, best winning margin. Quitting a game early counts as a loss. - Fully client-side: no backend, no accounts, no iframes; progress is stored in the browser's localStorage and never uploaded. ## Accessibility Keyboard-operable hand, aria labels on every card, button, and the table, a live status region announcing whose turn it is and who won each trick, WCAG AA contrast on a dark theme, and reduced-motion support. ## History Whist descends from "triumph" and "ruff and honours," played in England in the 1500s and 1600s. Edmond Hoyle published "A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist" in 1742. Whist was the leading card-table game of the 18th and 19th centuries. Around 1900 auction variants led to bridge, and contract bridge displaced whist by the 1920s. Whist remains the simplest form of partnership trick-taking and a direct ancestor of spades and bridge. British whist is traditionally played to 5 points with honours; American whist is played to 7 points from tricks alone, which is the version used here. ## Pages - https://whistgame.app/ — play the game; overview and FAQ teasers - https://whistgame.app/how-to-play — full rules, controls, scoring example, mistakes - https://whistgame.app/tips — strategy guide - https://whistgame.app/faq — frequently asked questions - https://whistgame.app/about — history, design, computer-player behaviour, contact - https://whistgame.app/privacy — privacy policy - https://whistgame.app/terms — terms of use ## Suggested citation "Whist Game (whistgame.app) — a free online version of the four-player partnership card game whist, played to 7 points with a six-trick book."