Call-ace whist (Esmakker whist) is the most popular card game in Denmark and also popular in Greenland.
Deck: 52 cards + 3 jokers
Deal: 13 cards to each player and 3 to a "kat" (cat)
Bidding:
Forehand starts the bidding by naming a number of tricks he expects to be able to win with a partner or a nolo bid. He bids against the player to his left until one of them has won. The winner then bids against the next player and so on. Whoever bids the highest becomes the declarer and names a trump suit and calls an ace other than the trump suit as his partner. Declarer can exchange up to three cards from the "kat". The player with the called ace is obliged to play it as soon as its suit is led. The declarer can also name an ace from his own hand and play solo.
Bidding order:
7, 7+, 8, 8+, 9, solo-nolo, 9+, 10, pure nolo, 10+, 11, open nolo, 11+, 12, 12+, 13, 13+
The +bids are so called attachments, that qualifies the basic bid. The possible attachments are: good ones (clubs), trumpless (NT), halfes (partner chooses trump suit) and vip (tournee). There is no standard hierarchy between the attachments and each school of players has its own rules.
Nolo-bids:
Solo-nolo: Declarer plays solo at no trumps and are allowed to win 1 trick.
Pure Nolo: Declarer plays solo at no trumps and are not allowed to win any tricks.
Open nolo: As pure nolo, but after the first lead declarer puts his cards face up on the table.
Play:
As in all whist games
Famous quotes containing the word whist:
“[My father] was a lazy man. It was the days of independent incomes, and if you had an independent income you didn’t work. You weren’t expected to. I strongly suspect that my father would not have been particularly good at working anyway. He left our house in Torquay every morning and went to his club. He returned, in a cab, for lunch, and in the afternoon went back to the club, played whist all afternoon, and returned to the house in time to dress for dinner.”
—Agatha Christie (1891–1976)