Tips
Romanian Whist strategy
In Romanian Whist the points go to whoever takes exactly the tricks they bid — not one more, not one less. A good player wins tricks and loses them on purpose in equal measure. These are the habits that make the difference: the same ones the bots on onlinewhist.com are built on, and the ones its coach points out during a game.
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Play nowCounting your tricks before you bid
- Aces are sure tricks when there are no trumps, as in the 8-card rounds: an ace is the highest card of its suit and you choose when to play it.
- In a trump round the queen, king or ace of trumps is usually a trick. A jack of trumps with another trump beside it usually is too.
- The turned-up card is out of play. If the ace of trumps is turned up, your king is the highest trump left — count it as a sure trick.
- Trumps and a short suit make tricks by trumping. With a void, every trump beyond the first two is worth about half a trick more.
- High cards outside trumps are fragile in short rounds: in a round of 3 with no trump in your hand, a side ace or king is often trumped.
- With five or six players more cards are dealt and every hand holds fewer honours, so in the rounds without trumps a jack or a ten wins more often than at a table of four.
Bidding wisely
- Zero is worth 5 points. With a weak hand and plenty of low cards, a bid of 0 is often the safest score of the round.
- Don't bid a suit you can stay out of. Holding A, K, Q and two small cards of one suit, the small cards duck when it is led and the K and Q can be thrown away later — count the ace and nothing else in that suit.
- Listen to the bids before yours. In a round of 8, when the others have already claimed every trick but one, bid at most one, however good your hand looks: whoever bid those tricks holds the cards for them.
- A bid you make pays 5 plus the bid, so when two bids look equally likely to come off, the higher one scores more.
- Bidding last, you may not make the bids add up to the number of cards. If the bid you wanted is the forbidden one, pick the nearest bid you can actually make: holding the ace of trumps in a round of 3 with 1 forbidden, bid 2 — a bid of 0 can't be made at all.
Making your bid
- Take your tricks early. Once you have what you bid, the rest of your hand is a list of cards to get rid of, and that is easier while you still have the lead than at the very end.
- Keep your exit cards. The lowest card of a suit is how you hand the lead to someone else later; throw the middle cards away first.
- Needing one more trick and holding two trumps when you can't follow suit, trump with the higher one and keep the lower to get out with.
- In a trump round, holding sure trumps and a side card that might win, lead the side card first, while the others still have trumps to cut it. Kept to the end, it wins a trick you don't want.
- Holding nothing but trumps and needing fewer tricks than you hold, lead a low trump first, so that someone else can overtake it.
Losing tricks on purpose
- Once your bid is made, every trick you win costs you points. Play under the card that is winning the trick whenever you can.
- Following suit with nothing that wins, play your highest card under the winner and keep your smallest.
- When you can't follow, throw away your most dangerous card — a sure winner, or a high card in a suit that is still being played — rather than a card of a suit nobody else holds any more.
- Down to one trump after making your bid? Lead it before somebody forces you to trump with it.
Reading the table
- Add up the bids. If they come to more than the cards in the round, tricks are scarce and somebody will fall short: hold on to your winners. If they come to less, spare tricks are going round and somebody will be pushed over: get rid of your high cards early.
- Count the cards. A suit whose cards have all been seen is dead — only its holder can lead it. And a player who couldn't follow a suit once will trump it the next time it comes round.
- In the last tricks, when you can no longer make your bid and everyone else is on theirs, give a winner away rather than cash it: somebody goes over, and you are not the only one to miss.
The short rounds: 1, 2 and 3 cards
- In a round of 1 at a table of four, bidding first with the ace or king of a side suit, bid 1: you lead it, everyone else must follow suit if they can, and only a trump beats it.
- In a round of 2, holding any trump while the bids before yours add up to 1 or less, bid 1.
- In a round of 3, two trumps of any rank usually make one trick.
Questions
What is the single most useful habit?
Make your bid early and keep a low card in each suit to get out with. A great many points are lost to tricks taken after the bid was already made.
How do the bots on onlinewhist.com decide?
They count the hand with rules like the ones on this page, then try each bid or card they are weighing over many simulated deals of the cards they can't see, and keep the one with the best average score. They never look at anyone else's hand.
Can I get tips while I play?
Yes. In a solo or friendly game, switch on the coach with the graduation cap beside Score: it tells you when a bid or a card could have been better, and why. After the game, View analysis shows your best moves and your costliest mistakes.