Bid Whist

About Bid Whist

One of Coppercod’s most requested games, Bid Whist is a classic quick-fire card game for four players playing in two teams. Team up with one of our partner AIs to beat your opponents in Coppercod’s take on this classic card game.

To win, you and your partner must be the first pair to reach 7 points, or push your partners to fall to -7. Points are scored by the team that wins the bid, and they score one point per book they take over 6 if they meet or better their contract, but lose 1 point per bid over 6 tricks if they fail.

Bid Whist is a little more complex to learn, but rewarding as you improve your strategy over time to defeat your opponents. Uptown, downtown and 'no trump' bid types keep the landscape different every session. Choose between easy, medium and hard mode and make sure to track your all time and session stats to follow your improvement as you learn!

Quickfire Rules

After the cards are dealt evenly between four players, the players, in turn, can pass or bid the number of books they believe their team can win above 6 (uptown for high cards, downtown for low cards or 'no trumps'). The winning bidder then decides which suit shall be trumps if an uptown/downtown bid was made, or which direction if a 'no trump' bid was made. The winning bidder then takes the kitty into their hand, which may be sported (turned face up) depending on your setting (see settings), and discards the number of cards contained in the kitty. The winning bidders are awarded the first book for taking the kitty.

Each player then plays one card in turn, following suit if they can. If they cannot follow suit they may play any other card in their hand, including a trump card. The aim for the winning bidding team is to take as many books as to at least win their contract. The other team is trying to win enough books to stop them.

At the end of each round, the winning bidders score either 1 point for every book they won over six if they met or bettered their contract, or lose their bid size in points if they failed to make their contract. The game is won when the first team reaches the win target of 7, or forces the opponents to drop to or below -7.

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Available on App and Play Stores

Bid Whist Terms

Bid: Each player decides based upon the cards in their hand how many tricks their partnership will win.​

Book: Each player plays a card in turn, and the best card played wins that book. There are 13 books in each hand, the first awarded to the winning bidder, and the remaining 12 are played for in turn with a round of cards.

Trump: Trumps are chosen by the winning bidder unless a 'no trump' bid was made, and are elevated higher than all other cards. They can be played when a player cannot otherwise follow suit. The big and little jokers count as trump cards when there is a trump suit, but have no value if there is not​.

Kitty: After each player is dealt 12 cards, the remaining cards are face down on the table and are awarded to the winning bidder to improve their hand. The kitty can be sported before the winner takes the cards into their hand depending on the setting. The player who takes the kitty must discard the same number of cards, which may include cards from the kitty.

Uptown: In uptown bids, high cards have the highest rank (Big joker, little joker, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2​).

Downtown: In downtown bids, low cards have the highest rank. (Big joker, little joker, A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K​).

No Trump: A 'no trump' bid has no trump suit. The winner determines uptown or downtown card ranking after the bid.

How Your Partner Plays

Playing with a partner you can't communicate with can be frustrating, but here are some tips on how you can get along:

  • With the opening lead, your partner will play a singleton or low in their strongest suit to tell you which suit they want you to bring back (invite)
  • With subsequent leads, they will invite with their strongest suit
  • They will watch your lead and try to bring that suit back for you where possible
  • The first time your partner can't follow trumps, they will throw low in their weakest remaining suit
  • If they spot that you are void in a suit they will run that suit to give you the opportunity to trump (when there are trumps)
  • They will pull trumps where possible to prevent being set late in the hand if your team has won the bid, unless only your team has trumps remaining
  • If there are no trumps they will avoid leading any suit that you are void in if possible
  • If there are no trumps and your opponents are out of a particular suit, your partner will run that suit if they can

How To Play

Bid Whist is a classic four-player partnership game using one standard deck of 52 cards plus 2 jokers (big and little).

The aim of the game is to be the first partnership to reach the win target of 7, or force the opponents to drop to -7.

At the end of each round, the winning bidders score either 1 point for every book they won over six if they met or bettered their contract, or lose their bid size in points if they failed to make their contract. The game is won when the first team reaches the win target of 7, or forces the opponents to drop to or below -7.

Deal

The dealer is initially chosen at random, and then moves clockwise round the table for subsequent rounds.

12 cards are dealt to each player, and the remaining cards make up the kitty.

Bidding

Before each hand commences, every player can bid how many tricks their partnership will win above 6, between 3 and 7, or pass. During the bid, you must say whether you want the card ranking to be uptown, downtown, or to make a 'no trump' bid.

A bid must be higher than the current winning bid. A 'no trump' bid will beat an uptown/downtown bid of the same score.

If you are last to bid and the other players have all passed, you must make a bid.

After the bidding the winning bidder then gets to choose the trump suit or the card ranking direction.

Jokers have no value in a 'no trump' bid.

Kitty

The winning bidder takes the kitty into their hand and decided which cards to discard. The kitty size and whether the kitty is sported (turned face up for the players to see before being collected) are determined in the settings (see settings)

The winning bidder then discards the number of cards that were in the kitty

A book is awarded to the winning bidding team for taking the kitty

Play

Whoever is left of the dealer leads a card to start. Each player must play one card in a clockwise order, following suit where they can.

The winner of each book is the player who plays the highest card matching the suit of the first player to play, unless a Trump is played, in which case the highest Trump will win the book.

If you cannot follow suit you may play any other card from your hand.

Scoring

At the end of each hand, the books the winning bidding team collects are totalled and compared to the bid.

1 point is awarded for every book the winning team bid if they meet or better their contract. The number of bid points are deducted from their score if the fail to make their contract.

A 'no trump' bid is awarded double points (for success or failure). This can be turned off is settings.

Winning all 13 books, a Boston, the scores for the round are quadrupled. This can be turned off in settings.

The game ends when one team reaches the win target of 7 or higher, or forces the opposition team to fall to -7 or lower.

Settings

Choose from the following settings (defaults shown in italics):

Sound: On, off.

Speed: Normal, fast.

Orientation: Portrait, landscape left, landscape right or landscape free.

Single click play: On, off.

AI level: Easy, medium or hard.

Number of jokers: 2, 1 or 0. The big and little jokers are in play when set to 2, only the big joker when 1, and no jokers are in play when 0. The kitty size four plus the number of jokers in the game.

Sport kitty: 'always', 'when a trump is nominated' or 'never'. This setting determines when the kitty is turned up to show the other players.

Win target: 7 or 14.

No trump bonus: on or off. Determines whether points are doubled for a 'no trump' bid

Boston bonus: on or off. Determines whether points are quadrupled if a team wins all 13 books

Cards: Classic or coppercod.

Deck: Choose from 18 different deck designs for coppercod, 16 for modern.

Mobile cards: Off or on. Only available on phones.

Theme: Green, merlot, dark red, light blue, black, purple, teal, pink, orange or blue

Interface

Home screen:

From the home screen you can access the following options:

  • Start new game
  • Continue game: if there is a game in progress it can be continued
  • Settings (cog icon, bottom left). Once open you can close it by tapping close or tapping > at the top right.
  • Information (question mark icon, bottom right). Once open you can close it by tapping close or tapping > at the top right.
  • Stats (trophy icon, top left)
  • Sound: Tap the speaker icon at the top right of the home screen to toggle between sound on and off
During a Game

Your cards are displayed face up at the bottom of the screen, your partners are face down at the top of the screen, and your opponents’ cards are face down at the left and right. Your cards are ordered first by suit, then low to high from left to right. Your partners and opponents’ cards are ordered at random. The kitty is face down in the middle of the screen.

During play, each partnership's score for the game is shown in front of their hand. A green light is displayed next to your score to display when it is your turn to act. A bid panel is shown each round when it is your turn to bid.

When it is your turn to act, tap on a card from your hand that you want to select, and then tap it again to play the card (or tap it just once if the 'single click play' setting is turned on). Alternatively, you can drag the card into position. You can change which cards are selected before playing by tapping on other cards.

At the end of the hand the scores each player partnership receives are displayed, as well as the total score for each partnership for the game.

Thank you for playing Bid Whist!