Bidding

In turn, before a card is played, everyone says how many tricks they will take. The bids do not have to add up — and that is the entire game.

The bid is the only decision in this game you make before knowing anything, and it sets what you spend the next ten minutes playing against. Below: the exact order, the rule tables argue about most, the common house rule that makes the dealer's seat miserable, and what separates a sensible bid from a hope.

The order of play

Deal first, then turn the trump card, then bid. Each player can see their own cards and the turned trump card — nothing else. Bids are spoken aloud in turn, starting with the player to the dealer's left. The dealer bids last, and is therefore the only player who knows how many tricks the rest of the table has already claimed.

Every bid is written down before a single card is played, and a bid is binding: you cannot change it mid-round, not even when two tricks in it is obvious that it is not going to happen. Watching somebody play out a dead bid is a good part of the fun.

The bids do not have to add up

This is the rule that gets argued about at the table more than any other, so, plainly: in the base game the bids may total more or less than the number of tricks. Round 5 with four players may be bid 7 between everyone, or 2.

And that is precisely where the game comes from. Over-bid, and at least one player cannot make their bid, so the round becomes a fight over every single trick. Under-bid, and there are tricks lying around that nobody wants — and somebody has to take them.

The hook, or screw the dealer

Many groups add the rule that the dealer — who bids last — may not bid the number that would make the bids add up exactly. That guarantees at least one loser every round. It is known as the hook, or screw the dealer, and in German simply as the rule that the bids may not come out.

It is a house rule, not a base rule. It makes the game harder and the dealer's seat distinctly unpleasant. If you play it, agree it before round 1, not in round 9. More on variants and house rules.

How to bid sensibly

• Count certain tricks, not good cards. A Magician is a certain trick. The ace of trumps is nearly one. A king in a side suit is worth nothing at all until the ace has gone.
• Zero is a bid, not a surrender. Nought bid and nought taken is 20 points — in the small early rounds often the best deal on the table.
• Listen to what is bid ahead of you. If the total is already over the trick count before your turn, somebody is going to lose; bid conservatively and let the others take tricks off each other.
• As dealer, do the arithmetic. You know how many tricks are already claimed. If two are unaccounted for and you hold nothing, do not bid zero anyway when there is nobody else who wants them.
• There is no trump in the final round. Aces gain value there, low trumps become worthless.

If you want numbers rather than adjectives: we simulated 240,000 dealt hands and fitted what each card is actually worth in tricks, which turns the bid into a count you can do in your head. That is the bidding strategy page, and it is the only page of its kind we know of for this game.

The same rule in other versions

Nomination Whist, Judgement, Blackout and the rest all bid this way; some of them require the bids not to add up as a base rule rather than a variant, which is the single most common difference between the many names this game goes by. In Wizard, the German 60-card edition and a registered trademark of Amigo Spiele rather than ours, it is called the prediction, and the order is the same. The overview: all the rules.