Full guide: dealing a 32-card deck, bidding for the contract, the widow, playing out ten tricks, the opponents’ whist and keeping the pool on muta.pro.
Preferans is a calculating card game for three. The goal is to score more points in the record sheet called the pool. Points come from precisely fulfilled contracts: you must win exactly as many tricks, as you bid during the auction, no more and no less. Fall short and you take penalty points into the ‘hill’; overshoot and it brings you no benefit. The game runs until the pool is fully closed.
Played with a 32-card deck (from the seven to the ace). Each of the three players is dealt 10 cards, and a further two cards are placed face down in the centre — this is the widow. The ranking within a suit is standard: ace above king, then queen, jack, ten and so on down to the seven. Once you have your hand, assess its strength: how many sure tricks it promises and in which suit it is best to name trump.
Players name their bids in turn, raising the stakes: from ‘6 spades’ up to higher suits and numbers, all the way to ‘10 no-trump’. Whoever bids highest plays the contract.
The winner of the bidding takes the two widow cards into their hand. They now hold 12 cards and must reduce back to ten.
The player discards two surplus cards (the discard) and finally declares the contract — the trump suit and the number of tricks they pledge to win.
The other two decide whether to play against the declarer. The whisters must take their tricks and thwart the contract; they may also pass.
Ten tricks are played out. You must follow suit; if you cannot, you trump or discard. The trick is won by the highest trump, or, with no trump, by the highest card of the led suit.
A special contract: the declarer pledges to take no tricks at all. Here everything is reversed — every involuntary trick is dangerous.
Three typical situations at the table. Trump here is hearts ♥, trump cards are outlined in gold. Red suits (♥ ♦) are shown in red, black ones (♠ ♣) in dark. The winning card is highlighted.
After play the result is counted. Made the contract — you record points in the pool, advancing towards victory. Fell short of tricks — you take a penalty in the ‘hill’, which you will later have to work off. The whisters record themselves whist points for tricks taken from the declarer, or are penalised if they failed to meet their quota. The game runs over several deals in a row until the pool is closed; whoever has the best final balance wins.
Bid only what you can really win. An inflated contract almost always ends in the ‘hill’.
Five or six cards of one suit with the ace make for reliable tricks and a good reason to name it trump.
Keep track of which high cards have already been played: it tells you whose cards ‘win’ and how many tricks remain.
It is worth going for whist when you have the means to take tricks. An empty whist only hands the declarer their contract.
The bidding decides the deal before the first card hits the table. Rating your hand by the number of aces is useless — count your sure tricks: cards the opponents cannot beat. An ace in any suit, a king backed by a third card, and the "extra" cards of a long suit once your opponents are void in it. The value of a contract climbs in the auction by the same logic: the suits run in ascending order ♠ < ♣ < ♦ < ♥, and above them all stands no-trump. The higher the bid, the dearer the game and the more painful a set, so take exactly the contract your hand holds with confidence.
Five hearts from the ace plus a side ace of spades — a hand for a confident six-trick contract with ♥ as trump.
A six-trick game needs 5–6 reliable tricks and a suit of your own at least four cards long. A seven-trick game needs a five-card trump suit with two top honours, or a single finesse by the opponents will collapse the contract.
Two unknown cards strengthen the hand by half a trick on average, not by two. Bid so the contract comes home even without a lucky widow, and let the widow be a bonus.
A long pass often means a hand "almost worth a game" with one weak suit — attack there. An early jump to seven or eight is either a long trump suit or a bluff banking on the widow.
The declarer's first task is the question of trumps. If the opponents hold many between them, draw the trumps at once — lead your top trumps until the defenders are out of them, or they will ruff your side aces. If your trump suit is short and needed for a finesse, do the opposite and hold it: gather your tricks in the side suits first, then take what's missing with trumps in the endgame. Here the order of the leads matters more than the cards themselves — one hasty trump trick easily costs the contract.
Leading the ace of spades — but the third player is void in spades, and the seven of trump ♥ beats even the ace.
The finesse (impasse) is the main tool for winning an extra trick. Holding "♠A Q" without the king, lead low hoping the king sits on your left: if it's played, you win with the ace; if not, you slip the queen past. A blind finesse is 50/50, but the bidding hints at the direction — a player who passed on a strong hand more often holds the missing king.
Once all eight cards of a suit are gone, your lowest card in it becomes a sure trick — nothing beats it but a trump.
By the last three tricks know exactly what the opponents hold and force them to lead into your fork or into a trump.
Together, lead the suit where your partner is strong and never trump his own trick — this is two playing against one.
Once you take the widow you hold 12 cards and discard the two extras into the talon. The rule is simple: the discard takes the small cards of short side suits, to free the hand for trumps and finesses. Aces, kings and cards of long suits do not go into the discard — those are tricks handed away.
Clubs are trump: we leave the top clubs alone, and the lone 8♦ and 7♠ go into the discard.
Misère is declared when the hand holds no card that would force a trick — every suit has a "hole" at the bottom, and the dangerous middle cards can be discarded. An ideal misère is spread out with no "hanging" queens or jacks; no-trump (NT) is taken on a balanced hand with aces in three or four suits, where the top cards hold up on their own. A special case is the pass-out: when everyone has passed, tricks become penalties and the aim flips — win as few as possible, shedding dangerous middle cards at the first opportunity.
A clean misère: every suit has a low "hole," no hanging queens or jacks, nothing that must take a trick.
Going down in Preferans hurts twice: you score nothing in the pool and on top of that you take the value of every undertaken trick into your "mountain." One failed eight-trick game wipes out three tidy six-trick games, so a reliable contract is almost always better than an ambitious one.
Bidding six or seven counting on the widow to add two tricks. On average it gives half a trick — the hand must carry the contract without it.
Defending with no tricks of your own "just to interfere." The contract still comes home, and you pay whists on top. On a flat weak hand a pass is cheaper.
Throwing away strong cards of a side suit for a pretty trump. The discard takes the small cards of short suits, not aces and kings.
Naming four small cards with no honours as trump. Such a trump is beaten from above; a trump suit should hold an ace-king or a length of at least five.
Finessing when the trick can be won honestly by length. Half of all finesses lose — count your sure tricks first.
Holding aces and long suits "just in case" when everyone has passed. In the pass-out tricks are penalties — get rid of the dangerous middle cards on the first lead.