A classic trick-taking game for four in pairs. We break down the deal, the trump, following suit, who takes the trick and how points are counted on muta.pro.
Whist is a strict trick-taking game for two pairs. Partners sit across from each other and play together. Each deal plays out 13 tricks, and your pair's aim is to take more than six: every trick above that threshold earns a point. The pair that first reaches the target game score wins (on muta.pro — 5 points). There's no bidding and no bluffing here — everything is decided by pure card play, memory and coordination with your partner.
A full deck of 52 cards is used. Four players sit crosswise: your pair — You (South) and Partner (North), the opposing pair — on the sides (West and East). Card ranking is standard: from the two to the ace (2 … 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace). Cards are dealt one at a time, 13 to each. The suit of the very last card dealt becomes the trump for the whole deal — its cards beat any other suit.
The first player lays any card — this is the "lead". Its suit becomes the suit of the trick, which everyone else must follow if they can.
Each player in turn must play a card of the led suit. If you hold none of that suit, you may play a trump or discard any other card.
Once all four have played, the trick goes to the highest trump. If no trump was played — the highest card of the led suit. Off-suit cards without a trump never win.
The winner of the trick takes the four cards for their pair and leads to the next trick. This is how all 13 tricks of the deal are played out.
When the hands run out, each pair's tricks are counted, points are awarded, and a new deal is dealt with a new trump.
Of the 13 tricks, the first six (the "book") earn no points — that's the baseline. Points come only above six: if a pair takes, say, 9 tricks, they get 9 − 6 = 3 points. Since there are only 13 tricks in all, both pairs cannot score above six at the same time; at 6:7 only the second pair scores, and at 6:6 no points are usually awarded. Points from deals accumulate, and the pair that first reaches 5 game points wins.
Don't waste trumps for nothing — hold them back to intercept off-suits and take the key tricks.
Remember which high cards and trumps have already been played — it tells you what's safe to lead.
If your partner is already taking the trick, don't overtake them — discard low, the points go to both of you.
When you're out of the led suit, think it over: sometimes it's better to keep a trump than to spend it beating an opponent's weak card.
Before you make your first move, spend five seconds sizing up how many tricks your deal is worth. It's convenient to count in "honours": an ace is a sure trick, a king is nearly sure, a queen only wins with a backer. A bare queen with no high cards beside it falls under the opponent's ace and king and brings a trick at best one time in three.
The second most important factor is the distribution, not the total in points. A hand with two honours in each of the four suits looks rich but takes little: the opponent will easily "knock out" your kings under their aces. Concentration always beats dispersion. And remember that on muta.pro you play in a pair: count not only your own hand but also that your partner will almost certainly add two or three tricks. If you have an honest six, together with them you'll often reach eight.
On the left — three reliable tricks in a row; on the right — a lone queen that will almost certainly be lost.
A = 1 trick, A+K = 2, A+K+Q = 2–3. Stray queens and jacks with no neighbours hardly count at all.
Four trumps with an ace give control over the tempo beyond the usual honours: you dictate when suits are drawn.
A hand worth 8+ tricks — you attack and go for the overtrick. A hand worth 4–5 — you defend and keep the opponent from over-taking.
Beginners prize high cards and disdain the low ones, but in whist a long suit matters more than one or two scattered honours. Five or more cards of one suit are hidden tricks: after two or three rounds the opponents "run out" of the suit, and your small cards become unbeatable, because there's nothing left to cover them with except a trump.
This works only under one condition: you must have an entry left — a high card or trump with which you'll take the lead again and return to the developed suit. That's why a long suit is played methodically: first you knock out the opponents' honours in it, then you draw the opponent's trumps, and only then do you run the "grown" low cards. Skip the order — and your eight tricks turn into four.
Having run out the ace and king, you "grow" ♠8 and ♠6 — after two rounds there's nothing left to cover them with.
Lead from your five-card suit, even if it isn't the highest. Developing it is worth more than winning once with a short ace.
♠6 and ♠7 in a six-card suit are future tricks. Hold them: in a couple of rounds they win on their own.
For a long suit to pay off, you need a way to regain the lead. Keep an ace or trump in reserve as your "entry" into the suit.
Where you sit within a trick matters more than it seems. Second hand plays low: you haven't yet seen the leader's partner's card, so it's too early to spend an honour. Third hand plays high — to take the trick or force the opponent to "kill" an honour. The rule is old but ironclad: "second hand low, third hand high".
A separate technique is the finesse (impasse). Holding an ace and a queen without the king, don't play head-on: lead a small card toward your pair from your partner's hand and, if the opponent's king on the left hasn't appeared, play the queen. It passes when the king sits on the right — in about half the deals this saves an extra trick.
Position also guides the discard. When you have nothing to cover with and must part with a card, discard from a suit you don't mind — this indirectly shows your partner where your strength is: they see which suits you hold on to. Such a "discard signal" replaces the forbidden table talk in whist and is often more important than one separate trick.
Partner leads ♣4; if the king on the left didn't fall, you play ♣Q — the finesse passes.
Right after the lead, play low. Keep your high card back — you don't yet know how your partner will respond.
When your partner has already played, play high: take the trick or force the opponent to part with an honour.
Run your high card "through" the opponent, not under them. A half-chance is better than a guaranteed loss of the queen under the king.
A trump isn't for beating the very first weak off-suit card. Its power is in intercepting decisive tricks and "drawing out" the opponent's trumps. If your pair has the trump majority, it pays to draw the trumps: lead the trump ace and king, the opponents must follow, their reserve dwindles — and after that your long suits run without a ruff.
Run the trump A and K — the opponents give up their trumps, and the table clears for your suit.
With a trump minority the opposite is true: drawing trumps is harmful, you're doing the opponent's work. In that case keep your trump as a "club" and ruff with it the suits where you're already void. It's worth exchanging a trump only for a higher one — giving up a jack for the opponent's two makes no sense.
A pretty trump technique is the ruff. The scheme is "short suit with you, long suit with your partner": run your two-card suit down to nothing, then beat it with trumps while your partner holds the other suits. Each such ruff is an extra trick beyond your honours, and it's often on this that the overtrick is won.
Lead a suit the opponent doesn't have: they're forced to trump. Every force drains their trump reserve.
If your partner is already taking the trick for sure, don't trump on top — discard low. A pair's trumps shouldn't overlap.
Note the moment the last trump is played. From then on your long suits are invulnerable — attack boldly.