Card Game For Dummies - Second Edition - Bridge Guys

Card Game For Dummies - Second Edition
ISBN-10: 0764599100 and ISBN-13: 978-0764599101
by Barry Rigal
Card Game Writer, Journalist, and World-Famous Bridge Author
Foreword by Omar Sharif
Bridge Columnist and Academy Award-Nominated Actor
Publisher: Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Date: October 7, 2005 - Pages 131 and 132

German Whist (Two-Handed) Whist
German Whist is a game for two players, which may explain why the game is also referred to
as Honeymoon Whist. If you decide to play this game on your honeymoon, you must be very
devoted card players.
The dealer deals 13 cards to each player and turns over the top card of the remaining 26, of
the stock. This card defines the trump suit for the whole hand (refer to the section “Winning
tricks with the trump suit” earlier in this chapter for more information).
The game progresses in two stages: the preparation stage and the actual play of the hand,
although the nature of the two stages may seem pretty similar.
Improving your holding cards
During the preparation stage, you attempt to improve your hand by playing out cards and
receiving cards in return. Both players fight for the right to pickup either the face-up card
or the face-down card of the stock. Depending on whether the face-up card is a good or
bad card, you try to win the trick or lose it.
The nondealer may lead any card in her hand, and the dealer must follow suit. The winner
of the trick takes the face-up card on the discard pile; the loser takes the face-down card
from the top of the stock. You turn up a new card and repeat the process. The winner of
the previous trick leads, and you repeat this process 13 times.
Part III: Taking Tricks
This procedure is all preparation, because these 13 tricks don’t count for anything toward
the scoring of the hand. They just set you up for the finale.
Not that I’m encouraging you to cheat, but one of the problems with the traditional game I
describe is that it’s frequently impossible to detect a revoke. Say you lead the ace of trumps
early on in the hand and instead of dropping my singleton king, I throw a card from another
suit. How will you know? The only way around this is to be trusting, or ethical, or to vary the
basic rules of the game to score for all 26 tricks, but not to require suit to be followed until
the last 13.
Playing the hand
Now the serious part of the game begins. During this final stage, you want to win as many of
the 13 tricks you play as possible. You keep the same trump suit you had for the fist 13 tricks,
and you play out the cards one at a time. The player who wins the last trick of the preparation
phase leads first, and the other player responds by playing a card, following suit if she can.
The winner of the trick leads to the next trick, and play continues this way for all 13 tricks.

German Whist offers a great test of memory as you try to keep track of what happened in the
initial phase of the game and who ended up with which cards. Try to keep track of all the aces,
kinds, and queens at the very least, so that as the preparation stage comes to an end, you can
lead middle cards out and force a high card from your opponent’s hand.
For example, say that the top card you’re playing for is the ♣7, and clubs are the trump suit.
If you have the ♥10 and the ♥9, and the ♥K and ♥Q have already been played, leading the
♥10 may force your opponent to relinquish her ♥A if she want the trump card (♣7). Of course,
she may have the ♥J.
Don’t try to win tricks during the preparation phase of the game unless you want the top card.
Try to weigh how good the card you led is against the top card. Don’t, for example, lead an ace
just to get a king of the same suit. because you simply exchange a good card for another one.
This move also gives your opponent a chance to throw a card of his choice in the suit led. - and
what if she picks up something good in exchange?
You may want to lead trump cards in the early stage to kill, or reduce the effectiveness of your
opponent’s hand. This tactic may prove particularly relevant if you believe that your enemy has
trump-card control as the preparation state of the game runs down. You may also want to get rid
of a particular suit (other than trump) in the early part of the game so you can trump when your
opponent leads that suit to win a key card.