Setting Sail: Getting Ready to Play
1. Choose Your Maximum Hand Size
Before you even touch the cards, the crew must agree on the maximum number of cards to be dealt in a round. This number will be the largest hand size each player receives. The only rule is that everyone gets the same number of cards in a given round. For example, if you choose 8 as your maximum, the dealing rounds will follow a sequence like: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
2. Determine the Dealer
The first dealer can be chosen by cutting the deck (lowest card deals) or any other method the players agree on. The deal will rotate to the left after each round.
3. Prepare Your Bidding Tools
Decide if you'll be using matches or fingers to show your bids. If using fingers, remember that your thumb is worth 5! So, a full hand with the thumb up means you're bidding on 9 tricks (5 + 4).
Playing the Game: From Deal to Victory
1. Dealing the Cards
The dealer for the round shuffles the 52-card deck.
Starting with the player to their left and going clockwise, the dealer deals the agreed-upon number of cards for that round to each player, one card at a time.
2. Bidding for Booty (Making Your Bid)
Once you've received your cards, look at your hand.
Before the first card is played in the round, each player must make a bid on how many sets they believe they will win in that round. The number of sets in a round is equal to the number of cards each player was dealt.
Secretly show your bid using your chosen method (matches or fingers). Keep your bid hidden from other players until everyone is ready.
3. Revealing Your Bid
When all players have made their bids, everyone reveals their bid simultaneously.
4. Playing the Round
The player to the left of the dealer starts the first set by playing any card from their hand.
Play continues clockwise. Each subsequent player must follow the suit of the card led if they have a card of that suit.
If a player does not have a card of the led suit, they can play any card they wish – including a trump card (Spades) or a card of a different suit.
Spades are always trump! This means any Spade card beats any card of another suit, regardless of rank.
Within a suit (or if only Spades are played), the card ranks from highest to lowest are: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
The player who played the highest-ranking card of the led suit, or the highest-ranking trump card if trumps were played, wins the set.
The player who won the set leads the next set.
Continue playing tricks until all cards in players' hands have been played. This marks the end of the round.
5. Counting Your Haul (Scoring)
After all sets in the round have been played, compare the number of sets you won to the number of sets you bid.
If you bid correctly (won exactly the number of sets you bid): You earn 10 points plus the number of sets you won.
- Bid 0, Won 0 = 10 points
- Bid 1, Won 1 = 11 points
- Bid 2, Won 2 = 12 points
- And so on...
If you bid incorrectly (won more or fewer sets than you bid): You lose points equal to the difference between your bid and the number of sets you won.
- Bid 1, Won 0 = -1 points
- Bid 0, Won 2 = -2 points
- Bid 3, Won 1 = -2 points
- And so on...
6. Setting Sail for the Next Round
The deal passes to the player to the left.
The number of cards dealt in the next round will follow the agreed-upon sequence (decreasing until 1, then increasing back up to the maximum).
Repeat Steps 1-5 for each round.
7. The Captain of the Ship (Winning the Game)
After all rounds in the full sequence have been played (from the maximum hand size down to 1 and back up to the maximum), the game is over.
The player with the highest total score is the winner and is declared the Captain of Pirate Whist!