Introducing our newest App, “Hi-Lo Bid Whist”
Hi-Lo Bid Whist is a variation of the classic card game, Bid Whist. Also called “Poor Man’s Bridge” by some (not me), it is a 4-person card game played with partners. The first team to score 21 points wins.
Before the game actually begins, the app gives you the option of keeping the existing team and player names, or entering your own. Once entered, these names will be used as defaults for your future games.
To begin the game, one card is dealt to each player; the player with the highest card becomes the first dealer. The dealer has a decided advantage in this game, as they get the last bid, and has the option of taking the ‘Kitty’ for the highest existing bid.
Scoring: Each hand is comprised of 12 ‘tricks’, with points being accumulated after the first 5 tricks. In order to make a bid of 4, the high-bidder (and their partner) must win 5 tricks, plus 4 more. So, a 4-bid requires 9 tricks to be won; a 5-bid requires 10 tricks, and the seldom seen 7-bid requires all 12 tricks to be taken. Regardless of what the bid was, if the bid was made, the winning team gets 1 point for every trick exceeding 5. So, if they made 11 tricks, they would net 6 points (11 minus 5). Conversely, if not enough tricks were won to cover the bid, the opposing team would win the bid points, plus 1 point for every 2 extra tricks made. For example, team A bid 5, which requires making 10 tricks. If team B made 4 tricks, they would get the 5 points for setting team A back, plus an extra point for having made the excess 2 tricks. An added note: Should the bid-winner declare ‘No Trump’ instead of a suit, the risks and rewards are all doubled. Losing a bid of 5 would cause the opponents to win 10 points if the bidder declares ‘No Trump’.
The Bidding: Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, going clockwise, each player states their bid. The high-bidder gets to pick up the cards from the ‘Kitty’, name which suit is trump, and name the rank order (hi or lo).
Taking the Kitty/Declaring Trump: The high-bidder gets the 4 cards from the Kitty added to their hand. It is at this point where trump and card order are declared.
Declaring the card Order: After trump has been declared, the high-bidder must declare the card order. ‘High’ means standard order, 2 through ace, with aces being the best. Going ‘Lo’ requires a further option, calling aces ‘Good’ (which means an ace will beat a deuce as well as all other cards of that suit), or ‘No Aces’ (all cards of the same suit will beat an ace).
Discarding the Kitty: The player who won the Kitty must now discard the 4 extra cards from their hand. If the person playing the App was the bid-winner, they simply click on the 4 cards to discard; when done the app rearranges the player hand automatically.
Playing the hand: The high-bidder plays first. The rules that everyone must follow: If you have cards in the same suit as the first card of the trick, you MUST play a card from that suit. If not, you may play a trump card, or any other card. The winner of each trick gets to play the first card of the following trick.
The last trick may be displayed when it is the player turn.