Romanian whist (we call it simply Whist from now on) is a trick-talking card game for 3 to 6 players (optimal for 4). The game, a variation of the more popular Oh Hell card game, is played using a standard 52-card deck.

The cards rank as follows (from high to low): A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs) are not rated. For each player are used 8 cards (for 3 players use 24 cards - from A to 9, for 4 players use 32 cards - from A to 7 and so on).

Whist is played as a series of hands. For each hand one player is the dealer. Initially, the first dealer is determined by cutting cards or is chosen at random. The dealer deals cards clockwise until each player has the correct number of cards.

First, the number of cards dealt to each player is 1 and continue to be 1 for as many deals as number of players. Then, the number of cards dealt increases by one with every deal until 8, when all cards are dealt. The number of deals with 8 cards is the number of players. After this, the number of cards dealt decreases until one card. Again, number of deals with one card is the number of players.

Total number of deals is: 3 * number of players + 12. For example, for a game with 5 players, the total number of deals would be 27 (3*5 + 12) and the number of cards dealt each round would be as follows: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1.

After the deal is complete, the dealer flips the next card over and the suit of this card is the trump. When all the cards are dealt out (hands with 8 cards), there is no next card to turn up and these games are played without trumps.

Each player, starting with the player to the left of the dealer, is now obliged to bid for the number of tricks he believes he can win. You can win if you have the biggest card or if you have the trump. Dealer is bidding last and the sum of all tricks must not be equal with the number of cards dealt to each player. (Example: game with four cards, three players: The first player says "2", the next "1". The third player can't say "1", because that would make the sum of the tricks 4. He MUST say 0, 2, 3 or 4). The rule that the bids must not add up to the number of cards dealt ensures that not everyone will succeed in their bid.