🇮🇱 Israeli Whist

Players: 4
Deck: Standard 52 cards (no jokers)
Goal: Win exactly the number of tricks you bid — no more, no less.

🎯 Overview

Israeli Whist is a tactical trick-taking game inspired by classical Whist. It adds strategic bidding and Frisch rounds, where players exchange cards to improve their hands. The game is especially popular among Israeli soldiers and travelers.

🃏 Card Ranking

• By value (high → low): A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, …, 2
• By suit (strong → weak): No Trump (NT), ♠, ♥, ♦, ♣

🔄 Setup

• The dealer shuffles and deals all 52 cards — each player gets 13 cards.
• The dealer rotates clockwise each round.

💬 Bidding Phase

There are two stages of bidding:

1️⃣ Choosing the Trump Suit

• The player left of the dealer starts and may either Pass or Bid.
• A bid states a number of tricks and a suit (e.g. “5 Hearts”).
• Bids must increase — either by number of tricks or by stronger suit.
• Bidding continues clockwise until three consecutive passes.
• The last valid bid sets the Trump suit.

🌀 Frisch (if everyone passes)

1. Each player passes three cards face-down to the player on their left.
2. After passing, everyone picks up their new cards.
3. Start a new bidding with the minimum bid increased by 1 (from 5 → 6 → 7, etc.).
4. Up to three Frisch rounds can occur. If no one bids after the third, the hand is redealt.

“Frisch” comes from the German word for “fresh.”

2️⃣ Declaring Contracts

• After trump is set, the winner of the trump bid declares how many tricks they plan to win (≥ their previous bid).
• Other players bid any number (0–13) in turn.
• The last player cannot make the total bids equal 13.

If total bids < 13 → Under game.
If total bids > 13 → Over game.

🕹️ Playing the Tricks

• The trump bidder leads the first trick.
• Play proceeds clockwise.
• Players must follow suit if possible.
• If unable to follow, any card may be played — including a trump to win the trick.
• The highest card of the led suit wins, unless a trump is played; then the highest trump wins.
• The trick winner leads next.
• In No Trump games, there are no trumps — players unable to follow automatically lose the trick.

🧮 Scoring

The goal: take exactly the number of tricks you bid.

Examples:
Bid 3, took 3 → 3×3 + 10 = 19 pts
Bid 4, took 6 → −20 pts

♻️ Variations

Optional rule tweaks

• No Frisch rounds
• Frisch direction changes each time (left → across → right)
• No increasing minimum bid after each Frisch

🧠 Strategy Tips

• Use early Frisch rounds to balance your hand.
• Bidding zero in an Under game is risky but rewarding.
• Track the sum of bids — it shapes the round’s dynamics.

Based on traditional Israeli Whist rules (as described in Parlett’s “The Penguin Book of Card Games”, 2008).