BID WHIST.
This is a popular game on trains, or wherever it may be necessary to stop at the end of a deal without finishing the game. Thirteen cards are dealt to each player, one at a time, but no trump is turned. Partners sit opposite each other, and the player to the left of the dealer makes the first bid.
BIDDING. The bidding goes round until no one will go any higher. The eldest hand starts by naming the number of points he will make if allowed to name the trump and lead to the first trick, but he does not name the suit he purposes picking out. It is not necessary to lead a trump.
There are two ways to bid. In some places there are seventeen points to be played for in each deal; one for each trick of the thirteen and one for each of the four honours, ace king queen and jack, in the trump suit. Honours count to the side winning them, and not to the original holders, so that a player holding the four top honours in any suit could safely bid eight; four tricks and four honors being a certainty, but if that was all he made he would lose on the deal, as the other side would score nine points out of the seventeen.
In other places, it is the rule that the bidder must make the odd trick or he cannot count honours or anything else. There are then only eleven points to be played for in each deal; seven odd tricks and four honours. Any player bidding four would have to win the odd and three honors, or two odd and two honours, or something to make up his bid.
SCORING. No matter how many more than his bid he makes, he can score it all. If he fails, he is set back the amount of his bid. If his adversaries win the odd trick or more, they count one point for each trick over the book in addition to the amount by which they set the bidder back.
When there are seventeen points in play each deal, it is usual to take the lower score from the higher and score the difference only, but when the bidder fails, he is not set back, but simply gets nothing at all, while his opponents score all they make, without any deductions.