GERMAN WHIST.
CARDS. German Whist is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as at Whist, both for cutting and playing.
PLAYERS. Two persons play. They cut for the first deal, and the choice of seats.
DEALING. The dealer presents the pack to his adversary to be cut, and then gives thirteen cards to each player, one at a time, turning up the twenty-seventh card for the trump, and laying it on the talon, or remainder of the pack.
PLAYING. The non-dealer begins by leading any card he pleases, and his adversary must follow suit if he can. The winner of the first trick takes the trump card into his hand, and his adversary takes the card immediately under it, but without showing or naming it. Each player thus restores the number of cards in his hand to thirteen. The card which is now on the top of the talon is turned up, and the winner of the next trick must take it, his adversary taking the one under it, as before, and turning up the next. In this manner it will be seen that the winner of each trick must always get a card which is known to his adversary, while the loser of the trick gets one which remains unknown.
When the talon is exhausted, the thirteen cards in each hand should be known to both players if they have been observant, and the end game becomes a problem in double dummy.
STAKES. The game is usually played for so much a point, the player having won the majority of the tricks receiving the difference between the number of his tricks and those of his adversary. Each game is complete in one hand.
In many respects the game resembles single-handed Hearts, except that in Hearts none of the cards drawn are shown.