Introduction; Players; Cards

Bid Whist is a partnership trick-taking game very popular among African Americans.It is played with a standard 52 card deck plus 2 jokers, for a total of 54 cards.

The two jokers must be distinct: one is called the big joker and the other is the little joker.There are 4 players consisting of two teams of two; each player sits opposite their partner.The game starts with each team at zero, and the object of the game is to reach a score 7 or more points, or force the other team to go negative 7 or more points.

Points are scored by bidding for and winning tricks, which in this game are called books.For those not familiar with the game we will sometimes call them the more common tricks.Good help file for those who have not played the game before.