One card fewer each round until only one player is left holding any.
The simplest game in the whist family and one of the best with children. Players drop out until only one is left.
Seven cards each. The next card is turned face up and its suit is trump.
The player to the dealer's left leads. Follow suit if you can, otherwise play anything. Highest trump takes the trick, otherwise the highest card of the suit led.
Anyone who took no tricks at all in the round is knocked out and takes no further part.
Whoever took the most tricks chooses the trump suit for the next round and leads to its first trick.
The next deal is one card fewer — seven, then six, then five, and so on down to one.
A player knocked out in the very first round they play may, by agreement, stay in with a single card — a dog's life. They may play it on any trick they choose. Win with it and they are back in the game with a full hand next round; lose it and they are out.
The winner is the last player left, or whoever takes the single trick in the final one-card round.