Knockout whist rules

The simplest game in the whist family and one of the best with children. Players drop out until only one is left.

Players and deck

Two to seven players with an ordinary 52-card deck. Aces are high, and each suit ranks from ace down to two.

The first round

Seven cards each. The next card is turned face up and its suit is trump.

The play

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. The winner of each trick leads to the next.

Between rounds

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. They look at their new hand before they choose. If two players tie for the most, they traditionally cut for it; a simpler way is to let the tied player nearest the dealer's left choose.

The next deal is one card fewer — seven, then six, then five, and so on down to one. A game therefore lasts at most seven rounds.

Dog's life

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. Each player gets only one dog's life per game.

Playing well

In the early rounds the only thing that matters is taking at least one trick. Keep an ace or a high trump for that rather than spending it on a trick someone else was going to lose anyway. When you win the right to name trumps, choose your longest suit rather than the one with the highest card.

In the later rounds, with few cards in hand, count what has gone. With three cards each, knowing whether the ace of trumps has been played decides whether your king is a winner.

The winner is the last player left, or whoever takes the single trick in the final one-card round.