Romanian Whist

Romanian Whist - Rules

The Romanian Whist game has the following rules:

• from the standard deck card, only 8 cards for every player are kept (for example, 24 cards when playing with 3 players).
• in order to reach the required number, cards are discarded starting from the lower values (2, 3, 4 and so on).
• with the remaining cards, several rounds are played, according to the pattern 1 - 8 - 1.
• this means 1 card is dealt to each player initially, then 2, 3 and so on, up to 8, and then back towards 1.
• as an exception, the rounds of 1 and 8 repeat in order to allow every player to be the 'dealer' for them.
• each round consists in a estimation phase, where players say the number of tricks they'll make, and a play phase.
• in the play phase, the player to dealer's left plays the first card; others must play a card of the same suit.
• if they don't have a card of the same suit, they must play a trump, otherwise they can put down any card.
• the trick is made by the player with the highest trump (or the highest initial suit if no trump was put down).
• if players estimate correctly the number of tricks, they're rewarded with 5 points + 1 point per trick made.
• otherwise, their score is lowered with the difference between the estimation and number of tricks made.
• the game ends after the last round; the winner is the player with the highest score at the end of the game.