Whist a game for all the family

Whist is a card game that was taught to me by my Nan, many years ago. It’s a firm favourite of the boy’s, as he loves anything with numbers. Especially if he has a good chance of winning. We first taught the boy how to play knockout whist on our very rainy caravanning holiday in June 2012. A holiday we wont forget in a hurry, as we came home to floods that made the national news.
Back to the game.
We play a type of Whist called Knockout Whist and for this you need an ordinary pack of playing cards, deal 7 cards to each player. Turn over the top card of the pack, this suit becomes trumps. The idea is to take turns from the left of the dealer to play the highest card and win the trick.
The player who wins the most tricks chooses trumps on the deal. Know one goes out on the gist round, but it on subsequent rounds you don’t win any tricks you are out.
The next person to the left deals but this time six cards, and each round one less card is dealt. The game can go down to the last card, and the boy calls this sudden death!
The winner is the last person to win the last trick, or win all the tricks in a deal.

This is a great game, which we often play in restaurants while waiting for food, or on a train day out like our Disney trip. We have a family rucksack with a pack of cards at the ready. Games last no more than 20 minutes, quite often shorter so are an ideal distraction. This is also an easy game for smaller hands as not too many cards to hold!