Welcome to Oneonta Whist!

Get ready to experience a unique twist on the classic solitaire game. In Oneonta Whist, it’s just you against the deck, playing a trick-taking game like no other. Your goal is to win the same number of tricks that you bid to win, all while racking up as many points as possible!

Let’s Get Started

Before we dive into the game, let’s go over the setup. First, we need to create the playing deck. To do this, we’ll need to set aside all the 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and two Aces. One Ace will be the Large Joker, and the other will be the Small Joker.

Once the game starts, I’ll shuffle the deck and deal two hands, one to you and one to me. Each hand will have nine cards. We’ll also place four cards face down in the middle, and then we’ll reveal the top card to determine the trump suit.

After you’ve looked at your cards, we can start playing!

How to Play

Now it’s time for you to make a bid on how many tricks you think you can win. You can either make a positive bid or a negative bid. A positive bid is when you predict to win a certain number of tricks, from one to nine. On the other hand, a negative bid is when you bid to win no tricks at all. To make things more exciting, you’ll also have to decide how many points you’re willing to risk, between one and nine.

So, here’s what goes down after the bid: the hand officially begins. The trick starts off with the other hand’s top card being played. Now, if I got a card of the same suit, I’ll try my best to match it. But hey, if I don’t have a card from the same suit, no worries! I can play any card I want. Here’s the kicker: the trick is won by the card with the highest rank in the trump suit. And if there ain’t no trump suit, well, the card with the highest rank wins, simple as that!

Now let’s talk about the end of the game.

After playing nine tricks, the game comes to a close. This is when I figure out how many tricks I managed to win. If I win the exact number of tricks that I bid for, guess what? I win the exact same amount of points, no more, no less. But hold on a second! If I surpass the number of tricks I bid for and win even more, things get a bit tricky. I need to calculate the difference between my bid and the number of tricks I actually won. Then, I take that difference and subtract it from my points. That’s the final score I end up with!