Knockout Whist
Card games · Trick-taking
Also Trumps, Reduction Whist
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Summary — 2–7 players
Knockout Whist is a simple trick-taking card game for two to seven where hands shrink from seven cards to one and taking no trick knocks you out. Whoever takes the most tricks chooses trumps for the next hand, and the last player left in wins. Also called Trumps.
- Scored by
- The game is won by the winner of the one trick on the final hand, or if all but one of the players are knocked out before this, the surviving player is the winner
- Origin
- Britain
How it plays
1 of 6
The deal
Two to seven players, everybody for themselves. Seven cards each in the first hand, and the next card off the pack is turned face up to fix trumps. Nobody bids and nobody chooses anything yet — the turned card decides it.
Rules
How to play
Players and equipment
Two to seven players, each for themselves, and a standard 52-card deck with no jokers. Aces are high and twos low. It is the pub teaching game: the rules of Whist with nothing to remember about partners, bidding or scoring, and a very simple penalty — one bad hand and you are watching. Also called Trumps, and in older books Reduction Whist, because the hands get smaller. Three to five players make the best game.
The deal
Seven cards each in the first hand, dealt one at a time clockwise from the dealer's left. The next card off the pack is turned face up: its suit is trumps for the hand. The rest of the pack is set aside and plays no part. The deal passes to the left after every hand, and each hand is dealt one card smaller than the last.
Play
The player to the dealer's left leads any card. Going clockwise, each player must follow suit if they can; a player with none of the suit led may play anything, a trump or a card thrown away. The highest trump in the trick wins it, and if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led. The winner turns the trick face down in front of them and leads the next.
Take no trick in a hand and you are knocked out. It does not matter how many the others took; a hand without a trick puts you out of the game. Everybody who took at least one goes on to the next hand, which is dealt one card smaller: seven, then six, then five, down to one. Whoever took the most tricks in a hand chooses trumps for the next, looking at their new cards first and then naming the suit. On a tie for most, the tied players cut the pack and the higher card chooses.
Many tables add the dog's life, and plenty do not — agree before you start. It gives the first player knocked out one more hand with a single card, playable on any trick they choose rather than in turn. Win that trick and they are fully back in, dealt a full hand next time; lose it and they are out for good. It is one card and one chance, and it usually fails.
Scoring
Scoring
There is no score. There are the tricks in front of you, and the only number that matters is whether yours is zero.
- Took a trick
- Still in
- However many
- Took none
- Knocked out
- A hand without a trick
- Most tricks
- Chooses trumps next hand
- Ties are cut for
What a game does produce is an order: the first player knocked out finished last, the next one place better, and the last one standing won. On SquareScores a whole game from seven cards down to one is one match on the match table, and the game is set up as a knockout, so the taps run backwards. Tap a player's name when they are knocked out and they take the place that is the number of players still in: with five in, the first one out is fifth. The tap that leaves one player standing crowns that player in the same motion. The host chooses at launch between winner-takes-all, where every knocked-out player reads out and the survivor won, and ranked, where the last three to fall carry three, two and one points and the players below the podium read out.
A worked game
Five players: Alice, Ben, Cara, Dev and Emma. Hearts are turned up for the first hand.
- Seven cards
- Emma out, fifth
- Alice 3, Ben 2, Cara 1, Dev 1, Emma 0
- Six cards
- Nobody out
- Alice 2, Ben 2, Cara 1, Dev 1; Emma's dog's life card loses its trick
- Five cards
- Dev out, fourth
- Alice 2, Cara 2, Ben 1, Dev 0
- Four cards
- Nobody out
- Alice 2, Ben 1, Cara 1
- Three cards
- Cara out, third
- Alice 2, Ben 1, Cara 0
- Two cards
- Nobody out
- Alice 1, Ben 1
- One card
- Ben out, second; Alice wins
- Alice takes the trick
Emma took nothing in the first hand and is knocked out; on the dog's life she is dealt one card for the hand of six, plays it on a trick led in its suit, and Ben trumps it, so she is out for good. The tap on Emma wrote fifth, the tap on Dev fourth, the tap on Cara third; the tap on Ben, when Alice took the one-card trick, wrote second for Ben and first for Alice together, and the match filed. On a ranked table Alice has three points, Ben two and Cara one, and Dev and Emma read out; on a winner-takes-all table Alice reads won and the other four read out.
Ending
Players fall away hand by hand. The last one in wins — or, if two or more reach the final one-card hand, whoever takes that single trick, since everybody else in it took none.
Strategy
Choosing trumps
When the choice is yours, name your longest suit, not your strongest single card. Four small cards in a suit that is trumps are four chances to take a trick, since each beats any card of another suit once you cannot follow; an ace in a suit that is not trumps is one trick if it is not trumped, and none if it is. With three cards or fewer, a suit you hold two of is nearly always right.
Taking one trick, not all of them
The game asks only that you take one, so make one trick certain before you play for more. Lead your highest card of a long suit early, while everybody still has to follow suit and cannot trump it. Once you have a trick face down in front of you, you can throw your remaining high cards away on other people's tricks and keep your trumps, or play them freely to take the most tricks and the choice of trumps.
When to lead trumps
Lead a trump when you hold the highest trumps and want to draw the others out before you play your winners in the other suits. Lead a low trump when you hold several and want to find out who is short. Do not lead trumps when you hold one or two, because a low trump is worth far more as a card that beats an ace than as a card that loses to a higher trump.
Playing the dog's life
Your one card wins a trick or it does not, so choose the trick with care. Wait for one led in your card's suit where the cards played so far are lower than yours and the players still to follow are the ones you have watched run out of that suit; and beware trumps, which beat your card whatever it is. A dog's life card played on the first trick out of impatience is nearly always lost.
Variations
The dog's life
The most common addition and the one to settle first. On: the first player knocked out receives a single card in the next hand and may play it on any trick they choose, coming back into the game if it wins. Off: out is out, and the game is quicker and harder. Where two players fall in the same hand, tables differ on whether both get a dog's life or neither does; say which before you begin.
Blind dog
A dog's life played without looking at the card. The player receives their one card face down and still chooses the trick to play it on, but does not see it until it hits the table. Some tables let the player choose between an ordinary dog's life and a blind one.
Trumps turned up every hand
Instead of the player who took the most tricks choosing, a card is turned from the pack after every deal and its suit is trumps, as in the first hand. Nobody has an advantage and there is nothing to cut for on a tie.
Down to two cards
The one-card hand is a coin toss between whoever holds the higher card, so some tables stop at two: whoever takes the most tricks in the two-card hand wins, and a one-all split is played off with a single card after all.
Trumps
The name the game goes by at many British tables, where the choice of trumps by the winner of the previous hand is the feature that names it. The rules are the same as Knockout Whist in every point.
FAQs
How do you play Knockout Whist?
Deal seven cards each and turn the next card for trumps. Play tricks as in Whist: follow suit if you can, the highest trump wins the trick or the highest card of the suit led if there is no trump, and the winner leads next. Anybody who takes no trick in a hand is knocked out. The survivors play another hand of one card fewer, with trumps chosen by whoever took most tricks, and so on down to one card. The last player in wins.
What is the dog's life in Knockout Whist?
A second chance for the first player knocked out. In the next hand they are dealt a single card, which they may play on any trick they like rather than in turn. If it wins the trick they are back in the game with a full hand next time; if it loses they are out for good. Not every table plays it, so agree before the first deal.
Who chooses trumps in Knockout Whist?
For the first hand nobody: a card is turned from the pack and its suit is trumps. For every later hand the player who took the most tricks in the hand just played chooses, after looking at their new cards, and if two or more tie for most they cut the pack and the higher card chooses. Some tables turn a card for every hand instead.
What happens if everyone takes a trick in Knockout Whist?
Nobody is knocked out and the next hand is dealt one card smaller as usual. That can happen only while there are at least as many cards in a hand as players, so as the hands shrink somebody must fall out; at the one-card hand there is one trick and one winner.
Can you play Knockout Whist with two players?
Yes, though it is a thin game: each hand is seven tricks between two, and the first time either player takes none the game is over. It is better with three to five.
Is Knockout Whist the same as Trumps?
Yes. Trumps is a common name for the same game in Britain, and Reduction Whist an older one that describes the shrinking hands. The rules are the same under every name, with the dog's life the usual point on which tables differ.