You've got to go somewhere, but you have to get away from the table. When you lose, typically there are other folks sitting around waiting to get on that table, and it's time for you to, in this vernacular. GORDON: The title 'Rise and Fly,' again for people that do not know the phenomenon of bid whist or are unfamiliar with the terminology, this is all a part of particularly how African-Americans play it. GREG MORRISON (Co-author, 'Rise and Fly: Tall Tales and Mostly True Rules of Bid Whist'): Thank you very much. Greg Morrison is co-author of 'Rise and Fly: Tall Tales and Mostly True Rules of Bid Whist.' He spoke with NPR's Ed Gordon. The game of acuity and trash talking is played at family and social gatherings and has come to serve as both a generational and cultural bridge. Today it's a favorite among African-Americans. Or, if a short game is desired, the game can end after the four rounds, with the player with the highest score being the winner.Bid whist, a card game of bidding with partners to earn points, originated in London. The game may continue, cycling back to the rules of the first round and through the following rounds, until an agreed-upon winning score is achieved. I have found this scoring scheme is easier to remember and remains very balanced.Īdditionally, each player will deal once, then in the next round will be dealt by the player to the left of the previous dealer. If they took more than four tricks, they continue to lose points from their existing score. When I play Bismarck, I typically simplify the game: in the first three rounds, every player simply scores one point for each trick taken, and in the fourth round, each player starts with four points and loses one for each trick taken. During scoring, the dealer starts with six points and the other players start with four, then every player loses a point for each trick taken, down to zero points for the round.Įach other player then takes a turn as the dealer for a set of four rounds. Play occurs without a trump suit, as in the first round, but the goal in this round is to not take tricks. The fourth round is quite different from the other two. The third round is the same as the second round, except that the dealer picks the trump suit before dealing. Scoring is the same as in the first round. If no player plays a trump card, the trick goes to the highest card of the initial suit, as before. The player who played the card of the highest rank of the trump suit takes the trick. Play occurs as in the first round, but if a player does not have any cards of the same suit as the trick's initial card, they may play a card of the trump suit instead. Whatever suit the drawn card is is the trump suit. In the second round, the dealer blindly draws one of the four remaining cards. To score, each player counts the tricks they've taken the dealer scores a point for each trick they took over a count of eight, and the other players score a point for each trick taken above a count of four. The first round consists of 16 tricks, after which all the cards dealt will have been played. The player who took the previous trick then plays the initial card for the next trick. Cards are ranked 'aces high', that is, 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A (in ascending order of rank). The player who played the highest-ranked card of the suit of the initial card takes the set of three cards (known as the trick). In the first round, the player to the left of the dealer plays any card from their hand, then the other players play a card from their hand. For each hand, the dealer shuffles the deck and deals each player 16 cards. (I'm not sure whether Bismarck is named after the capital of North Dakota, the first German Chancellor, or some third Bismarck.)īismarck is played, using a standard 52-card deck, as a cycle of four hands, each with slightly different rules.

So let's get the rules online where people can find them, shall we? I found it described in the 1987 edition of The Penguin Book of Card Games, but I haven't found the game described online anywhere.

Bismarck is a type of whist played by three independent players, rather than two paired teams as regular whist is. I'm posting this in the interest of cultural preservation.

Whist card games