Israeli whist

Israeli whist is a variant of whist popular among Israeli soldiers and travelers.

After the cards are dealt, the players place bids in order to decide which is the trump suit. A player's bid consistsof which suit he wants to play as trump and how many tricks he is about to win (anywhere from 4 to 13). A player may pass on his bid. The player declaring the most tricks wins, and his suit is played as trump. Then, starting from the highest bidder, a second round of bids occurs where each player has to declare how many tricks he is about to win (anywhere from 0 to 13). The last player to declare is not allowed to make such a declaration that will sum all declarations to 13, (the actual number of tricks), effectively forcing at least one player to lose the round. Play then commences.

At the end of the round, the number of tricks is summed for each player. A player must win exactly the number of tricks he declared. If he succeeded, he scores the number of tricks he won squared plus 10. If he fails, he loses 10 points for every difference between his actual result and his declaration. A player who declared zero tricks gains 50 points if the sum of all declarations was below 13 (an 'under' round) and 25 points in the event that the sum of all declarations was above 13 (an 'over' round).