Bid Whist: The Making of a Great American Pastime

CHAPTER ONE: THE GAME

Just go to a black family reunion Anywhere, U.S.A. and somehow a Bid Whist game will appear just as if it was part of the family...which I believe it is!

Because of its passionate embrace on the black community, 'Bid' has become as much apart of black culture as jazz or jambalaya. This game has made cameo appearances, or at least mentioned, on black situation comedies ("Thea", "Sinbad", Robert Townsend's "Parenthood", Tim Reid’s "Linc's", "The Steve Harvey Show", and "Moesha") throughout the 1990's. One plot of "The Cosby Show" was even centered around a Bid Whist Rise-N-Fly tournament. In August Wilson’s Tony Award winning Broadway play, "Seven Guitars", set in post WWII Pittsburgh, a Bid Whist game helped to ease the stress of its pivotal characters. In books by contemporary authors like Mel Watkins, Rosalyn McMillan and Venise Berry, 'Bid' was defined as a favorite pastime.

So our black culture has elevated Bid Whist to a higher plain. It’s more than just a game. Like a movie is more than just a screenplay. A screenplay must be filmed and edited before it can be viewed as a movie. A game also must go through its own metamorphosis before it can become a favorite pastime. That’s why it’s important for us to understand that 'the game' is just one ingredient in the making of this 'great American pastime' that has been scripted for over fifty years. It became not only the standard for Whist, it also became the dominant card game in the black community.

How-To-Play Bid Whist

Although there are a variety of ways to play, I'm going to briefly describe the rules laid out in the current 'how-to-play' books*(1), which are basically the same rules followed in the nationwide Bid Whist tournaments.

The Purpose:

The purpose of Bid Whist is for players to gather as many tricks as possible during the play of each hand. The two players on each team combine their trick totals.

The Deal:

In Bid Whist, there are four players forming two teams, with the partners sitting directly across from each other. All 54 cards (52+2 jokers) are dealt around the table. Each player receives 12 cards. There are 6 cards (called a kitty) turned down in the center of the table.

The Bid:

After analyzing the 12 cards, each player, starting with the player left of dealer, chooses to either 'pass' or 'bid'. A bid is a verbal agreement indicating how many tricks a player feels that he/she and the partner will be able to capture. By winning the bid, the player also takes the kitty, which is considered the first trick.

The Trick (Book):

During 'The Play Process', each player (starting with the winner of the bid) plays one card at a time. The player with the highest valued card captures the grouping of four cards which is called a trick.

Although ‘trick’ is the technical term, many Bid Whist players use the term ‘book’. Since we use the kitty, the first trick is achieved by capturing the kitty. Then there are twelve rounds of play, for a total of thirteen tricks[If playing without a kitty, then thirteen cards are dealt to the four players. That’s 52 cards (the two jokers are removed from the deck), thirteen rounds of play and thirteen tricks].

Even though there are thirteen tricks for each hand, a person can only bid from 1 to 7. In other words, the first six tricks captured by one team is the base. The seventh trick captured is a 1 (6 + 1), or the first ‘book’. The eighth trick captured is a 2 (6+2), or the second ‘book’. The thirteenth trick is a 7 (6+7), or the seventh ‘book’.

Remember that some players say trick or book interchangeably. Some (like myself) call the seventh trick, the first book and so on. It really doesn’t matter. Just as long as all the players are reading from the same page.