German Whist has a clean little trick: the first half is a sprint for better cards, the second half is where you cash in whatever you earned. That’s why it feels sharper than many old-school trick games—there’s less “I hope my hand is good,” and more “I built this hand, now let’s see if it holds.”
If you’re learning how to play German Whist card game, think of it as two chapters played back-to-back: a draw phase and a play phase.
What you need and how the deal works
Use a standard 52-card deck. It’s designed for two players, which is why it often gets mentioned among classic two player card games.
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Deal 13 cards to each player.
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Put the remaining 26 cards face down as a stock pile.
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Flip the top card of the stock face up; its suit is trumps. Keep it visible. (Commonly, that face-up card stays as the last card to be drawn later.)
Card ranking follows the usual high-card order: A, K, Q, J, 10 … down to 2.
The one rule that makes it “German” Whist: two phases
German Whist is easiest when you stop trying to understand it as one continuous game. It’s intentionally split:
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Phase 1 (first 13 tricks): you play tricks and draw new cards after each trick.
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Phase 2 (last 13 tricks): the stock is gone, hands are fixed, and every trick is pure information and memory.
Same trump suit throughout. Same trick-taking rules throughout. But the incentives change.
Phase 1: trick-taking with drawing (the “build your future” half)
Players play 13 tricks using the 13 cards they were dealt.
How each trick works:
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One player leads a card.
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The other must follow suit if possible.
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If the follower can’t follow suit, they may play any card (including a trump).
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Highest card of the led suit wins, unless a trump is played—then highest trump wins.
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The trick winner leads the next trick.
After the trick is won, both players draw one card from the stock:
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The trick winner draws first.
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The other player draws next.
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Keep drawing until the stock is empty (including the face-up trump card at the end, if your group plays it that way—which is the common, tidy method).
This is the heart of the game: winning tricks early isn’t only about points; it’s about first choice from the unknown.
Phase 2: no more drawing, now it’s a straight duel
Once the stock is exhausted, each player will have exactly 13 cards in hand again (the cards they collected through Phase 1 draws). Now you play the remaining 13 tricks with no replenishment.
This phase feels different immediately:
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Every card you play is a permanent commitment.
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The discard pile becomes a memory test.
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Trumps become more valuable because you can count them down.
If Phase 1 is “positioning,” Phase 2 is “execution.”
Scoring: the simplest way (and the common table approach)
German Whist is often scored in a very practical way: only Phase 2 matters. You count how many tricks each player wins in the final 13 tricks.
A clean beginner method:
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Each trick won in Phase 2 = 1 point.
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Highest score after the final 13 tricks wins.
Some groups simplify further:
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“First to 7 tricks in Phase 2 wins the game” (because 7 guarantees a majority of the 13).
Phase 1 still matters a lot—it just matters indirectly, because it shapes what you’ll be holding when the real scoring starts.
Small strategy notes that keep beginners from feeling lost
German Whist rewards calm habits more than flashy moves.
A few guidelines that actually help:
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In Phase 1, winning the trick is often worth it simply to draw first.
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Don’t burn trumps early unless it buys you something real (like control of the next lead plus first draw).
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Watch the face-up trump card near the end of the stock; it’s a visible “future asset” that can change how hard you fight for late Phase 1 tricks.
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In Phase 2, treat each suit like a limited resource. Once you’re void in a suit, your trumps become tactical weapons.
One human-style observation (the thing beginners usually miss)
At casual tables, the biggest improvement isn’t “learning odds.” It’s learning tempo. In Phase 1, people play too fast and forget that every won trick is also an information advantage because you choose your draw first. In Phase 2, people do the opposite: they freeze, even though the game is finally deterministic enough that simple counting (“how many trumps are left?”) gives you most of the answers.
German Whist stays fun because it rewards both halves of your brain: the instinct to win now, and the patience to win later. Once you internalize the draw-first advantage in Phase 1 and the clean, countable endgame in Phase 2, how to play German Whist card game stops feeling quirky and starts feeling elegant—like a small duel with a built-in second act.
