Bid Whist Tournament Registration

OVERVIEW

The tournament format is a single elimination team contest, each game will be determined by the traditional 7 in/7 out scoring method with a maximum of five (5) hands played to determine a winner. If the score is tied at the end of five hands, a one- hand tie breaker will determine the winner, first diamond deals. The preliminary round will be a ‘best 2 out of 3’ format, all subsequent rounds,32, Sweet 16, Elite 8, etc., will be ‘one game/winner advances’.

GENERAL RULES

Both partners must be present to be seated in the tournament after the start time is announced there will be a five minute grace period granted before forfeiture of game. During actual play, if there is a discrepancy that cannot be resolved by the teams, raise your hand for a monitor, keeping in mind the monitors’ ruling is final.

THE DEAL

Shuffle, cut and deal for the first diamond. The dealer will shuffle the cards (face down), pass them to the right to be cut, at least once and no more than twice and deal clockwise. The first four cards and the last four cards must go around the table. When dealing the 6 card kitty, do not put consecutive cards in the kitty. There is NO ‘sporting’ the kitty.

BIDDING

Bidding will be non-progressive (a low bid will take out a high bid).The only acceptable bids are as follows: PASS, 4, 4 Special, 4 NO, 5, 5 Special, 5 NO, 6, 6 Special, 6 NO, 7, 7 Special, 7NO. If the first bidder bids 7 No in a game, there is no need to wait for the other bidders to say ‘pass’ before calling a direction. If a player wins a ‘NO’ bid and inadvertently forgets to call the direction, the bid is automatically HIGH.

RENEGE

A renege is an infraction that results in the loss/making of a bid, NOT forfeiture of 3 books. A team cannot call a renege on themselves. The following are ‘SOME’ examples of what constitutes a renege:
If a player fails to follow suit when they have that suit in hand.
If a player bids a lower bid or the same bid as the previous bidder.
If a player does not discard their joker properly
If a player bids out of turn and there is a ‘legal’ bid on the board, the team that did not commit the infraction has the option to take the points of that legal bid or ‘play on’. Playing on may give you more points in the event you are behind in the score.Misdeals
It is considered a misdeal if any of the following occurs: (1) If a player deals out of turn. (2) When the cards are not equally distributed. (3) When consecutive cards are dealt in the kitty. (4) When a card is flipped face up on the deal. If any of the above occurs the dealer deals again, the deal does not travel.

JOKERS

Jokers are winning trump cards except during a NO-Trump bid. In a NO-Trump bid the jokers ARE NOT traded for cards in the kitty but remain in the player hands. Jokers MUST be discarded immediately after a suit can no longer be followed.

BOOKS

Books will be chain-stacked by either partner to prove or disprove infractions. Bidder keeps their kitty. If a player calls a renege based on a player not following suit, the accuser only has to describe the infraction NOT point out the specific book. For example, “You cut my ace of spades with the three of diamonds and you just played the king of spades”. All books may be turned over to prove or disprove the accusation.

CHEATING

ZERO TOLERANCE Unnecessary body motions, gestures, hand and eye signals or ” punctuated” play like slapping cards to indicate a comeback suit will not be tolerated. Trash talking is allowed, talking across the board is NOT, if you don’t know the difference, ‘quiet always works’. Any questions you may have after reading these rules, please bring them to the attention of the on-site registration team.

REMEBER

Bid whist is played many ways around the country and the world, i.e. 4-card kitty, 6-card kitty, straight, 5-card kitty, uptown cards only, 7-out, 5-out, rise & fly, etc. But the ‘essence’ of the game is how well you play the 12 cards you end up with. The family reunion tournament is a mash-up of ‘social’ play and ‘tournament’ bid whist, it is not the perfect style but everyone has an equal and fair chance at winning. We The O-Town Players of Orlando, Florida want your input in making this tournament bigger and better, we welcome your feedback. Yes, bid whist is highly competitive but it is equally meant to be fun. It is an African-American legacy that is losing more players than it is gaining!!!! When you sit down at a table and play two strangers, walk away with two new friends!!!

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, RESPECT THE GAME