Wendellhead

Wendellhead is a trick-taking card game derived from the rules of Whist wherein the players attempt to win "Pins" by Laying a card of higher value than his or her opponents.

Wendellhead rules

A standard 52 card pack is used. The cards in each suit rank from highest to lowest: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

A "Pin" is won by the player who lays down a card that is either a higher value of the ACTIVE suit than anybody else or is a higher Trump Card than any other player. Once all cards have been used, the number of Pins acquired by each player is recorded and a new game begins.

Game Duration

The length of a game is decided before the start of the game and can be set to any value, however the traditional format is as follows:

- A value is agreed upon as the target number of Pins required to win a "Flint" depending on the number of players. For 2 players the traditional setup is 40 Pins make up a Flint and the first to 3 Flints is the winner.

- With every additional player the number of Pins required for a Flint is reduced by 5 but the number of Flints remains the same

- A Flint is won as soon as a player reaches the required number of Pins, even if there are still cards left to play as there can only be one winner per Flint. It is therefore recommended that the number of Pins won by each player is recorded throughout so as to not waste time playing for Pins that have no bearing on the outcome of the game.

Shuffling and dealing

The first shuffle is carried out by a nominated player who is the dealer; they deal clockwise starting with the player to their left. 7 cards are dealt to each player and the remainder of the pack placed in the middle with the topmost card removed and placed next to the deck facing upwards; becoming the card to be played for.

The deck is reshuffled by the dealer every time the deck gets used up in order to continue until the current Flint has been won. For new Flints, the cards are shuffled and dealt out by the winner of the last Flint who then becomes the dealer until the next Flint.

Play

The card lying face up next to the deck denotes the 'Trump Suit' for this round of playing. Every time the deck is reset, a new trump suit card is chosen. The player to the dealer's left leads the play by laying down a card of their choice. The players must decide whether or not they believe the card being played for (situated face up next to the deck) is worth trying to win or not, and if so what quality of card they should play with. The player left of the dealer plays whichever card they consider a good play. The other players, in clockwise order, each play a card to the table and must follow suit by playing a card of the same suit as the dealer's card if they have one.

A player who is unable to follow suit may play any card of their choice to be discarded, or play a trump card (a card of the trump suit defined at the start of the round). The Pin is won by the highest card of the first player's chosen suit, unless a trump is played in which case the highest trump wins. The winner of the Pin picks up the face up card from the middle and the other players take the top card clockwise from the winner. The topmost card on the deck is turned face up as before and the winner of the previous Pin plays first.

This continues until the deck has been entirely used up, at which point, the score is recorded. If there are not enough cards to go around at the bottom of the deck, the remaining cards are discarded and must stay undisclosed to any player until the end to ensure gameplay is unaffected. If nobody has yet won enough Pins to win the current Flint, the deck is reshuffled and the game restarts with a new trump suit.

Tactics

Part of the skill involved in the game is one's ability to remember what cards have been played and reason out what cards remain (similar to how players will remember what cards have occurred in Contract bridge). Therefore, once the Pin is played, the cards are turned face down and kept in a stack near the player who won the Pin. Another major tactic within the game is deciding whether a Pin is worth playing for or not. The card that is being played for may not be worth very much and so logic dictates that it should not be played for, however the game is won on the number of total Pins awarded; holding off from winning until later may prove fruitless should your cards not be the best or the number of Pins left is lesser than that which could have been won earlier.

Wendellhead common terms

Deal: One card at a time is given to each player by the dealer starting with the player on the dealer’s left and proceeding clockwise until the deck is fully distributed.

Dealer: The player who deals the cards for a game.

Deck: Standard playing card deck consisting of 52 cards in four suits.

Flint: A player achieves a flint when they reach 40 tricks.

Lead: The first card played in a trick.

Trick/Pin: A set of cards (between 2 and 5, depending on how many players are involved), played by each player in turn, during the play of a hand.

Trump: The suit chosen by the action of overturning the top card in the pack prior to play commencing.

Victory: A player wins by gaining 3 flints.