Icelandic Whist
How to play Icelandic Whist (Félagsvist)
Félagsvist is Iceland's beloved social card game — the one played at packed "félagsvist" evenings in community halls all over the country. It's whist at heart: you and your partner across the table simply try to win more tricks than the other pair. What makes it Icelandic is the rhythm — the trump suit isn't chosen, it's fixed by the round and marches through a set order, with two special trump-free deals thrown in. Here you partner one bot against two others over twelve deals — or take it online and partner up with real people.
Play Félagsvist online with friends
Choose Play online to be matched with other players in real time, or share a private invite link and gather friends around the table. It plays right in your browser — no account and no app. The server deals every round, marches the trump through its set order, and keeps all four seats in sync.
Goal
Score the most points across the game. You sit across from your partner; the other two are a team. Each deal, your side scores one point for every trick it wins — so usually you simply want as many tricks as possible.
The round order
Trump rotates by round in a fixed cycle: Hearts, Spades, Grand (no trump), Diamonds, Clubs, then Nóló (no trump) — and the cycle repeats. The current round and its trump are shown above the table.
- Trump rounds (hearts, spades, diamonds, clubs): the named suit is trump. Take as many tricks as you can.
- Grand: there is no trump at all. Highest card of the led suit wins. Take as many tricks as you can.
- Nóló: no trump, and the goal flips — you want to take as few tricks as possible. In a Nóló deal your side scores the tricks your opponents win, so ducking and dumping high cards is the whole game.
Playing & scoring
- All 52 cards are dealt, thirteen each. The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick.
- Follow the led suit if you can. If you can't, play anything — including a trump (in trump rounds).
- The highest trump wins the trick; with no trump played (or in Grand and Nóló), the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner leads the next trick.
- After each deal, each side adds the tricks it won to its score — except in Nóló, where you add the tricks the other side won.
Over twelve deals every round-type comes up twice, so skill at both taking tricks and dodging them in Nóló decides the game. Lead your long suit to make small cards good, hold high trumps for the tricks that matter, and trust your partner to read your play. The highest total when the deals run out wins. N starts a new game.
Note: Félagsvist is the social, no-bidding form of Icelandic whist. Its bidding cousin sagnavist (with calls like sóló and tromp) and the three-player manni are different games.