Edition: Esmakker, or Call Ace Whist, the most widely played form of whist in Denmark, here in the home version with 52 cards and four players. Last checked October 25, 2026
Danish Whist Rules: How to Play Call Ace Whist (Esmakker)
Whist is Denmark's classic trick taking game, and the Danish version is a bidding game where you bid on how many tricks you can win. In Call Ace Whist, called Esmakker in Danish, the winning bidder finds a secret partner by calling an ace. If you know Bid Whist or Bridge, the bidding will feel familiar. Here are the basic rules and the points where clubs and families play differently.
- Players
- 4
- Age
- 12 and up
- Playing time
- 1 to 3 hours
How to win: The side that wins the bid must take at least the number of tricks it bid. Whoever has the most points when you stop wins.
Who is right?
The classic arguments at the table when you play Whist.
Can you call an ace you hold yourself?
Yes, in most clubs.
The bidder may call an ace they hold. Then they play alone against the other three, without them knowing.
Some families require you to call an ace you do not hold, so there is always a partner.
What do gode and halve mean?
It depends on where you learned the game.
The most common usage is that gode means clubs are trump, and halve means the partner chooses trump. The ranking of modifiers is not the same everywhere.
Many home players use only plain and sans to keep things simple.
Can you bid again after passing?
No, not usually.
A player who has passed is usually out of the bidding for the rest of the hand.
In some families you may come back in as long as the bidding is still open.
Do you play with jokers and a kitty?
It depends.
Many Danish clubs play with 3 jokers, so 3 cards are left over as a kitty, called the cat, and the bidder may exchange cards with it. How the jokers work differs from club to club.
At home, many play with 52 cards, no jokers and no kitty, as described here.
What you need
- A standard 52 card deck
- Paper and pencil or a whist score pad
Setup
- 1Four players sit around the table. There are no fixed partners.
- 2The dealer shuffles and deals out all the cards, so each player gets 13.
- 3Cards rank from ace as highest down to 2 as lowest.
- 4The deal passes one seat clockwise after each hand.
How to play
- 1The player to the dealer's left bids first. You bid a number of tricks from 7 to 13, or pass.
- 2Each new bid must be higher than the last. A player who has passed is usually out of the bidding.
- 3When the other three have passed, the highest bidder wins the bid.
- 4The bidder chooses trump if the bid allows it and calls an ace in a suit. Whoever holds that ace is the secret partner.
- 5The player to the dealer's left leads to the first trick.
- 6You must follow suit. If you cannot, you may play a trump or discard another card.
- 7The highest trump wins the trick, otherwise the highest card in the suit led. The winner leads the next trick.
- 8The player holding the called ace must play it the first time that suit is led. Then everyone knows who the partner is.
- 9When all 13 tricks have been played, the bidder and partner count their tricks together to see if the bid was made.
Bid modifiers
A bid can carry a modifier that makes it worth more. The meaning and ranking vary between clubs, so agree on them before you start.
- Plain: the bidder chooses trump.
- Gode (good): clubs are trump.
- Halve (halves): the partner chooses trump.
- Sans: no trump.
- The same number of tricks with a stronger modifier beats a plain bid.
Nolo bids
Here the bidder plays alone and without trump, and the goal is to avoid taking tricks.
- Sol: the bidder may take at most one trick.
- Ren sol (clean sol): the bidder may not take any tricks.
- Bordlægger (open table): like clean sol, but the bidder lays their cards face up on the table after the first trick.
Scoring
Danish Whist is a zero sum game: what the winners gain, the losers pay.
- The point value rises steeply for each extra trick bid.
- Modifiers make a bid worth more.
- If the bidder fails to make the bid, the bidder and partner pay the opponents.
- Most players use a fixed scoring table, such as the one printed on a whist score pad, so everyone counts the same way.
House rules
Pick the rules you want to play with tonight. Everyone at the table has to agree.
Our Whist rules for tonight
Everything else follows the official rules.
Frequently asked questions
How is Danish Whist different from classic Whist?
In classic English and American Whist, partners sit across from each other, trump is set by the dealer's last card, there is no bidding, and each trick over six scores a point. In Danish Call Ace Whist you bid for the contract, the bidder chooses trump, and the partner is found by calling an ace.
What is the lowest bid in Danish Whist?
The lowest ordinary bid is 7 tricks, which is more than half of the 13 tricks.
What happens if everyone passes?
It varies. Many simply redeal. Others play a round where each player tries to take as few tricks as possible.
Source: Common Danish whist tradition and descriptions of Call Ace Whist. The rules are written in our own words. Ask the referee if you are unsure.