Official Gongor Whist Rules

Last Updated on October 23, 2025 by The Official Game Rules Team

Gongor Whist is a challenging solitaire trick-taking game where you aim to win tricks against a dummy hand. With a unique mechanic of randomly changing the trump suit after each trick, it’ tests your strategic thinking and adaptability’s quite different from Classic Whist. Players also have the option to try and match a set number of tricks through each hand, adding an additional layer of complexity.

Gongor Whist is a single player game.

two decks of red and blue playing cards labeled gongor whist after the card game

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How to Play Gongor Whist


Setup

  1. Prepare your score sheet: Write down the numbers 0 through 7 for tracking your bids.
  2. Separate and shuffle the Aces: Shuffle the Aces of the deck separately and flip over the top card to set the trump suit.
  3. Deal the cards: Shuffle the rest of the deck and deal seven cards to both your hand and the dummy’s pile, face down.
  4. Make your bid: Review your hand and predict how many tricks you’ll win. Record your bid on the score sheet, and remember, you can’t bid the same number again in future hands.

Gameplay

  1. Flip the top card of the dummy hand: The suit of this card will determine what you must follow if you can.
  2. Play a card: Choose a card from your hand. If you can follow suit, do so. Otherwise, play any card.
  3. Twiddle the trump: After playing, you may change the trump suit by flipping the next card from the Ace stack. This changes the trump for the rest of the hand until you decide to twiddle again.
  4. Resolve the trick: You win the trick if you play a trump card that the dummy doesn’t have, if you play a higher trump, or if no trump is played, but you have the highest card of the led suit.
  5. Continue playing: Repeat the process until all seven tricks are resolved.

The Aft Hand

Once you’ve finished a hand (called the “fore hand”), you proceed to the “aft hand”:

  1. No reshuffling: Use the remaining deck, without reshuffling, to deal another round of seven cards to both you and the dummy.
  2. Repeat the gameplay: The bidding and gameplay process for the aft hand are the same as the fore hand.
  3. Continue with fore hands: After completing the aft hand, shuffle the Ace pile and the main deck, and continue with the next fore hand.

Point Scoring

  1. Scoring based on your bid: After each hand, if you win exactly as many tricks as you bid, you add that number to your score.
  2. Penalties for incorrect bids: If you win more or fewer tricks than you bid, subtract the number of tricks you won from your score.
  3. Winning with 50 points: A score of 50 points is considered a decisive win. The challenge is to reach this goal as efficiently as possible, potentially within four passes through the deck.

Conclusion

Gongor Whist is a solitaire game that combines strategy, luck, and an ever-changing trump suit. By mastering the balance between predicting your tricks and adapting to the random elements of the game, you can achieve success. Whether you’re playing to reach 50 points or simply aiming to complete all eight bids, Gongor Whist offers a satisfying challenge for any solitaire enthusiast.

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