For card game fans, bridge is more than a game. It’s a sport on its own with websites, blogs and columns exclusively dedicated to the game. Online casinos offer a whole lot of classic bridge and variant versions for free download and play. Since this is essentially a game of contract bidding, it involves playing for money. Bridge remains one of the most difficult card games to play. Only people who understand the nuances well, can keep in step with complicated strategy manage to win.

Whist is a variation that’s been checked in popularity by bridge but nonetheless an interesting game. It lets you beat the opponent in a visual manner but there is no bidding involved. Having evolved from a game called Ruff and Honors, Whist was popular through the 18 and 19 century. The classic whist is a trick game for four players who begin with fixed partnership. A deal can use two card packs and 13 tricks are played.

In whist a 52 pair is used and game is held clockwise with cards ranking from highest card- the ace to lowest, the card 2. Whist has different variations including Knockout whist, Solo whist, Bid whist and Minnesota whist. Suit whist is a Belgian adaption of Solo whist while bid whist is a partnership game where bidding is done. There are no trumps in Minnesota whist so it’s quite close to Norwegian whist. Israeli whist is linked to Oh Hell, where player attempt to bid on tricks.

Bridge has another popular variation called Spades which is quite simple. Spades is played on jailhouse rules wherein tactics like point based sandbagging are penalized and there are many options in house rules. At a time 2 to 5 people can play either solo or in partnerships. A young game, spades is already popular online. Unlike in whist, this game is based on the premise that spade suit is trump. Different variations employ different rules.

One version of online Spades uses only a set whereas another uses two joker cards- big and little in addition to the full cards set. Spades scores on basis of hands, requiring winner to attain a fixed figure in points which is decided on before game starts. A 200 point target is considered short game and longer games can go up to 500 points. Game is opened by player on left of the dealer, with others following suit.