FAQ

On this page, you will find the answer to some frequently asked questions about Whisthub in general. Questions about specific card games can be found on their respective home page.

How do I know if I'm playing against real people?

There are two different game modes on Whisthub. When you click on the big red Play button on the home page of a game, you always play against 3 computer players. They all have names like Monica, Bert, April and so on. This mode is mainly intended for playing a quick game in between, or to learn a new card game. The computer players are not perfect, but play well enough to get an idea of how the game works.

If you want to play with other people, scroll down until you reach the lobby with "Open Rooms". You can join an existing room here, or create a new room yourself. If the room doesn't fill up easily, you always have the option to add computer players so you can play with a combination of computers and humans.

Do I need to sign up to play?

Signing up is not required to play, but it is strongly recommended. Whisthub uses a reputation system to rank players and only registered players can earn reputation points. Additionally, some rooms require a minimum amount of reputation points to be able to play.

To sign up you can click on "Login" above. If you choose after all to play without an account you are a so called anonymous player. Anonymous players can be recognized by the icon . Registered users can be recognized by a bullet and premium users can be recognized by a star.

How can I reserve a room for friends?

If you create a new room using the button "New room" you have the possibility to set up a password. This way people that do not have the password cannot join the room and hence it keeps the room reserved for you and your friends.

Your friends can reach the room by searching for it in the list of all open rooms. It is also possible to send them the direct link of the room. To do this, click on the name of the room in the "open room" screen and the link will get copied to the clipboard!

Whisthub also offers an extensive friend system, which allows you to curate a list of friends. With a premium subscription you can also reserve rooms for your friends that way and even invite them when they are not around on the website!

Does Whisthub have an app?

Whisthub is just a website and hence works on any device with a modern web browser. The website will adjust depending on the size of your screen. As such you don't need to install an app to be able to play.

However, Whisthub does offer a Progressive Web Application, meaning that you can add Whisthub to the home screen of your smartphone or tablet next to your other apps. On iPhone or iPad you open Whisthub in Safari and tap the "Share" icon . Next you look in the list for "Add to Home Screen" and tap it.

On an Android smartphone or tablet you open Whisthub in Chrome and go to "Settings". Subsequently you choose "Add to Home Screen".

If you execute the steps above you can open up Whisthub from your Home Screen. As such you can also play when you temporarily don't have an internet connection. In that case you can only play against AI players.

How can I prevent other players from leaving the room?

Players leaving the room during the game are obviously super annoying. However, it is technically impossible to prevent this: in the most extreme case, someone can always pull out their internet cable!

To combat this, a system has been developed that discourages leaving a table. The idea is that each player is assigned a drop score based on how often that player drops out of a game. With a premium subscription you can then prevent players with a high drop score from reaching the table. A detailed description of this system can be found on the page "Leaving a game".

In combination with the reputation system and setting a minimum reputation at a table, playing with leavers is kept to a minimum.

The connection is sometimes lost! Can't something be done about this?

Whisthub is hosted in a professional and high-tech data center of Amazon Web Services. Connection problems on the server side are therefore rare. If there are any problems, they will be communicated as soon as possible on Whisthub's status page.

Connection problems are almost always the result of a problem with the user's internet connection. This is often a short-term interruption, making it seem as if other websites are still functioning normally. However, it sometimes happens that during such an interruption it is not possible to reconnect to the Whisthub server automatically, although this is rare. If you have the impression that the game is hanging because another player is taking a long time to play a card, it often helps to reload the page. This way you can be sure that you are still connected.

It is technically impossible to make a distinction between someone experiencing connection problems and someone who maliciously leaves the game. Therefore, both cases count towards the drop-score. If you often experience a malfunctioning connection, it is therefore advised to contact your internet provider. They can normally check remotely whether your modem might need to be replaced. Replacement is usually free and almost always solves issues with frequent disconnections.

I've been getting bad cards for weeks! Does this happen on purpose?

No. The cards on Whisthub are always dealt in the way that is common in reality. This means that at the end of a deal, the tricks are collected per team, the deck may be shuffled, the computer cuts the deck and then deals the cards following a certain pattern. You can find a dedicated description of this with interactive examples in this blog post.

There is no system whatsoever that would favor certain players, and disadvantage other players. It doesn't matter if you're a new player or long-time user, a premium user or someone that has never paid for Whisthub, or anything else that you can come up with.

Why does the AI sometimes play weird cards?

To this date there is no known algorithm that can play cards on the same level as humans. The algorithm that is developed in Whisthub mostly aims to make playing an AI sufficiently enjoyable. As such it is possible that some moves by the AI may seem weird to humans.

You will always have the best experience by playing against human players. The possibility to add AI to a game can be useful though when you don't reach four players, or you just want to play a game offline.

How can I support Whisthub?

Developing and maintaining a website costs money. Whisthub is developed on a voluntary basis and the goal is to keep Whisthub free of annoying ads. You can support Whisthub by becoming a premium user. By doing this you support Whisthub and you get access to a set of exclusive features!

How can I contact Whisthub?

If you have a question that hasn't been answered above, you can always contact us at [email protected]. Emails with genuine questions are usually answered quickly. Rude emails or spam are of course classified vertically.

If you have a question regarding your account, please always include the name of your account on Whisthub! Although it is possible for us to look up accounts based on email address, not everyone - and often unconsciously - uses the email address linked to their account.

Even worse, sometimes Outlook is not set up correctly and we receive an email from an email address that looks like [email protected]. It is technically impossible to reply to those emails as the reply will bounce. This is a problem with Microsoft, so if you don't provide any more information in your email, we simply can't reply to your email!