Preferans and poker
80%
of hands are folded at a poker table. In preferans, you play every deal.
What card game should you play? Poker or Preferans
Almost everything you can find online by searching for "preferans or poker" appears on websites funded by poker affiliate programs. That explains the familiar structure: a little history, the rules of both games, a comparison table, a conclusion about making money, and a link to a poker room. This article is written from the preferans side (naturally), but we will leave the choice of which game should fill your evenings to you. Our aim is to compare these two great games as objectively as possible.
The first Russian-language rulebook, A Pocket Book for Those Wishing to Learn Preferans in the Shortest Possible Time, was published in Moscow in 1841. Within a generation, preferans had captured the attention of Russia's educated classes. One contemporary wrote that fashion had brought preferans into general use, replacing both monotonous Whist and overly calculating Boston. In other words, preferans displaced both an overly simple and an overly complex trick-taking game by offering a more balanced alternative. Belinsky and Nekrasov were seen at the table, followed by the critics, playwrights, and civil servants of their day. Preferans enjoyed a second youth in the latter half of the twentieth century, when students and professors played it in institutes and universities across the USSR. Today, preferans is associated with all things vintage, ancient, and antique - the most recent book about preferans was published in 2012.
What are we comparing?
Preferans and poker are commercial card games for three or more people, and both are played over extended sessions - unlike blackjack, for example. That gives us plenty to compare:
- Winnings. How each game measures its result, and what remains if real money is taken off the table.
- Pace. How much of an evening you spend actually playing and making decisions, how long one game lasts, and whether it has a defined end.
- Learning curve. How much effort it takes to learn the game and, just as importantly, when that effort is required. More on that below.
Let us take these one at a time.
Winnings: how the result is measured
At first glance, preferans and poker seem alike: both ask you to assess the situation, make decisions with incomplete information, and guess - or rather calculate - what lies behind your opponents' actions. Yet money plays a completely different role in the two games. In poker it is built into the game mechanics; in preferans, accounts are settled only after the game has been played.
In poker, money is the language players speak at the table. A bet, call, raise, or fold - each action has a monetary price. The size of the pot and the cost of a mistake directly affect every decision. Remove the money, and a substantial part of poker's mechanics stops working.
Preferans works differently. Decisions are made in tricks: bid six or seven, defend or pass, choose a lead. The pool, heap, and whists - the bookkeeping of preferans - are recorded when the result is calculated. They convert a played deal into points but do not affect how that deal is played.
The rules determine how many whists a deal is worth. How much one whist is worth in money is a separate agreement. You can count whists in cents, matches, seashells, or merchant ships; use them to calculate a rating; or not convert them into money at all. The result of the game does not change.
You cannot do that with poker though. Remove the money and a call no longer costs anything, bets carry no risk, and bluffing loses much of its meaning. Remove money from preferans and the game itself stays the same. Only what you do with the final score - the whists - changes.
This raises a natural question: if money is optional in preferans, why not simply play "for fun"? In practice, the players themselves provide the answer. The app has a league in which rating is neither counted nor displayed, so players can play without any lasting result. Yet it accounts for only about 2% of games. The rest of all games are played in leagues where rating is at stake.
That leads to an interesting conclusion: money is not required in preferans, but the result still matters. Players want a way to compare themselves, see their progress, and understand the cost of a decision. In preferans, rating can readily fill that role, while money remains just one possible agreement about what the points mean.
Stakes matter in a commercial game - that is the point. The stake does not have to be money, but it must be real. Rating in preferans works much like the pot in poker: the result stays with the players after the game ends.
Pace: how much time you spend in the game
The main difference between preferans and poker is easy to feel at the table: in preferans, you take part almost all the time. In poker, you spend much of the time waiting for suitable cards.
In classic four-player preferans, one player deals and three play. The deal then moves clockwise, so you sit out one deal in four. With three players, you are involved throughout - from the start of bidding to the end of play.
Compare that with a poker table: you receive your cards, assess them, fold, and wait for the next hand. Then the same thing happens again and again. A good player certainly must know how to wait for the right situation, but in practical terms that means spending a substantial part of the game simply watching how other partners are playing.
So two games that seem similar feel completely different. In preferans, your level of involvement is higher and every player's actions follow from one another: your contract affects the defense, the defense affects play, and play determines the result of the deal. In poker, several hands in which you take no part may pass between interesting decisions.
Now for some statistics. We examined five million deals played in SmartPref over the past year and included only games involving at least one other human player; solo games against bots were excluded.
On average, a three-player game consists of about 16 deals, and half of all games end after 13–23 deals. Each deal takes about 45 seconds on average.
The median active playing time is 15 minutes, and three quarters of games finish in under 25 minutes. You can also put a game aside at any point and return later.
Preferans therefore works well for a short session: you can play one pool in 10–20 minutes, stop, and return later. Speed is not the main point, though. What matters is that you spend those 10–20 minutes actually playing rather than waiting for good cards to arrive.
Most evenings consist of one or two pools; the average is about three. Five or six games in a row happen too, but only on the longest 8% of evenings.
This leads to another rarely noticed difference: a pool has an end. It starts, it finishes, and someone wins it. A poker cash game has no finish line - you sit down and leave whenever you choose. The decision to stop is yours rather than the game's, usually late at night and under less-than-ideal conditions.
Learning curve: the price of complexity
Poker and preferans have different barriers to entry. You can sit down and start playing poker almost immediately. In preferans, your first few evenings will be spent learning the rules, bidding, and play.
Poker rules can be explained in fifteen minutes, after which you can sit at the table and start making decisions. But a single hand tells you almost nothing about whether you played well or merely received good cards. Truly understanding your play requires thousands of hands, statistics, hand ranges, and analysis.
Preferans is the reverse. The first two or three evenings can be challenging: you need to get used to bidding, whists, all-pass deals, and play itself. After that, every deal gives you enough material to see what you did well and where you went wrong.
Suppose you bid a six-game and failed to make it. After the deal, you can examine a specific decision: whether you should have bid, whether you chose the right sequence of plays, exactly where you lost a trick, and how you could have played better. A lost poker hand does not provide the same information by itself: a strong decision can lose, while a weak one can win.
That means you can analyze your preferans game right at the table. You play a deal, see the result, discuss a questionable moment, and try something different in the very next deal. You do not need to accumulate thousands of games before you can even begin to understand what you are doing wrong.
The higher barrier to entry has an obvious drawback: it is harder to put a group together. You can suggest poker to almost anyone - the rules are widely known and quick to explain when they are not. Preferans is more likely to attract people who already know the game or are willing to spend several evenings learning it.
Historically, preferans was not a mass-market game for casual amusement but part of a particular cultural setting. It was played by educated people and became especially popular among students and academics in the Soviet era. That tradition looks different today, but the appeal remains. Preferans is still a fairly niche pastime for people interested in old games and their history, and in thoughtful play itself rather than merely passing an evening.
Which should you choose?
Poker or preferans? Let us bring the facts together.
Poker is easier to start and finding a group is simpler. The rules can be explained in one evening, a game is available almost any time, and money and stakes immediately make each decision matter and add excitement. If you enjoy a competitive environment, bluffing, risk, and playing the long game, poker has the clear advantage.
Preferans requires more familiarity. You spend more time playing instead of waiting for the right cards. Deals are short, a pool has a defined end, and money is not built into the mechanics: the result can be counted in points, converted into rating, or played without material stakes at all - the game does not lose its meaning.
In poker, one hand says little about skill: good decisions can lose and bad ones can win. Serious play requires a long sample and analysis of many hands. In preferans, mistakes are usually easier to find within the deal just played, and you can discuss the result immediately. In good company, interesting deals are traditionally analyzed afterward, and trapping a difficult misère can spark half an hour of lively discussion.
The downside of preferans is clear: its higher barrier to entry makes it less widespread. You can suggest poker to almost any group; preferans is more often chosen by people drawn to the spirit of the game and willing to spend time learning it.
Ultimately, the choice is yours. If you want to sit down quickly, find random opponents easily, and play over the long run, choose poker. If you want constant involvement, short deals, and thoughtful company, try preferans.
Frequently asked questions
It only looks complicated. The system is actually strict and logical, like a ledger: the pool, heap, and whists are three columns, each with its own purpose. A separate guide with examples explains them. The app records the pool automatically, so you can learn how it works as you play.
No. It is far more useful to count your cards and choose the right contract. Calculating whists at the end is simple arithmetic worth understanding once, so you can see why you won or lost points, but you do not need to do it by hand. There is a separate calculation guide.
Yes. Although preferans is a commercial game, money is not built into its mechanics. A deal and a game produce whists; what those whists represent is a separate agreement for each group. A game usually ends within roughly ±300 whists, so if "1 whist = 1 dollar", you might win or lose about three hundred dollars, though it can be more depending on the convention.
No. Preferans also has variants known as conventions. In general, a convention is a ruleset with different progressions for all-pass deals, different defender liability, and more than twenty other conditions and nuances. Rather than memorize all of them, cities historically developed their own rules, including Sochi, Leningrad, and Rostov. Preferans can also be played by two people in a variant called Gusarik.
The rules of preferans really are harder to learn. Poker basics can be explained in fifteen minutes, while preferans usually takes two or three evenings. On the other hand, preferans quickly shows what you do well, where you go wrong, and how you improve from one game to the next. Poker is less clear: one hand says little about a player's level, so thousands of hands are needed for a reasonably objective view of your play and progress.
Among players who start in rated leagues against real people, 63.8% gain rating over their first ten deals. Ratings are public and the leagues are separate, so you choose whom to play. Offline, bot difficulty can be adjusted, and in-game hints let you continue even when you do not yet know what to lead or what to do.
Both poker and preferans work. The classic preferans table has four players: three play the deal, while the dealer sits it out, and the role then moves clockwise. Three-player preferans is also common, and everyone plays every deal.
SmartPref Pro has moderated chat, friendly players, and a steady online community. Join in, meet people, and play!
We recommend starting with the rules. Then play a few deals against bots with hints enabled to see how bidding, choosing a contract, and play work. Once the bots become dull, you can join a table with real people.
