the declarer from keeping the contract. Moreover, defenders may drop out of trick-play or may play with open cards. Beginning with the player who sits to the left of the declarer, each defender indicates whether he or she wants to whist. If neither defender wants to whist, the declarer wins automatically without playing out the hand. The declarer scores the value of the contract, and no other scoring takes place. In addition, if the declarer plays a 6- or 7-trick game, the second player chooses whether they will "half-whist" or "whist," rather than the usual "pass" or "whist". That means he writes whists on the declarer as if he took 2 tricks in a 6-trick game and 1 in a 7-trick one. A second incentive for whisting, besides the chance of spoiling the declarer's contract, is that the whisting players are paid the value of the contract in whist points (×1) from the declarer for each trick they win, regardless of whether the declarer or the defender wins their respective required number of tricks. If there is only one whister, then that player also gets the whist points for the tricks won by the other defender (known as a greedy whist). There also exists a convention that if the declarer has failed to achieve his contract, the whists won by the whister are divided equally between the whister and the other player (known as gentlemanly whist). However, there are significant penalties for the whister(s) if the defenders fail to win enough tricks. The required number is 4 tricks if the declarer undertook to win 6 tricks, 2 tricks if the declarer undertook to win 7 tricks, and 1 trick if the declarer's contract is for 8 tricks or more. (See table above.) If precisely one of the defenders decides to whist, then that player has a choice between playing normally and playing in the light. In the latter case, both defenders' hands are displayed face-up on the table and the whister plays from both hands, similar to contract bridge. In any case, only the whister will score for this hand, positively or negatively. If the defenders do not win the required number of tricks and there is only a single whister, then the whister loses the value of the contract in dump points (×10) for each undertrick. If this happens when there are two whisters, then the penalty is distributed