When a winning bidder names a contract of 6 in spades, both opposing players are required to whist and play their hands closed. This is in reference to the Battle of Stalingrad when the Soviet Army had nowhere to retreat to, being pushed to the banks of Volga river. This variant is sometimes used when a bidder makes an unopposed bid at the beginning, but has the risk of remise and wants the whisters to have a harder time opposing him. Sometimes the players agree to play Six of Spades - Stalingrad even when they're not playing the Sochi, but rather Leningrad or Rostov variants. In a four-player game, the following rules exist for the dealer. These rules are sometimes seen as archaic and are rarely used. A winning bidder may "throw the talon in the face" of a dealer, if he doesn't like it. The talon is left face up on the table until the end of the round. The dealer is awarded 1 dump point. In 6-10 trick games, the dealer is awarded the contract value of whists on the winning bidder, per trick, when the following cards appear in the talon: One ace: one trick Ace and king of the same suit: two tricks Two aces: three tricks Marriage (King and Queen of the same suit): one trick In a Misère game, the dealer is awarded 10 whist points on the bidder for each 7 in the talon, or 20 whist points for 7 and 8 of the same suit in the talon. In all-pass games, see above. History The popularity of Préférence appears to have started in Vienna in the early 19th century before it spread to Russia, where it peaked in the middle of the 19th century and is still played today. Besides developing and diversifying within Imperial Russia, and then the Soviet Union, the game also expanded into other countries of Eastern and Central Europe. Modern variations include Austrian Illustrated Préférence and Balkan Préférence, which are both close to the original game, and Greek Prefa, which is more similar to the Russian game. Many of the game's mechanics are based on French Boston, a game that can be roughly characterised as Whist with suit-based bidding. References External links Site with official codex of rules for Russian preference Description of rules for the most popular variations of Russian preference Rules for Croatian, Russian, Austrian Preferans,