How to Play

Oh Hell is a trick-taking game where players predict the number of tricks they will take in each round. The game involves strategic bidding, tricky play, and scoring based on the number of tricks taken.

Oh Hell is a trick-taking game for 3 to 7 players in which each player separately bids the exact number of tricks they will take in the hand. The twist: the dealer must make a bid that prevents the total bids from equalling the number of tricks available, so somebody ALWAYS has to miss their bid. Hand size shrinks (or swings) round by round, trump changes each hand by flipped card, and scoring rewards ONLY exact bids (no overtricks or undertricks). Matches run a fixed number of rounds (typically 10 to 1 back to 10); highest cumulative score wins.

Players

3 to 7 players, each playing for themselves (no partnerships). The sweet spot is 4 or 5 players. Turn order is clockwise; the first dealer is chosen by any fair method and rotates clockwise each hand. A full match runs 10 to 20 rounds depending on the chosen format, taking 45 to 90 minutes. For 8+ players, use two decks shuffled together.

Card Deck

• Standard 52-card pack; no jokers in the base game (a joker-as-high-trump variant is common).
• Rank order: A (high), K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (low).A♠K♠Q♠J♠10♠
• Trump: each hand has a trump suit determined by the face-up card turned after the deal (see Setup and Deal). Trumps beat all non-trumps.
• For 6+ players, the maximum round may be capped by the deck: with 6 players and 10 cards each, 60 cards are used, which exceeds 52. In that case, use two decks or cap the starting hand size at 8.

Objective

Each hand, bid the EXACT number of tricks you will take and then take exactly that many - no more, no less. Making your bid scores a bonus + 1 point per trick; missing your bid (over or under) scores nothing for that hand, or penalty points in some scoring variants. The player with the highest cumulative score after the agreed round set (commonly 10, 9, 8, ... 1 back up to 10) wins the match.

Setup and Deal

1. Agree the round structure before play: standard 'down-and-up' is 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (19 hands); short form is 10 down to 1 (10 hands); 'up-and-down' starts at 1 and climbs to a max before descending.10♠9♠8♠7♠6♠5♠4♠3♠2♠
2. Shuffle the 52-card deck. Deal the current round's number of cards, face-down one at a time clockwise, to each player.
3. Trump determination: place the remaining undealt stock face-down; turn the TOP card face-up next to it. The suit of this card is trump for this hand. If the trump card is an 8 (or a joker in the joker variant), that suit is still trump; nothing special happens.
4. In the final 1-card hand: in some house rules, each player holds their single card UP to their own forehead (so they can see everyone else's card but not their own) before bidding; this is the famous 'Indian Poker' twist. Optional.
5. Bidding begins with the player to the dealer's left and ends with the dealer.

Bidding

1. Starting left of the dealer and going clockwise, each player announces how many tricks they will take in this hand. A bid may be 0 (take NO tricks) or any number up to the hand size.
2. 'Hook' / 'Screw the Dealer' rule: the dealer is the LAST to bid, and the dealer's bid is constrained: the total of all bids MUST NOT EQUAL the number of tricks available. Example: 5-card hand and the first three players have bid 2 + 1 + 1 = 4; the dealer cannot bid 1 (would total 5). If the dealer's only options exceed or subceed the total, they must pick one that breaks the balance.
3. Nil / Zero bid: bidding 0 is allowed and common; in many hands, bidding 0 is the safest bid. Making a 0 bid is worth the same +10 base as any other made bid; see Scoring.
4. Cannot change bid: once every player has bid, bids are locked; no revising once play starts.
5. Communication: no table talk, signalling, or showing cards. Any communication about your hand is forbidden.

Gameplay

1. The player to the dealer's left leads the first trick by playing any card (no restriction on leading trump).
2. Follow suit if you can. Each player in clockwise order plays a card; you must play a card of the suit LED if you hold one. If not, you may play any card, including a trump.
3. Winning the trick: the highest TRUMP played wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit LED wins. The trick winner leads the next trick.
4. Play until every card is out. All tricks are played; a 5-card hand has 5 tricks, a 1-card hand has exactly 1 trick.
5. Table management: trick winners gather the trick face-down in front of them; this lets everyone count tricks taken at a glance.

Scoring

• Made your bid exactly: score 10 + 1 per trick won. Example: bid 3 and take 3 = 13 points. Bid 0 and take 0 = 10 points.
• Missed your bid (over or under): score 0 for the hand in the most popular version. In a harsher house variant, subtract 10 per trick you are off: bid 3, take 1 → -20; bid 3, take 5 → -20.
• No overtrick bonus: taking more tricks than bid earns NOTHING; it simply means you missed your bid.
• Track cumulative scores on a sheet; the winner is the player with the highest score after all rounds are played.
• Optional 'made-all' bonus: some tables award a +10 bonus for bidding the maximum (e.g., 5 in a 5-card hand) AND making it.
• Tie-break: if two players tie at the end of the match, play one extra 3-card hand as sudden death; highest score wins.

Winning

After the agreed number of rounds (typically 10-to-1 or 10-to-1-to-10), the player with the highest cumulative score wins the match. Because the dealer's bid is forced to make the total mismatch the trick count, at least one player MUST miss their bid every hand, and often several players miss. The winner is typically the player who missed bids least often and whose made bids had the highest hand sizes.

Common Variations

• Nullo / Nil-only: a variant in which every hand's bid must be 0; first player to make all of their hands wins. A minimalist version.
• Rock and Roll (Up-and-Down): hand size starts at 1, rises to a maximum (e.g., 10), then descends back to 1; 19 or 21 hands total.
• Exchange (Swap): before bidding, players pass one or two cards to a neighbour. Speeds up the decision and increases strategic depth.
• No-trump hand: every round whose hand size is a multiple of some number (say, 5) has NO trump. Agree in advance.
• Joker high trump: add one joker; it is the highest trump in any hand.
• Forehead Round (1-card Indian Poker): in the 1-card hand, players hold their card to their forehead so they can see everyone else's. Produces fantastic bluffing.
• Catastrophe scoring: instead of scoring 0 when you miss, you add the ABSOLUTE DIFFERENCE between bid and tricks to a 'fault' count; at 20+ faults, you are eliminated. High-variance variant.
• Screw-Up (Screw the Dealer bypass): the dealer is NOT forced to bid to avoid the total; play becomes smoother but removes the signature tension.
• Progressive trump: instead of flipping a card, trump rotates in a fixed order every hand: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, no-trump, repeat.

Tips and Strategy

• Count certain winners, not hopefuls. An Ace in a non-trump suit is almost always a trick; a King is usually good if you have high cards in the same suit. A side-suit 8-9-10 is rarely a trick unless trumps run dry.
• Small hands are ALL-IN on bid 0 or 1. In the 1-card hand, bidding 0 with a 2-6 is almost automatic and bidding 1 with an Ace is near-automatic. The decision is between 0 and 1; nothing in between exists.
• Dealer's forced-bid calculus: when it is your turn to deal, count the bids of the earlier players and keep a running tally. If the total so far plus your remaining hand's realistic trick count equals the hand size, pick a bid 1 off from realistic to break the balance.
• Lead high to clear trumps early when you have bid to take multiple tricks; lead trumps to draw opponents' trumps out.
• Lead low when you bid 0. Never win a trick you did not intend to. Play your lowest card first so opponents take it; never grab a trick by accident.
• Track trumps played. After the first 2-3 tricks, count how many trumps are left; the moment trumps are out, your plan for side-suit winners is realistic again.
• Watch the dealer's bid. Their forced bid tells you the whole table's balance is about to tilt; a dealer bid of 0 often means the earlier bids totalled exactly the trick count.

Glossary

• Trick: a single round of one card per player; hand size = number of tricks per hand.
• Trump: the suit that beats all others; set each hand by the turned face-up card.
• Bid: the exact number of tricks a player claims they will take.
• Hook / Screw the Dealer: the rule forcing the dealer's bid to make the total mismatch the trick count.
• Made bid: the bid was matched exactly; score 10 + tricks.
• Missed bid: any number of tricks OTHER than the bid; no score (or penalty).
• Down-and-up: the standard round structure dealing 10, 9, ... 1, 2, ... 10 cards.
• Nullo / Nil: a bid of 0.
• Follow suit: play the suit led if you hold one.
• Void: holding no cards of a given suit.