How to Play Oh Hell!
Oh Hell! is the trick game where taking tricks is not enough. Before every hand you say exactly how many tricks you will take, and you only score if you hit that number on the nose. One trick too many hurts just as much as one too few. That simple twist turns ordinary trick play upside down: halfway through a hand you may find yourself trying desperately to lose.
Families know it by a dozen names, from Oh Pshaw and Oh Well to Up and Down the River, Blackout and Elevator. The rules below are the ones our free online Oh Hell! game uses. Where homes commonly play differently, we say so, and the rule variations page covers those house rules in more detail.
What You Need
- Four players, each playing for themselves. (At home the game works for three to seven; our game seats you with three computer players.)
- A standard deck of 52 cards, no jokers. Aces are high, then king, queen, jack, 10 down to 2.
- A score sheet. Our game keeps it for you, hand by hand.
The Shape of the Game: Up and Down
The number of cards changes every hand. In the first hand each player gets just 1 card. In the second hand everyone gets 2, in the third 3, and so on up to 13 cards, which uses the whole deck with four players. Then the hands come back down: 12, 11, 10 and finally 1 card again. That makes 25 hands in a full game.
The deal passes one seat to the left after every hand, so everyone takes a turn as dealer, and as the last bidder, many times over.
House rule: many families play only one way, up from 1 to 13 or down from 13 to 1, or a short game that climbs to 7 and comes back. All of these are in Settings under Hand sizes.
The Deal and Trump
The dealer shuffles and deals the right number of cards to each player, one at a time, starting with the player on their left. Then the dealer turns the next card of the pack face up. Its suit is trump for this hand. The turned card itself is not part of anyone's hand; it just sits there to remind everyone of trump.
In the 13-card hand there is no card left over, so nothing is turned up and the hand is played with no trump: the highest card of the suit led wins every trick.
Example: it is the 3-card hand. The dealer deals 12 cards, three to each player, and turns up the 9 of hearts. Hearts are trump. The 9 of hearts stays face up on the table and is never played.
Bidding
Before any card is played, each player bids. Starting with the player on the dealer's left and going around to the left, everyone says how many tricks they expect to take. A bid can be anything from zero up to the number of cards in the hand. Zero is a perfectly good bid: it means "I will not take a single trick."
The hook: the dealer bids last
The dealer bids last and has one restriction. The dealer may not bid the number that makes the total of all the bids equal the number of tricks. Players call this the hook, or "screw the dealer." It means the bids can never add up exactly, so at least one player is bound to miss.
Example: it is a 5-card hand, so there are 5 tricks. The first three players bid 2, 0 and 2, a total of 4. The dealer may bid 0, 2, 3, 4 or 5, but not 1, because 4 + 1 = 5. In our game the 1 button is greyed out, crossed through and labeled "Not allowed," with a sentence saying why.
If the others have already bid more than the number of tricks, every number is allowed, since no bid can bring the total back down to an exact match.
Bids are public. In our game each player's bid is shown on their name plate all hand, and the bar above the table shows the total: "4 bid for 5 tricks." Once everyone has bid, it tells you what the total means: more than the tricks means someone will miss by taking too few, and less means someone will be stuck with tricks they did not want.
Playing the Tricks
Play is just like Whist. The player on the dealer's left leads any card to the first trick. Going to the left, each player plays one card.
- Follow suit if you can: if a heart was led and you have a heart, you must play one.
- If you can't follow suit, you may play any card: a trump to try to win, or any other card to throw it away.
- The highest trump played wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. A higher card of a different suit (not trump) never wins.
- The winner of each trick leads the next one. You may lead any suit, including trump, at any time.
Example, hearts are trump: West leads the king of spades. North plays the 4 of spades and East, who has no spades, plays the 2 of hearts. You play the ace of spades. East wins the trick with that little 2 of hearts, because any trump beats any card of another suit.
The 1-card hands are over in a moment: one trick, and it is decided by what was dealt. Even so, the bidding matters, and so does the order: the player who leads sets the suit everybody else must follow.
In our game, every name plate shows that player's bid and tricks together ("Bid 2 · won 1") with a label that reads Needs 1 more, Made it or Too many, so you can see at a glance who is chasing tricks and who is trying to duck.
Scoring
When all the tricks of a hand are played, each player compares the tricks they took with their bid.
- Exactly what you bid: you score 10 points plus your bid.
- More or fewer: you score nothing for that hand.
| Bid | Tricks taken | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1 | 1 | 11 |
| 2 | 2 | 12 |
| 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 3 | 4 | 0 |
| 5 | 5 | 15 |
A worked hand, 4 cards each, spades trump. You bid 1, West bids 2, North bids 0 and East, the dealer, bids 0 (East could not bid 1, since 1 + 2 + 0 + 1 = 4). The tricks go: you take 1, West takes 2, North takes 0 and East takes 1. You score 11, West scores 12, North scores 10, and East, who took one more trick than bid, scores nothing.
The score sheet beside the table shows every hand: each player's bid and tricks ("2/2") with the points underneath, and a check mark when the bid was made.
House rules: some families score 1 point for every trick taken plus a 10-point bonus for an exact bid; others give 5 plus the bid. Some make a missed bid cost a point for every trick you were off. All three are options in Settings.
Winning the Game
After the last hand (the second 1-card hand in the standard game), the player with the highest total wins. If two or more players tie for the top, they share the win.
Common Questions About the Rules
Can I lead trump?
Yes, at any time. Unlike Hearts or Spades, Oh Hell! has no rule about trumps being "broken."
Do I have to trump if I can't follow suit?
No. If you can't follow suit you may play any card at all, trump or not.
Can I bid zero in a 1-card hand?
Yes, and it is often the right bid. The only thing you can't do is be the dealer whose zero would make the total exactly right, and in that case your 1 is allowed.
Is the turned-up card ever played?
No. It only shows trump. Nobody holds it, which is worth remembering when you count the trumps still out.
Words You Will Hear
- Bid: the number of tricks you say you will take.
- Hook: the rule that stops the dealer from making the bids add up to the tricks.
- Making it: taking exactly the tricks you bid.
- Set, or bust: missing your bid, high or low.
- Duck: to play a card that loses the trick on purpose.
- Void: having no cards of a suit.
Helpful Features in Our Game
- A big bidding panel. Number buttons from 0 up, the dealer's forbidden bid greyed out with a label, and the bids so far against the tricks.
- Bids and tricks side by side. Every player's "Bid 2 · won 1" with a Needs, Made it or Too many label.
- Hint and Why? Hint counts your likely tricks when you bid and suggests a card when you play. Why? explains each computer bid and card.
- Fair computer players. Easy, Normal and Hard players never see your cards. After each hand, Show All Hands lets you see what everyone held.
- Deal numbers. Every game has a number, and Replay This Deal lets you try the same cards again.
When you have the hang of it, read our Oh Hell! strategy guide. If you enjoy bidding for tricks, try Spades with a partner, or go back to the roots with Whist.