Oh Hell! Strategy: Bidding Right and Hitting It Exactly

Most trick games reward the player with the best cards. Oh Hell! rewards the player with the best control. A hand of nothing but twos and threes, bid at zero and played carefully, scores 10 points. A hand full of aces that takes one trick too many scores nothing. These ideas will help you bid sensibly and, just as important, steer the play so you land on your number.

Bidding: Count Winners, Not Hopes

Go through your hand suit by suit and count only the cards that are likely to win a trick on their own.

• Aces are your best side-suit winners. In a long hand with a trump suit, an ace in a suit you hold many of is a little less safe, because someone else may run out of that suit early and trump it.
• Kings need company. A king with one or two smaller cards beside it can wait for the ace to fall; a king on its own is a coin toss at best.
• Queens and jacks rarely count in side suits. Count them as half a trick at most, and only in a long suit.
• High trumps (ace, king, queen) are close to sure. Low trumps win only when you can use them to trump a suit you have run out of.
• Long trumps: with four or five trumps, the last ones often win after the others have run out. Add a trick or so.

Add it up, then lean a little low. It is far easier to lose an extra trick on purpose, by ducking or throwing away a high card, than it is to win a trick you have no cards for. When our Hard computer players were tested over thousands of hands, shading the bid down a touch made the most exact bids.

The Hand Size Changes Everything

A king is a strong card in a 3-card hand: with only twelve cards dealt, the ace of its suit is probably still in the pack. In a 10-card hand the same king is often beaten. Small hands are also short on suits, so a trump wins more often than you would expect: with 1 or 2 cards, any trump is worth thinking about, and a side-suit ace is only safe if you are the one leading.

The 13-card hand has no trump, so long suits come into their own. Once the others have run out of a suit, your small cards in it win. Count a long, strong suit for more than its aces and kings.

Bid Zero With Confidence

Zero is a lovely bid. A hand with no aces, no high trumps and several low cards is a natural zero, and it is usually easier to make than a bid of one. The danger signs for a zero are a high trump, a singleton ace or king, or one long suit with nothing small to duck with.

Use the Other Bids

The later you bid, the more you know. Add up the bids so far and compare them with the number of tricks.

• If the total is already high, the tricks will be fought over. Your middling cards are less likely to win; bid a little lower.
• If the total is low, there are spare tricks floating around that nobody wants. Someone will be forced to take them. If your hand is strong, those spare tricks may land on you.
• As dealer, the hook may block the number you wanted. Pick the allowed number on the side your hand leans toward: up if your doubtful cards are kings and queens, down if they are long low trumps.

Play: Know Your Job Every Trick

Before you play each card, ask one question: do I still need tricks, or do I have enough? The name plates in our game answer it for you ("Needs 1 more," "Made it," "Too many"), and the advice changes completely depending on the answer.

When you need tricks

• Take sure tricks when they come. If you play last and can win, win as cheaply as you can.
• Don't waste winners. If you can't win this trick, play your lowest card and keep your aces and trumps for the tricks you still need.
• Lead your boss cards. Once the ace of a suit has gone, the king is the best card left. Leading it is a near-sure trick.
• With more winners than you need, use the big ones first. Keep small cards to lose with later, so you aren't forced to win a trick you don't want at the end.

When you have enough

• Duck. Play the highest card that will still lose the trick. Playing the queen under the king gets rid of a dangerous card while it's safe.
• Dump winners. When you can't follow suit, throw away your most dangerous card: an ace, a king or a high trump. That card could otherwise win a trick at the worst moment.
• Lead low. If you must lead, lead a small card in a suit where others hold higher ones.
• If every card wins, win the trick with your biggest card. You will take this trick anyway; at least use it to get rid of a card that could take another.

Every Player for Themselves

There are no partners in Oh Hell!, and everyone's bid is public. Watch the name plates. A player marked "Needs 1 more" wants tricks; one marked "Made it" is trying to lose. If your own bid is already safe or already lost, you can make life hard for others: let a player who has made it win a trick they don't want, or take a trick from a player who still needs one. Our Hard computer players do exactly this when their own bid is gone, and the Why? button will tell you so.

Don't Chase the Big Hands

A bid of 5 made scores 15. A bid of 0 made scores 10. The difference is small, and the big bid is much harder to hit. Over a whole game, the player who makes the most bids almost always beats the player who makes the biggest bids. Aim for steady, exact hands.

Practice With the Hint

Our game's Hint button helps in both halves of a hand. When you bid, it counts your likely winners out loud ("Your likely winners: A♠ and K♥. That's about 2 tricks."). When you play, it tells you whether to take a trick you need or duck because you have enough. Try a few hands with Hint, then turn the computer players to Hard and see how often you can make your bid against them.

New to the game? Start with the Oh Hell! rules. For the house rules families use, see rule variations. If you like steering the count of your tricks, you may also enjoy Spades and its nil bid.