Oh Hell! Rule Variations and House Rules
Few card games have as many family versions as Oh Hell!. It is passed around kitchen tables more than it is written down, so every household seems to have its own name for it and its own way of scoring. The heart of the game never changes: bid your tricks, then take exactly that many. Here are the common differences, and which ones you can switch on in the Settings of our free online game.
Other Names for the Game
You may know it as Oh Pshaw, Oh Well, Up and Down the River, Up the River Down the River, Blackout, Elevator, Bust, Nomination Whist or Estimation. Polite company often softened the name; the game is the same.
Hand Sizes: Up, Down or Both
Our standard game goes up and down: 1 card each, then 2, all the way to 13, then back down to 1, for 25 hands. That is a long, satisfying evening. Three shorter shapes are just as common:
- Up only: 1 card up to 13 (13 hands). The game ends on the big no-trump hand.
- Down only: 13 cards down to 1 (13 hands). It starts with the big hand, and the end comes in a rush of tiny, nerve-racking ones.
- Short game: 1 up to 7 and back down to 1 (13 hands). A good choice when time is short; every hand has a trump.
Some families with more players, or simply more patience, play to 10 and back, or deal the biggest hand twice. Our game offers the four shapes above under Settings, Hand sizes.
The Hook (Screw the Dealer)
In most homes the dealer, who bids last, may not choose the number that makes the bids add up to the number of tricks. That way the bids never "fit" and at least one player must miss. It is called the hook, the dealer's rule, or less politely "screw the dealer." It is on in our game by default, and the bidding panel greys out the one number the dealer can't choose, with a label and a sentence explaining why.
Some families leave the rule out, and let the bids add up if that is how the cards look. The game then plays a little gentler: everyone can make it, at least in theory. Turn off "The hook" in Settings to play that way.
Another twist: a few groups apply the hook to every player, not just the dealer, by saying the running total may never equal the tricks. That is rare, and our game doesn't include it.
Scoring an Exact Bid
Everyone agrees that hitting your bid exactly is what scores. How much it scores varies:
| Style | Take 3 (exact) | Take 2 (miss) | Bid 0, take 0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 plus your bid (standard here) | 13 | 0 | 10 |
| 1 a trick, plus 10 for exact | 13 | 2 | 10 |
| 5 plus your bid | 8 | 0 | 5 |
10 plus your bid is the most common and makes every exact bid worth a lot. 1 point a trick plus 10 for exact rewards tricks even when you miss, so a bust is less painful and greedy play is a bit more tempting. 5 plus your bid makes the size of the bid count for more compared with the bonus. All three are in Settings under Scoring.
Some families keep score by tricks alone and give a flat bonus for zero bids, or a bigger bonus for a made zero in a big hand. Our game keeps to the three styles above.
Missing Costs Points
In the standard game a missed bid simply scores nothing. A tougher house rule makes it cost you: you lose one point for every trick you were off. Bid 3 and take 1, and you score minus 2. Turn on "Missing costs points" in Settings for this. It rewards careful bidding even more, and it changes play: once you have bust, you still want to get as close to your bid as you can.
A harsher version takes away 10 plus the bid for any miss. It makes for big swings, so we leave it to your kitchen table.
Other House Rules You May Meet
- Trump by rotation instead of a turned card: hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades, no trump in turn. You can play that style of trump in our Whist.
- Secret bids, written down or shown with fingers at the same time, so nobody gets the advantage of bidding last. The hook can't work with secret bids.
- No trump in the 1-card hands, or the dealer choosing trump. Some groups also play the biggest hand as a "blind" round where you bid before looking.
- Different player counts. With three players the biggest hand is 17 cards; with five it's 10; with six or seven it's 8 or 7. Our game seats four.
Which Rules Does Our Game Use?
By default: four players, 1 up to 13 and back down to 1, trump turned up after the deal (none in the 13-card hand), the hook on, 10 plus the bid for an exact bid, and nothing for a miss. Everything in this article with a heading link can be changed in Settings, under House rules. Changes start with your next game.
New to the game? Read the full Oh Hell! rules first, then pick up some ideas from our strategy guide.