How to Play Oh Hell!
How to Play Oh Hell!
Oh Hell! is a lively trick-taking game where your goal is not to win as many tricks as possible, but to win exactly the number you predict. You need a normal deck of cards to play. You can find a regular deck of playing cards from Playmore. This guide uses one common version of Oh Hell!, and house rules can vary.
Quick facts
| Players | Cards | Time | Main goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3–7 | Standard 52-card deck | About 30–45 minutes | Match your bid exactly |
What you are trying to do
Each hand, you look at your cards and predict how many tricks you can win. A trick is one card played by every player, with the strongest card taking all those cards. You might bid 0, 1, 2, or any number up to the cards in your hand. At the end of the hand, you want your number of tricks won to match your bid exactly. Taking too few is a miss, but taking too many is also a miss.
That creates the fun puzzle. You may have a powerful hand, yet need to avoid winning a trick. Another player may try to win a trick while you carefully play a low card. Everyone is planning at the same time, and the changing hand sizes keep the game moving.
What you need
Use a standard 52-card deck with four suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. Within each suit, cards rank from high to low as ace, king, queen, jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. You also need a score sheet and pencil, or a notes app. Choose one person to record bids and scores so the results stay clear.
Set it up
First choose the dealer. Each player can draw a card, with the highest card dealing first; redraw ties. The deal moves one seat clockwise after every hand.
The first hand depends on the number of players. With 3–5 players, deal 10 cards to each person. With 6 players, deal 8 cards each. With 7 players, deal 7 cards each. Deal one card at a time, then turn the next undealt card face up. Its suit is trump, meaning that suit beats the other suits for this hand. Leave the rest of the deck face down.
After the opening hand, deal one fewer card to each player for every new hand until everyone has one card. Then increase the hand size by one card each hand until you return to the starting number. For example, seven players play 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, then 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 cards. This makes 13 hands.
How to play
- Bid your tricks. Starting with the player to the dealer’s left, each person announces how many tricks they expect to take. Continue clockwise, with the dealer speaking last. You cannot pass, but you may bid zero. Write every bid down before playing.
- Apply the hook. In this common version, the dealer may not choose a bid that makes all bids add up to the number of tricks available. For example, if five cards were dealt to each player and the other bids total 4, the dealer cannot bid 1. The total must be either above or below the available number.
- Lead the first trick. The player left of the dealer plays any card. This is the lead suit, or the suit that everyone should follow if possible.
- Follow suit when you can. Moving clockwise, each player plays one card. If you have a card in the lead suit, you must play one of that suit. If you do not, you may play any card, including a trump card.
- Find the winner. If one or more trump cards were played, the highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card in the lead suit wins. The winner gathers the trick and leads the next one.
- Finish the hand. Keep playing tricks until everyone’s cards are gone. Count the tricks collected by each player and compare those totals with the written bids.
- Record the score. Give each player 1 point for every trick they took. Then give a 10-point bonus to anyone whose trick total exactly matches their bid. A successful bid of 2 therefore earns 12 points. A player who bid 2 but took 1 earns only 1 point, and a player who took 3 earns 3 points.
How you win
Add each hand’s points to a running total. When the final hand is complete, the player with the highest score wins. The biggest scores usually come from accurate predictions, not from grabbing every available trick. A zero bid can be just as valuable as a high bid if you can avoid winning anything.
Remember that the trump suit changes every hand when a new face-up card is turned. The player who deals is not automatically the first leader, and the player who wins a trick leads the next one. Keeping those two details straight prevents many first-game mix-ups.
Easy first-game tips
Begin by counting your likely winners. An ace often wins if it is not trumped, while a king or queen is less certain because a higher card in the same suit may be held elsewhere. Notice how many cards you have in each suit, too. If you have no cards in a suit, you can play a trump when that suit is led, which may win a trick you did not intend to take.
Bid carefully rather than bravely. If you need one trick, try to identify one strong, dependable card and avoid forcing yourself to win more. If you bid zero, watch the lead suits and discard high cards when you are allowed to play outside the suit. Do not forget that a low trump can still beat every non-trump card.
During bidding, listen to the other players. Their numbers give clues about how many tricks they hope to claim, although the dealer’s hook means the final total cannot match the number available. Write bids where everyone can see them, and count each trick immediately so scoring stays friendly and accurate.
Quick questions
Can I bid zero?
Yes. A zero bid means you are trying to win no tricks. If you succeed, you receive the 10-point exact-bid bonus.
Can I play any card when I cannot follow suit?
Yes. If you have no card in the lead suit, you may play another suit or a trump card. The highest trump wins when trump is played.