How to Play Oh Hell

What you need

• 3–7 players. Everyone for themselves. No partners. Three is a real table. Four is typical. Five is a real table. Seven still works. Two is not tonight's Oh Hell.
• One standard 52-card deck. No jokers. No bowers.
• Paper with a column per person. Highest total after the 1-card hand wins. No race to 500.

Sit, pick a dealer, agree on the house

Sit where everyone can see the trump card. Cut for the first deal, or point at someone. After each hand, the deal moves clockwise.

Say these out loud before the first card:

1. One 52. No jokers. No partners. First hand is 7 each. Then 6, then 5, down to 1. That is a round. Highest after the 1-card hand wins.
2. Turn the next card face-up. That suit is trump. Ace high, 2 low. No bowers. If somehow no card remains, that hand is no trump.
3. Bid the exact number of tricks, 0 through n. Left of the dealer starts. Dealer last. Dealer cannot make the sum of bids equal n. Pass is not a bid — you must name a number.
4. Hit exactly: 10 plus the tricks you took. Miss: 0. Over and under are both a miss. Not Spades (bags, to 500). Not Bid Whist (kitty, to 7). Two is not this game.

Deal 7, then shrink to 1

Shuffle the 52. Deal clockwise until each player has 7. That is the first hand. After you score it, deal 6 each, then 5, then 4, 3, 2, and finally 1. Seven hands. Then you add the columns. Highest total wins the round.

Three people, 7 each: 21 cards. Plenty left for a trump card. Seven people, 7 each: 49 cards, 3 left — still a trump card. At 7 people × 1 card there are cards left too. If someone has the wrong count, throw it in and deal again.

Two is not this game. The dealer constraint needs a table. Two people: cribbage or gin from tonight.

Turn trump

After each deal, turn the next card face-up. That suit is trump for this hand only. The next hand gets a new turned card. Ace is high. 2 is low. No jokers. No bowers — the jack of trump is just a jack.

If the pack is empty after the deal, that hand is no trump. House play at 3–7 starting at 7 does not empty the pack — 7 × 7 is 49, three cards still sit there — but if somehow no card remains, play the hand with no trump suit.

Bid the exact number

Look at your hand and the trump card. Starting left of the dealer, each player names a number from 0 through n, where n is the number of cards in the hand. You are bidding the exact number of tricks you will take. Not “at least.” Not books over 6.

The dealer bids last. Add the bids already named. The dealer cannot bid the number that would make that sum equal n. Someone at the table will miss. That is the house.

Example: three people, 7-card hand. West bids 2. North bids 1. Sum is 3. East is dealer and cannot bid 4 (3 + 4 = 7). East bids 3. Table total is 6, not 7.

Pass is not a bid. You must name a number. Bid 0 is a real bid — you are saying you will take none.

Play the tricks

Left of the dealer leads trick 1. After that, the winner of a trick leads the next. Play until the hands are empty.

1. You must follow suit if you have a card of the suit that was led.
2. If you are void, you may trump or discard any card.
3. The highest trump in the trick wins. If nobody played trump, the highest card of the led suit wins.
4. Ace high, 2 low. No jokers. No bowers.

There is no “spades broken” rule. You may lead trump whenever you want. That is not Spades. There is no kitty and no uptown or downtown. That is not Bid Whist.

Scoring, in the amount you need tonight

Count your tricks. Compare them to your bid. Exact or nothing.

Hit exactly: 10 plus the tricks you took. Miss, over or under: 0 for that hand. Write it in that person’s column. Deal the next smaller hand.

After the 1-card hand, add the columns. Highest total wins. You do not race to 500. That is Spades. You do not race to 7. That is Bid Whist. You do not shoot the moon. That is Hearts. You do not score High, Low, Jack, Game. That is Pitch.

Walk through one first-night hand

Three people — a real table. You are West. East dealt. First hand: 7 each. Trump card: 9 of hearts.

Your seven cards:

• Ace and king of hearts
• Ace of spades
• 10 of diamonds
• 7, 4, and 3 of clubs

Two high hearts and a side ace. You bid 2. North bids 1. East is dealer. Bids so far: 3. East cannot bid 4. East bids 3. Table total is 6, not 7. Someone will miss.

You lead the ace of hearts. Both follow. You take it. You lead the king of hearts. North dumps a club. East plays the queen of hearts. You take it. That is 2. You now duck. You dump clubs when you can. You take no more. Bid 2, take 2: you score 12. North took 2 on a bid of 1: 0. East took 3 on a bid of 3: 13. Write it down. Deal 6 each. New trump card.

Night-one habits

• Count your tricks as they happen. Say the running total out loud if the table wants it.
• Bid 0 is a real bid. On the 1-card hand it is often the whole decision.
• Dealer is stuck. Do not talk them into a bid that makes the total equal n.
• Overtricks score nothing. Stop taking once you have your bid — unless you are already cooked.
• Three people is a real Oh Hell table. Five is a real table. Seven still works. Deal.

You know enough to deal. Keep this page beside the pad. Four people is a tonight pick. Three people is a tonight pick. Five people is a tonight pick. There is no Oh Hell trainer on CardPractice — this how-to is the product. If you wanted partners, 13 each, spades always trump, and a race to 500, that is Spades. If you wanted partners, jokers, a kitty, and books over 6 to 7, that is Bid Whist. If you wanted 24 cards and bowers to 10, that is euchre. Two people: cribbage or gin.