How to play Oh Hell
Oh Hell is a trick-taking card game for 3 to 7 players, each playing alone. Every hand, the players bid how many tricks they will win, and the goal is to win exactly that many: no more and no fewer. The hands start at 10 cards each, go down by one card a hand to a single card, then back up. A player who makes their bid exactly scores 10 points plus the bid, and the highest total at the end wins.
Other names
The game goes by a lot of names. Wikipedia lists Oh Heck and Oh Pshaw among them, and says the version that goes down and back up is called Up and Down the River in Australia and New Zealand. Pagat lists Up and Down the River too, along with Blackout, Blob, Elevator and Oh Well. Bicycle's rules call it Oh Pshaw.
What you need
One ordinary 52-card deck, no jokers, and 3 to 7 players (pagat says it's best with 4 to 6; our online game seats 3 or 4). Cards rank the usual way, ace high: A, K, Q, J, 10 and on down to 2. Everyone plays for themselves.
The deal
Everyone draws a card, and the highest card deals first. After each hand the deal passes one seat to the left. The dealer deals the cards one at a time, starting with the player on their left, until everyone has the right number of cards for that hand.
The number of cards changes every hand. Pagat's main rule starts with:
| Players | Cards each in the first hand | Hands in the game |
|---|---|---|
| 3, 4 or 5 | 10 | 19 |
| 6 | 8 | 15 |
| 7 | 7 | 13 |
Each hand after that has one card fewer, down to a hand of one card each, then one card more per hand back up to the start. With four players that's 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10: 19 hands.
The trump card
After the deal, the dealer turns the next card face up and puts it on top of the cards left over. Its suit is trumps for this hand: a trump beats any card of the other suits. The turned-up card itself isn't played.
If every card was dealt, there's no card to turn up, and the hand is played with no trumps. That happens when the deal uses the whole deck, for example 13 cards each to four players.
Bidding
Starting with the player on the dealer's left and going round once, each player says how many tricks they expect to win. The dealer bids last. Everyone must bid, but a bid of zero is fine: it means you're trying to win no tricks at all.
The dealer's rule (the hook)
The dealer may not bid the number that would make all the bids add up to the number of tricks in the hand. Pagat calls this the hook, and it's part of its main rules. It means that at least one player will miss their bid: if the bids add up to less than the tricks, somebody will take extra; if they add up to more, somebody will fall short.
Example: 5 cards each, so 5 tricks. The first three players bid 2, 1 and 0. That's 3 so far, so the dealer can bid anything except 2.
Some people play without the hook (pagat lists that as a variation, and Bicycle's rules have no such limit). Our game has it on to start with; Settings can turn it off.
The play
- The player on the dealer's left leads to the first trick with any card.
- Going clockwise, everyone plays one card. You must follow suit: play a card of the suit that was led if you have one.
- If you have none of the suit led, you may play any card, a trump or anything else.
- The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins.
- The winner of each trick leads to the next. Keep going until every card is played.
Unlike spades, you can lead a trump at any time.
Scoring
Pagat gives two ways to score, and our game offers both:
| What happened | Exact bid scoring (our default) | 1 a trick, plus 10 |
|---|---|---|
| Took exactly your bid | 10 plus your bid | 1 per trick, plus 10 |
| Bid 0 and took no tricks | 10 | 10 |
| Took more or fewer than your bid | 0 | 1 per trick |
The first is the one pagat describes first, as the simplest version; it says the game scored this way is often called Blackout or Blob. Bicycle's rules for Oh Pshaw score the same way. The second, 1 point a trick plus a 10-point bonus for an exact bid, is the one pagat calls perhaps the most widespread. Either way, scores add up from hand to hand and nobody loses points.
A worked example
Four players, 5 cards each. South deals, so West bids first: West bids 2, North 1, East 0. The bids add up to 3, so South, the dealer, can't bid 2. South bids 1, and the bids add up to 4, one less than the tricks. Somebody is going to take an extra trick.
The hand is played. West takes 2 tricks, North 2, East none and South 1.
| Player | Bid | Took | Exact bid scoring | 1 a trick, plus 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West | 2 | 2 | 12 | 12 |
| North | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| East | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| South (dealer) | 1 | 1 | 11 | 11 |
North took the extra trick and scores nothing under exact scoring. East scores 10 for a zero bid made. Try the scoring on a real game with the Oh Hell score sheet.
Winning
After the last hand, the player with the highest total wins. Pagat says some players break a tie by dealing more hands with the biggest number of cards. Our game doesn't: players tied for the top score share the win.
Words you'll hear
- Trick
- One card from each player, played in turn. The best card wins them all.
- Trumps
- The suit of the turned-up card. Any trump beats any card of another suit.
- Bid
- The number of tricks you say you'll win this hand, from 0 to the cards in your hand.
- Making your bid
- Winning exactly the number of tricks you bid. Only that scores the bonus.
- The hook
- The rule that the dealer can't make the bids add up to the number of tricks.
- Following suit
- Playing a card of the suit that was led. You must when you can.
- Void
- Having no cards left in a suit, which lets you trump it or throw away a card.
Common variations
Pagat lists many house rules. These are the main ones; agree on them before you start.
- The order of the hands: start with 1 card and go up, then back down (a setting in our game); go only down, or only up; or play two 1-card hands in the middle.
- Bigger or smaller hands: with four players the biggest hand can be 13 cards, and with three it can be 17. Some stop at 7 cards whatever the number of players. Our game has 7 cards and "every card" as settings.
- No hook: the dealer may bid anything.
- The dealer leads: some play that the dealer leads to the first trick.
- You must trump: a player who can't follow suit has to play a trump if they can.
- Other scoring: 5 points for a zero bid made, 10 points per trick bid, or 10 plus the bid squared, with points lost for a miss.
Ready to try it? Play Oh Hell online against the computer, or read our Oh Hell strategy guide first.
Sources
- John McLeod, "Oh Hell", pagat.com (main rules, hand sizes, the trump card, the hook, both scoring methods, ties and variations).
- "Oh Hell", Wikipedia (other names, including Oh Heck, Oh Pshaw and Up and Down the River; no trumps when every card is dealt).
- "Oh Pshaw", Bicycle Cards, bicyclecards.com (the deal, the turned-up trump, exact-bid scoring of 10 plus the bid).
Keep playing
- Play Oh HellThree or four at the table: the computer in every other chair, or friends by link.
- StrategyHow to count your tricks, ducking once your bid is made, with numbers from our games.
- Score sheetKeep score for a real game on screen, or print a blank sheet.
- SpadesBidding and tricks with a partner: make your contract and dodge the bags.
- Gin RummyMake sets and runs, knock when your deadwood is low, or go gin.
Rules for similar games: spades rules, gin rummy rules and cribbage rules.