Oh Hell Card Game Rules: How to Play Oh Heck

The Oh Hell card game rules are built on one twist: you score only if you win exactly the number of tricks you bid. Win one too many or one too few and you get nothing for the hand. That simple idea creates a tense, funny game where everyone is trying to lose tricks as often as win them. Many families call it Oh Heck, Up and Down the River, Blackout or Contract Whist, and the hand size changes every deal, so no two hands feel the same.

Quick rules

• Each hand, deal a different number of cards, for example 10 down to 1 and back up.
• Turn up the next card to set the trump suit.
• Each player bids the exact number of tricks they expect to take.
• The dealer bids last and may not make the total bids equal the number of tricks.
• Follow suit if you can. Highest trump wins, otherwise highest card of the suit led.
• Make your bid exactly to score 10 points plus your bid. Miss it and score 0.

What you need

• A standard 52-card deck. Aces are high, 2s are low.
• A score sheet with a column for each player, or our scoreboard. Record bids as well as scores, because you check them at the end of every hand.

Setup

1. Choose the first dealer by drawing cards. High card deals. The deal moves left after each hand.
2. Decide the hand pattern. A popular choice with 4 or 5 players is to start at 10 cards each, go down one card per hand to 1, then back up to 10.
3. The largest possible hand is 52 divided by the number of players, rounded down (for example 13 with four players, 10 with five, 8 with six).

How to play

The deal and trump

1. The dealer deals the agreed number of cards to each player, one at a time.
2. Turn the next card of the deck face up. Its suit is trump for this hand. The rest of the deck is not used.
3. If every card has been dealt and none is left to turn, the hand is played with no trump.

Bidding

1. Starting with the player to the dealer's left, each player says how many tricks they will win. Zero is a perfectly good bid.
2. Write each bid on the score sheet.
3. The dealer bids last and must choose a number so that the total of all bids does not equal the number of tricks in the hand. This is called the hook or the screw-the-dealer rule, and it guarantees that at least one player will miss.

Playing tricks

1. The player to the dealer's left leads any card to the first trick.
2. Each player in turn plays one card. You must follow the suit led if you can.
3. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card, including a trump.
4. The highest trump played wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins.
5. The winner leads the next trick. Keep won tricks in front of you, slightly fanned so others can count them.

Scoring

Example: you bid 3 and take 3 tricks, so you score 13. If you take 2 or 4, you score 0. Scoring systems vary from group to group: a common alternative gives 1 point per trick taken plus a 10-point bonus for making the bid exactly, and some groups subtract the difference for a missed bid.

How to win

Play the full agreed pattern of hands, for example 10 down to 1 and back up to 10. The player with the highest total at the end wins. For a shorter game, play just the downward half.

Variations

• Up first: start with one card each and climb to the maximum, then come back down.
• Hook off: drop the dealer restriction for a friendlier game where everyone can make their bid in the same hand.
• Blind round: in the one-card hand, every player holds their card to their forehead without looking, so they see everyone's card but their own.
• No-trump hands: some groups rotate trump through hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades and no trump instead of turning a card.
• Penalty scoring: lose 10 points for any missed bid, which makes risky bids costlier.

Tips and strategy

• In small hands, an ace of trump is nearly a sure trick and a low card in a short suit is nearly a sure loser.
• Once you have made your bid, switch to losing. Dump high cards when you cannot follow suit.
• Watch the total of the bids. If the total is lower than the number of tricks, someone will be forced to take extra tricks; if it is higher, someone will fall short.
• As dealer you know everyone's bid, so you have the most information even with the hook rule.
• A void suit is powerful: you can trump to win or throw off a dangerous card to lose.

House rules to agree first

• The hand pattern: how many cards to start with and whether to go up, down or both.
• Whether the hook rule applies to the dealer.
• The scoring method: 10 plus bid, 1 per trick plus 10, or penalties for misses.
• What happens when no card is left to turn for trump.

Love bidding and trick-taking? Try spades, whist, hearts or euchre, or see more card games for adults.