A trick is one card from each player. A round ends when every card in the hand has been played. A bid predicts your trick count, and trump is the suit that can beat another suit when you cannot follow. These meanings stay useful whichever Oh Hell rules your group chooses.
Prefer to learn with cards in your hand? Try the interactive practice. It takes you through a bid, two tricks, and a score.
Oh Hell rules: players and the deck.
Oh Hell card game rules reward prediction. Before playing your cards, you predict how many tricks you will win. Unlike games where every extra trick helps, here you want to land exactly on your prediction.
When learning how to play Oh Hell with a physical deck, four to six players is a comfortable starting point. Use a standard 52-card deck without jokers and reduce the maximum hand size when more players join. Our browser game uses four seats: you and three computer opponents.
Cards rank from 2 up to ace: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king, ace. There are no teams. Each player keeps their own score.
Dealing and trump rules.
Under the Oh Hell rules used here, the dealer gives everyone the same number of cards, then turns over one undealt card. Its suit becomes trump for that round. A trump beats any card from another suit, regardless of rank.
By default, a short game deals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 cards, then 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1: thirteen rounds. A full game goes from 1 to 10 and back to 1: nineteen rounds. The largest hand is played once. The dealer moves clockwise after each round.
You can also choose the down-and-up pattern in New Game: 7–1–7 for a short game, or 10–1–10 for a full game. The smallest hand is played once in that pattern. The number of rounds stays the same.
The upturned card is not in anyone’s hand. With at most ten cards per player here, there is always a card left to turn for trump.
Bidding rules and the dealer restriction.
The bidding rules give the first call to the player on the dealer’s left. Bidding continues clockwise, with the dealer last. Your bid can be any whole number from zero to the number of cards in your hand. Everyone can see the bids.
Three cards. Two tricks already called.
If the first three bids are 0, 1, and 1, their total is 2. With three tricks available, the dealer cannot bid 1: that would make the total exactly 3. The dealer can bid 0, 2, or 3.
The dealer restriction ensures someone will miss their bid. It is on by default at our table, and can be turned off before starting a new game. Other tables sometimes call it the “hook” rule.
The follow-suit rule and winning a trick.
The player to the dealer’s left leads the first trick by playing any card, including trump. The others play one card each, clockwise. If you have the led suit, you must follow it. If you have none, you may play any card, including a trump.
The trump rules put the highest trump first. If no trump is played, the highest card in the led suit wins. An off-suit card that is not trump cannot win. The winner leads the next trick.
Little trump. Big result.
Clubs were led and hearts are trump. The 2 of hearts wins, beating the ace of clubs. That heart was a legal play only if its player had no clubs left.
Continue until all cards have been played. In a four-card round, there will be four tricks altogether. Check everyone’s final trick count against their bid.
Scoring rules: exact bids and missed bids.
Under our default scoring rules, an exact bid scores 10 + the bid. Winning more or fewer tricks scores 0. A successful zero bid earns 10 points.
| You bid | You take | You score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 10 | Exactly right |
| 2 | 2 | 12 | 10 + 2 |
| 2 | 3 | 0 | One too many |
| 2 | 1 | 0 | One too few |
The optional “Tricks + 10 bonus” rule gives one point for every trick taken, plus 10 when you match the bid. A bid of 2 followed by 3 tricks earns 3 points under that rule. Compare both rules with the scoring calculator and printable score sheet.
Both scoring rules add each round’s points to the running total. The player with the most points after the final round wins. At our table, tied highest scores share the win; there is no extra tiebreak round.
“Taken” on the scorecard is the number of tricks won this round. “Score” is the points earned in completed rounds. The round-by-round scorecard keeps the full record.
Which Oh Hell rules should your group use?
There is no single rule set used by every Oh Hell group. Some score one point for every trick plus a ten-point exact-bid bonus. Others use penalties, reverse the hand sequence, or change who leads. Agree on the rules before dealing a physical game.
Our implementation uses these choices consistently:
- Four players, one deck, aces high, no jokers.
- Increasing then decreasing hand sizes by default; a down-and-up sequence is also available.
- A new trump suit determined by the upturned card each round.
- Dealer bids last; the player to the dealer’s left leads first.
- Dealer restriction on by default, optional before a new game.
- Exact-bid scoring by default: 10 + bid for a match, 0 for a miss. Alternatively, count every trick plus the exact-bid bonus.
- The highest final total wins; ties share the win.
For a first game, choose the short up-and-down deal and settle the scoring rules before anyone bids. Exact-only scoring makes each hit or miss easy to read; counting every trick gives a missed hand something to play for. Keep your family’s Oh Hell rules if everyone already knows them. Our four-seat browser table is useful for solo practice; a physical deck or a multiplayer service fits a group that wants to play together.
For a wider comparison of traditional rules and regional versions, see Pagat’s Oh Hell rules. The settings above describe this game specifically.
Other names for Oh Hell.
You may know these Oh Hell rules under another name. Pagat’s guide lists Up and Down the River as a name used in Australia and New Zealand, alongside names such as Oh Pshaw and Blackout. The changing hand size explains the river name. Before joining a table, agree on the deal sequence, scoring rules, and whether bidding is sequential or simultaneous: a shared name does not guarantee identical rules.
Be especially careful with Screw Your Neighbor. That name can also mean Cuckoo, a different game where players keep or swap a single card and try to avoid the lowest one. If your group remembers exchanging cards rather than bidding for tricks, these are not the rules you need.
Common questions about Oh Hell rules.
Must I play trump when I cannot follow suit?
Not under our Oh Hell rules. When you have none of the led suit, you may play any card, including an off-suit card that cannot win. When you do have the led suit, the follow-suit rule still applies, even if you would prefer to play trump.
What happens when I bid zero?
You are trying to win no tricks. Taking none earns 10 points under both scoring rules offered here. If you take one trick, exact-bid scoring gives 0; the optional rule that counts every trick gives 1. A zero bid is a prediction, not a pass.
Why is one of the dealer’s bids unavailable?
With the dealer restriction enabled, the final bid cannot make the total equal the available tricks. In a one-card round, if everyone else bids 0, the dealer must also bid 0. Total bids are then 0 while one trick must be won, so someone will miss.
Do we play the largest hand twice?
Our up-and-down deal plays the largest hand once: the short sequence is 1 through 7 and back to 1. Our down-and-up sequence instead plays the smallest hand once. Other groups may repeat a turning-point hand; agree on your sequence before playing and use a score sheet that matches it.
A small tip before you start.
Don’t count every high card as a guaranteed trick. A short suit can help you play trump, but only when you cannot follow the led suit. Watch how many tricks you still need: once you have made your bid, the safest card may be the one that loses.
Our computer opponents use the cards in their own hands and public information. You can slow their turns down in Settings or pause the table to think.
Read the beginner strategy guide for worked bidding examples. At the table, “Your statistics” keeps your completed-game results and exact-bid rate on this browser.