Oh Hell!

​Once the cards are dealt, bidding will start to the left of the dealer.

 

Bidding: the number of tricks available to win equates to the number of cards dealt, i.e. the first round is 7. The person to the left of the dealer will start the bidding by declaring how many tricks out of 7 (or less depending on the round) they believe they will win. This continues on around the table until the bidding reaches back to the dealer. At this point, the score keeper needs to add up the current table bid (everyone’s bid at the table aside from the dealer). The dealer’s bid cannot bring the table bid to the amount of cards dealt. This means for the first round, with 7 cards dealt, the total amount of bids must not equal 7. SOMEONE MUST LOSE!!!

 

Once bids are placed and recorded, the person to the left of the dealer opens the play. They can play any card in their hand except for a trump suit unless the player only has trump in their hand (and if you do, you better take a picture and send it to me for proof because this has never happened in the history of the first round of oh hell)

 

Whatever suit the first player throws is considered the suit of that trick. Each player after following in a clockwise motion will then play a card from their hand in that suit.

Ex: Trump suit is spades. First player throws a K of diamonds. The suit of that trick is diamonds and the following players MUST throw a diamond if they have one. If not, they can play any card from their hand. The highest diamond thrown will win. IF someone does not have a diamond in their hand, they can then play a trump suit card. If a trump card is played of any number, it automatically ‘trumps’ the highest diamond. So the highest card of the trick suit wins, unless a trump is played then the highest trump card wins.

 

After each player throws their card and someone wins the trick, the winner then gets to start the next trick. This is continued until all 7 tricks have been played.

 

The score keeper will then go around the table and determine if each player has correctly won their bid from the beginning of the round. If a player ‘makes their bid’, then their score is 10 + their bid: e.g. if a player bids 3, and wins 3 tricks, their score would be 10 + 3 = 13.

 

At this point, the next round will be played, the dealer moves to the left, and the number of cards dealt counts down each round -- 6, 5, 4, 3. And the table bid is always whatever the number of cards dealt is.

 

On the 7th round, each player will get 1 card. DO NOT LOOK at your card. Players will place the card on their forehead. The person to the left of the dealer will start the bidding. Bids are based on the cards seen on other players’ heads. Do you think you have a higher card than everyone else? Do you see any trump cards out there? If you don't see many high cards and/or trumps, you might have a good shot at winning since your card will set the suit for this trick. You might want to bid 1. If you see high cards out there, then it's usually smart to play it safe and bid 0. This is the round that ‘fucks the dealer’.

 

If someone bids 1 at the table and everyone else bids 0 all the way to the dealer, then the dealer must say 1 because the table bid total CANNOT equal the number of cards deal -- i.e. someone has to lose. Oh Hell

 

At this point of the game, the table might be tired of playing and you can call it, but traditionally you continue play and deal back up to 7. And the person with the highest score at the end wins.

 

Scoring:

 

If a player bids 0 and correctly wins 0 tricks, their score is 5.

 

If a player does not correctly make their bid, their score is the difference between the number of tricks they won and their bid. 

E.g. - the player bid 3 tricks, they won 2 tricks, their score is -1. Another example would be a player bid 1 trick, and won 4 tricks, their score is -3. If you don’t make their bid, then the score will always be negative the difference.

 

If a player bids anything other than 0, and correctly makes their bid, they receive a score of 10 + their bid

    E.g. - player bids 1 and wins 1, score is 10 + 1 = 11.

             Player bids 2 and wins 2, score is 10 + 2 = 12.