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This page is mostly based on a contribution from Carter Hoerr, rulekeeper for the OH HELL! Club of America. I have added some common variations.
Oh Hell! is also known by many other names, including Blackout, Nomination Whist, Elevator (l'Ascenseur in France), Oh Shit!, Bust and Up and Down the River (in Australia and New Zealand), Boerenbridge or 10 op en neer in the Netherlands, German Bridge in Hong Kong.
From 3 to 7 people can play. The game is best when played with 4 to 6.
A standard 52 card deck is used. The cards in each suit rank (from high to low) A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.
The game consists of a series of hands. The first hand is played with 7 to 10 cards dealt to each player, depending on the number of players:
Example: With 7 players, the hands are: 7 cards, then 6,5,4,3,2,1, then 2,3,4,5,6,7, for a total of 13 hands to the game. A game should take approximately 45 minutes.
The object is for each player to bid the number of tricks he thinks he can take from each hand, then to take exactly that many; no more and no fewer. Points are awarded only for making the bid exactly, and are deducted for missing the bid, either over or under (see scoring below).
The hook is that at least one player will fail on each hand, because the total number of tricks bid by the players may not equal the number of tricks available on that hand.
To determine the first dealer, draw cards. The player with the highest card deals first. The turn to deal rotates clockwise with each hand.
The cards are shuffled and cut and the dealer deals the cards singly until everyone has the appropriate number of cards for the hand being played. The next card is turned face up and the suit of this card is the trump suit for the hand. The trump suit beats any of the other three suits played in that hand. The remaining undealt cards are placed in a face down stack with the turned trump on top of it.
The bidding in each hand begins with the player to the left of the dealer, then continues clockwise, back around to the dealer, who bids last. Each bid is a number representing the number of tricks that player will try to take. Everyone must bid - it is not possible to pass, but you can bid zero, in which case your object is to take no tricks at all. A bid may be changed only if the next player to the left has not yet bid. Remember the hook: the dealer may not bid the number that would cause the total number of tricks bid to equal the number of tricks available; a hand will always be "over-bid" or "under-bid". Keep in mind when bidding that not all cards in the deck are in play in any hand.
The play begins with the player to the dealer's left, who leads the first card. The lead may be any suit (including trump). Play follows clockwise. Each player must follow the suit led, if he can. If not, he may play any other card in his hand, including trump. The player who has played the highest trump card, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led, wins the trick. That player then leads to the next trick. Continue until all tricks have been played and won.
The scorekeeper is designated prior to each game according to house rules. The scorekeeper, needless to say, has a distinct advantage, and should be monitored closely for "inadvertent" errors. The designated scorekeeper notes each bid and resulting scores on a score sheet. There are many different ways to score Oh Hell!
In the simplest version, a player who wins the exact number of tricks bid scores 10 plus the number of tricks bid (10 points for zero tricks, 11 for 1 trick, 12 for two tricks, etc.) Players who take more or fewer tricks than they bid score nothing. This method has the advantage that the scorekeeper, having written down the bids at the start of the play, can simply write a figure "1" in front of those that were successful and delete those that are not.
Perhaps the most widespread scoring method is to award 1 point for each trick won plus a bonus of 10 points for players who win exactly the number of tricks they bid. So for example a player who bid 2 would score 12 points for winning exactly 2 tricks, but only 1 for 1 trick and 3 for 3 tricks. This gives a player whose bid fails a slight incenbtive to win as many tricks as possible.
Some other scoring methods are given in the variations section below. Whatever method is used, the score keeper keeps a cumulative total of each player's score. The final cumulative scores determine the result. If the game is played for money, players pay or receive amounts corresponding to the difference of their scores from the average.
Several people have produced preprinted Oh Hell score sheets, reflecting various scoring methods.
There are a lot of variations of this. Some people start from 1 card each, go up to the maximum number of cards and then back down to 1. Some just go from the maximum down to 1 and then stop, or vice versa. If there are four people the maximum number of cards dealt may be 13 rather than 10, with three people you can go up to 17. Some people go up to some other maximum, such as 7 cards, irrespective of the number of players.
Dan Strohm describes a version, called Devil's Bridge, in which the hand size increases and then decreases. On the final 1 card hand, the players must each hold their card on their forehead, so each player can see all the other player's cards but not their own.
Bryce Francis reports that in Australia, when playing Bust with 5 players, they add 13 low cards from a second pack to make a 65 card pack, so as to deal 13 cards each on the first hand as with 4 players. When there are six players they add a further 13 low cards, so that the bottom half of the pack is duplicated. If duplicate cards are played to a trick, the second played beats the first.
Some sequences include hands in which all cards are dealt (for example 13 cards each to 4 players). There is of course then no card left to determine the trump suit. These hands are played without trumps.
Instead of turning up a card, some people go through the possible trump suits in a fixed sequence. This sequence may or may not include "no trumps".
Brad Wilson describes a version called "Oh Shit!" in which Spades are always trumps.
Jean-Pierre Coulon reports a variation in which after the appropriate number of cards have been dealt to the players, the next card is turned face up. If the rank of the turned up card is from 2 to 6, there are no trumps for the deal; if it is 7 or higher, the suit of the turned up card is trumps.
Some people play without the hook rule, so the dealer is allowed to bid in such a way that everyone can win. There was a lively discussion in rec.games.playing-cards as to which version is more skilful, with strong advocates of each. Some think that hands where the bids add up are too easy; but others say that forcing the bids not to add up removes a tactical option from the dealer.
Some play with simultaneous bidding. When the players are ready to bid, they put a fist on the table. When everyone's fist is out, the group says "One, Two, Three" while bouncing their fists on the table. On Three, everyone must stick out some number of fingers (possibly zero) to indicate how many tricks they will try to take. Of course, with this method, there's no restriction against the total number of bid tricks being equal to the number of cards dealt. Since players cannot adjust their bids based on the other players' bids, the total tricks bid can be wildly different from the tricks available - for example it is not uncommon for three or four players to bid "one" when only one card was dealt. Several correspondents report that in Australia, most groups use simultaneous bidding rather than bidding in turn.
Some play that the dealer, rather than the player to dealer's left, leads to the first trick.
David Wuori (of Maine, USA) reports a variation in which a player who has no card of the suit led must trump. Only if you have no cards of the suit led and no trumps can you discard from a different non-trump suit. Although this is rule is uncommon in English speaking countries, it is actually the usual way of playing La Podrida (the Spanish equivalent to Oh Hell playefd in Latin America and in Spain) as well as the equivalent Romanian game of Whist.
Mark Brader suggests a variation in which two jokers (big and little) are included, to make a 54-card deck. These jokers are a suit of their own containing only two cards. If a joker is turned up the other joker is the only trump.
There are many alternative systems.
La Podrida is the equivalent Spanish game to Oh Hell!
Romanian Whist is a variation of Oh Hell!, played in Romania.
David Parlett's game Ninety-Nine is based on similar principles, but with an extra twist to the bidding.
Axel Brink describes a Dutch variation called 10 op en neer. The number of cards dealt per hand are: 1, 2, ..., 9, 10, 9, ..., 1. There is no hook rule. If a player makes his bid exactly, he gets 10 points plus his bid. If he misses his bid (over or under), he gets 0 points. A computer program, that plays this game can be obtained from Axel's 10 op en neer page (in Dutch).
German Bridge is a version of Oh Hell played in Hong Kong. You gain (10 + (bid)2) if successful and lose (bid - tricks)2 if not.
You can download a freeware Oh Hell! program from Thanos Card Games.
Malcolm Bain's shareware Oh Hell program for Windows 2000 or XP is available from Games Galore.
Sean O'Connor's shareware Oh Hell program is available under the name Niggle - you can buy it or download a free trial version.
DKM Software offers CardSharp, which plays Oh Hell and several other card games. As well as a free web version there is a shareware desktop version for Windows.
From the Tams11 lobby you can obtain an Windows Oh Pshaw game (equivalent to Oh Hell) that can be played on line against live opponents.
Blackout can be played by e-Mail on Richard's Play-By-eMail Server.
The following sites offer on line Oh Hell! games:
Last updated 23rd April 2008
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