Oh Hell Card Game Rules: How to Play and Score
Nov 10, 2026 · The Editors
How to play Oh Hell, the trick-taking game where you must win exactly the number of tricks you bid: the deal, trumps, bidding, the dealer's hook rule, scoring and the game's other names.
Oh Hell is a trick-taking game with one twist: you score only if you win exactly the number of tricks you said you would. Too many is as bad as too few. It plays well with three to seven people, takes one standard deck, and gets steadily more tense as the hands get bigger.
Oh Hell card game: what you need
- Players: 3 to 7 (4 or 5 is ideal).
- Cards: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers. Aces are high.
- Score sheet: a pencil and paper. Scores change every hand.
How many cards to deal
The number of cards changes every hand. The most common pattern starts with one card each, goes up by one each hand to the largest number possible, then comes back down. Some groups go down first, or only one way.
After dealing, the next card is turned face up to set trumps. So the largest hand is the most cards you can deal while leaving one card to turn over:
| Players | Largest hand |
|---|---|
| 3 | 17 |
| 4 | 12 |
| 5 | 10 |
| 6 | 8 |
| 7 | 7 |
Many groups cap the hand at ten cards whatever the number of players, to keep the game to an evening.
Bidding: say exactly how many tricks you will win
Starting left of the dealer, each player says how many tricks they expect to win, from zero up to the number of cards in hand. The scorer writes every bid down. The dealer bids last.
The hook rule. In most games the dealer may not make a bid that would make the total of all bids equal the number of tricks available. That guarantees at least one person fails, and it is the reason the game has its name. Some families drop the rule; agree before the first deal.
Playing the tricks
The player left of the dealer leads any card. Everyone else must follow suit if they can. If you cannot, you may play any card, including a trump. The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads the next trick.
A bid of zero is often the hardest to make: you will spend the hand throwing away high cards whenever someone else is sure to win.
Oh Hell card game scoring
The simplest and most common scoring:
- Make your bid exactly: 10 points plus 1 point per trick (so a bid of 3, made, scores 13).
- Miss your bid, over or under: 0 points.
Some groups give a flat 5 for making a zero bid, or subtract points for each trick you are off. Whatever you choose, write it at the top of the score sheet. The highest total after the last hand wins.
Oh Hell card game other names
The same game is played as Oh Pshaw, Blackout, Up and Down the River, Bust, Elevator and, in Britain, Nomination Whist or Contract Whist. If you know whist or spades, you already know how the tricks work; the bidding is what makes this one different.
A good deck for a long game
A long evening of trick-taking is hard on paper cards. A plastic deck shuffles cleanly hand after hand, and hands-free card holders help when the hand grows past ten cards. For more games for the same table, see our card games for 3 players.
