Oh Hell
Pushing Daisies - Emerson Cod Oh Hell No. Is a trick-taking card game that is perfect both for children and adults. It requires enough skill to make it an enjoyable challenge and includes just enough luck that everyone has a reasonable chance to win.
Introduction to the Oh Hell Card Game
Oh Hell! is a trick-taking card game that is perfect both for children and adults. It requires enough skill to make it an enjoyable challenge and includes just enough luck that everyone has a reasonable chance to win.
The Basics
-Number of players: three or more
-Playing time: half an hour
-Cards: one standard deck of 52 playing cards with jokers removed
-Ranking: ace high, then King down to deuce. Suits are equal.
-Deal: The dealer deals out every card in the deck face-down, beginning with the player on his left, as long as everybody gets the same number of cards. You put down the remaining cards and turn over the top card to decide the trump suit. The remaining, undealt cards play no extra part in the game. For a four-player game, in which all the cards go out, cut the deck to determine the trump suit before you deal out the first hand.
After a hand ends and you total the results, the deal passes clockwise for the next hand, and that player deals out the cards once again. For the following deal, however, you deal one less card to each player, and the reduction continues for each following hand until each player collects only one card. Following the single-card hand, the number of cards increases by one each hand. This continues until you reach the maximum once again. The game finishes with the second maximum hand, and the winner is the player who finishes with the highest total.
Object of the Game
Like generally all games that include taking tricks, the players in Oh Hell! score points for earning tricks. However, winning is more than just a matter of taking tricks. Before the actual play of the hand, players must guess the exact number of tricks you think you’ll win in the hand.
The significance of accurately predicting the total number of tricks far outweighs the reward for actually attaining tricks, so picking up a bad hand isn’t always a problem. In fact, a horrible hand may be simpler to guess than an excellent one. Making correct approximations about your hand concludes your success at the game, which is a very nourishing element for a card game.
Oh Hell No Gif
How to Play Oh Hell
Once you’ve looked at your hand, you then place a rational bid. Your bid signifies the number of tricks you expect to take throughout the course of the hand. The player to the left of the dealer begins the bidding, he may bid any number of tricks that he wishes, up to the maximum, which is the number of cards received by each player.
The bidding persists clockwise until it returns to the dealer, he has the final bid. Everyone except the dealer may bid for as many tricks as they think they can take, up to and including the number of cards dealt to each player. In Oh Hell! there is a rule which can lead to a lot of enjoyable aggravation (providing that you aren’t the luckless dealer), the rule is that the entire number of tricks that the players are going to go for, cannot match the number of tricks available.
Note: It is not required to play this rule, but it does make the game more interesting.
The chosen scorer lists the bids on the score sheet, as players exclaim them so that he can check the precision of the bids afterward and inform the dealer what bid (or call) is prohibited.
Playing for your Bids
The player on the dealer’s left spearheads the first trick, and play continues clockwise. You have to follow suit (play a card in the suit led) if possible. If you cannot, you have two choices, you may either discard (playing a card in a non-trump suit) or you may trump, with a card of the trump suit.
At the conclusion of the hand, all players declare how many tricks they’ve won, and the scorer records the total for each player. For each trick that you get per hand, you receive 1 point. If you make your bid, you get an added 10 points. The player with the highest total score, after the second maximum hand, wins the game.
Tips on How to Win Oh Hell
How much you bid depends on your high cards, your trump cards, and by what the other players in the game bid. The more the players around you seem to be bidding, the less you should value hand— and the reverse is also true. Furthermore, if you can judge that the players with decent hands are to your direct right (so that you play after them and take their honors), you may again up your bid by a trick.
Don’t bid too high; if in doubt; remember that playing to lose a trick is normally much simpler than playing to win it.
In the early stages of the game, when you have lots of cards, leading a suit in which you have only one card can be a good idea. Depending on whether you win or lose that trick, you can be more adaptable in your scheme with other suits. If you win a trick unpredictably, you go out of your way to lose an additional trick that you may have won. If you lose a trick that you assumed to win, you know to go all out to make up for it when you can.
Always trump other people’s aces if possible. If an opponent leads an ace, he intends to win the trick — stopping him from doing so is a good thing.
OBJECTIVE OF OH HELL: Successfully bid the number of tricks they think they can take from each hand by taking that exact amount of tricks- no more and no less.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4-7 players
NUMBER OF CARDS: 52 card deck
RANK OF CARDS: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking
AUDIENCE: Adult
INTRODUCTION TO OH HELL
Oh Hell! is a trick-taking game in which the goal is the bid for the exact number of tricks one believes they will make. Taking more or fewer tricks is a loss. The name of the game offended some and so it is also known as Oh Pshaw! or Oh Well!. Some players also refer to the game as Blackout or Blob, this is most likely a reference to the practice of obliterating a player’s score sheet with a black ink blob if they fail to take the exact number of tricks they predicted.
PLAYERS & HANDS
The game can be played with 3 or more players but, 4 to 6 is optimal.
Oh Hell! is played with a series of hands. The amount of cards played with in the first hand depends on the number of players:
- 3-5 Players, 10 cards each
- 6 Players, 8 cards each
- 7 Players, 7 cards each
Oh Hell
Each hand is played with one less card than the previous one until there is a one card hand. Cards are then added one at a time until the card amount of the initial hand is met. For example, in a hand of 8 cards, the series is as follows: 8 cards, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. This gives a total of 15 hands per game.
THE DEAL
To determine the initial dealer have each player draw a card from the deck, the player with the highest ranking card deals first. The deal passes clockwise.
After, the cards are shuffled, and dealt to each player one at a time until each has the appropriate amount according to the number of players. The following card is flipped face-up, the suit of that card is the trump suit for that hand. This suit will beat all others. The remaining cards are left in a stack with the trump card on top.
THE BIDDING
Bidding occurs before the tricks begin.
Each hands bidding starts with the player to the left of the dealer and moves clockwise back to the dealer, who bids last. Each player bids a number which indicates the number of tricks they predicate they will take with that hand. All players must bid, however, players may bid zero. If a player bids zero the plan to take zero tricks. Players may change their bid if the opponent to their left has not yet bid. There is a hook, the dealer is not allowed to bid the number that would cause the total amount of tricks bid to be equal to the number of total tricks available. A hand shall always be and over or under bid. The dealer can change their bid until the first card is played.
THE PLAY
The game begins with the player directly to the dealer’s left, this player leads the initial suit. This can be any suit, including the trump suit. Play passes clockwise. Each player must play a card. If they can, they must follow the suit, if they cannot, they can play any card including trump. If there is no trump card played, the highest value card of the leading suit wins the trick. The winner of a trick leads the next one. This continues until all tricks have been played, then the next hand is dealt until all hands have been dealt and all tricks won.
Oh Hell Card Game Download
KEEPING SCORE
A player or a third party is designated as scorekeeper prior to the start of the deal. If the scorekeeper is a player they have an advantage and must be monitored so that they do not error or cheat. There are several ways to score in Oh Hell!
The simplest method of scoring states that a player who wins the exact number of tricks that they bid gets a score of 10 + # of tricks bid. So if they won and bid 5, their score would total 15 for that hand. The scorer inks out unsuccessful bids and adds a ‘1’ in front of successful ones.
The most common method of scoring is that each player earns 1 point for tricks won + 10 points who win the exact number of tricks bid.
How To Play Oh Hell
VARIATIONS
- The hand sequences my end after a single card hand. With groups of 3 or 4 players, one may play with more hands- up to 17.
- Some players only play down from and up to 7 cards, regardless of the number of players.
- Trumps may be determined by a fixed paradigm. This may or may not include No Trumps.
- Hook rule is optional, the dealer may bid so each player wins.
- Dealer leads the first trick.
- Only 5 points earned for a successful zero bid.
REFERENCES:
http://www.cookhimes.us/dennis/ohrules.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh_Hell
https://www.pagat.com/exact/ohhell.html