Oh Hell
| Origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Alternative names | See Names section |
| Type | Trick-taking |
| Players | 3-7 |
| Skills required | some |
| Cards | 52 cards |
| Deck | French |
| Playing time | 25-50 minutes |
| Random chance | Easy |
| Related games | |
| Bid whist | |
Oh Hell is a trick-taking card game in which the object is to take exactly the number of tricks bid, unlike contract bridge and spades: taking more tricks than bid is a loss. Its first appearance dates to the early 1930s and it is sometimes credited to the McCandless family.
The game of Oh Hell explores the idea of taking an exact number of tricks specified by a bid before the hand. It differs from other trick-taking games in that players play a fixed number of hands. The game uses trumps, often decided by a cut of the deck after the hand's cards have been distributed.
Like many popular social card games, Oh Hell has many local variants, in both rules and names.
President Bill Clinton and Steven Spielberg are high-profile Oh Hell players.
There are many variations to this game; a common set of regulations is given here.
Oh Hell can be played with almost any number of players (3+) although 4-7 is considered optimal. The game is played using a standard 52-card deck, with ace (A) being the highest rank, two (2) the lowest. With six or more players, the game can be played with two decks combined or with a 63-card deck from six-player 500.
A game consists of a fixed number of hands, and each hand consists of dealing a certain number of cards to each player, depending on the variation and the number of players. During a hand, each player bids for a number of tricks, then attempts to take exactly that many tricks during the hand.
The dealer (initially determined by cutting cards) deals out the cards one by one, starting with the player to his left, in a clockwise direction, until the required number of cards has been dealt. After the dealing is complete, the next card is turned face up, and the suit of this card determines the trump suit for the deal, which is why only up to 12 cards are dealt in a four-player match. (If there are no unused cards, the largest hand is played without a trump suit. Alternatively, the maximal round trump suit can be determined in a variety of ways: for instance, by revealing the dealer's last card as in whist, by cutting the pack before dealing or the dealer can decide the trump before seeing his own cards.)
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Wikipedia