Trick-Taking (Exact-Bid / Oh Hell family) · Britain and the United States (international)

Oh Hell

Also known as Oh Pshaw · Oh Well · Nomination Whist · Contract Whist · Blackout · Blob · Bust · Elevator · Up and Down the River · Forecast Whist · Judgement

Oh Hell, spelled more politely as Oh Pshaw and known in Britain as Nomination Whist, Contract Whist, or Blackout, is a deceptively simple trick-taking card game that has been delighting and tormenting players since it surfaced in London and New York in the 1930s. The premise sounds easy: before each round you predict exactly how many tricks you will win, then try to win precisely that many. The catch is that close is worthless. Take one trick too many or one too few and you score nothing for the whole round, no matter how well you played. What turns Oh Hell from a casual filler into a genuine test of judgement is its rhythm. The number of cards dealt shrinks every round, a new trump suit is set each hand, and the dealer is forbidden from making the bids add up neatly, so at least one player is mathematically doomed to miss on every deal. It rewards card-counting, table-reading, and ice-cold restraint over pure luck. On Love Card Games you can play Oh Hell free in your browser against smart bots or live opponents, with no download and no signup. To be upfront: we run Oh Hell on our Kachuful (Judgement) engine. Kachuful is simply the South Asian name for this exact same exact-bid game, so the bidding, the dealer's hook, the changing hand sizes, the trick play, and the hit-your-bid-or-score-zero scoring you see here are the authentic Oh Hell experience. On our tables Oh Hell is played by four players (bots fill any empty seats), with the trump suit rotating to a new suit each round.

4–4 players · free · no download · no signup

How to play Oh Hell

Join a four-player Oh Hell table on Love Card Games; smart bots instantly fill any empty seats, so you can start with no signup and no download.
Each round, note the trump suit (it rotates to a new suit every round, with one no-trump round in the cycle) and the hand size, which starts at 7 cards and shrinks by one each round down to a single card.
Going clockwise, bid the exact number of tricks you expect to win. Zero is allowed. The dealer bids last and cannot make the four bids total exactly to the number of tricks available (the hook rule), which the game enforces for you.
When play begins, the lead player plays any card. Going clockwise, you must follow the led suit if you can; otherwise play any card, including a trump.
The highest trump wins each trick, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit wins. The trick winner leads the next trick. Repeat until all cards are played.
Compare your tricks won against your bid. Score 10 plus your bid for an exact hit, or 0 for any miss, even by one trick.
Play through every round (7 cards down to 1). After the final one-card round, the highest cumulative score wins.

Oh Hell rules

Players, Deck, and Card Ranking

On Love Card Games, Oh Hell is played by four players, each for themselves with no fixed partnerships, using one standard 52-card deck with no jokers. Within each suit, cards rank in the usual order from high to low: Ace (high), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (low). One suit is named trump for each round, and any trump card beats any card of a non-trump suit. (In the wider Oh Hell tradition the game stretches to anywhere from 3 to about 10 players with smaller deals; our Kachuful/Judgement engine runs the classic four-player game, and bots fill any open seats so you can always start instantly.)

The Deal and the Shrinking Hand Size

The signature feature of Oh Hell is that the hand size changes every round. On our engine the game runs a clean descending pattern: the first round deals 7 cards to each player, and every round after that deals one card fewer, 6, then 5, 4, 3, 2, and finally a single card each in the last round. Because the hand shrinks each time, every round is a brand-new puzzle: the long 7- and 6-card hands are about controlling tricks, while the tiny one- and two-card hands come down to nerve, trump, and position. (In the broader tradition many groups deal down to one card and then climb back up, or start from a larger maximum deal; our version uses the straightforward 7-down-to-1 sequence.)

The Trump Suit Each Round

A trump suit is set for each round before bidding. On our Kachuful/Judgement engine the trump follows a fixed rotation, advancing to a new suit each round (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs, then a no-trump round, repeating), so everyone always knows the trump before they bid. This differs slightly from the most traditional Oh Hell rule, where the dealer turns up the next card from the undealt stock and its suit becomes trump for that hand. Both conventions are common in the Oh Hell family; the key point is that you always know the trump suit before you commit to your bid.

Bidding the Exact Tricks (and the Dealer's Hook)

This is the heart of the game. Going clockwise, each player announces exactly how many tricks they expect to win that round. You may bid anything from zero up to the number of cards in your hand; you cannot pass, and bidding zero is both legal and common. The dealer bids last and is bound by the famous 'hook' (also called the screw-the-dealer rule): the dealer may NOT bid a number that would make the total of all four bids equal the number of tricks available that round. Our engine enforces this automatically, nudging the dealer's bid up or down if it would balance the table. This guarantees the deal is always over-bid or under-bid, so at least one player is certain to miss. Once made, bids stand for the round.

Playing the Tricks

The lead player plays any card to start the first trick, including a trump, and play proceeds clockwise. Each player must follow the suit that was led if they hold a card of it. If you have no card of the led suit, you may play any card, including a trump or an off-suit discard. A trick is won by the highest trump played in it; if no trump was played, the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner gathers the trick and leads the next one. Play continues until every card of the round has been played, then each player compares the tricks they actually won against the number they bid.

Scoring: Hit Your Bid or Get Nothing

Our engine uses the classic all-or-nothing method that gives Oh Hell its bite. If you win exactly the number of tricks you bid, you score 10 points plus the number of tricks you bid (so a correct bid of 0 scores 10, a correct 1 scores 11, a correct 3 scores 13). Miss by even a single trick, over or under, and you score 0 for that round, no matter how close you were. Scores accumulate across all rounds. (A common softer house method awards 1 point per trick won plus a 10-point bonus only for an exact bid; our tables use the standard 10-plus-bid scoring.)

Winning the Game

Oh Hell is played over the full sequence of rounds (7 cards down to 1 on our engine). A running score tracks each player's points round by round, a tradition that gives the game one of its nicknames, Blackout, where a busted bid is blotted out. After the final one-card round is scored, the player with the greatest cumulative total is the winner. Because one perfectly judged hand or one disastrous over-bid can swing the standings, the game often stays close right up to the unpredictable low-card rounds at the end.

Strategy tips

Respect the dealer's hook. Because the four bids can never balance, every round is over- or under-bid, so someone must fail. Read the running bid total against the tricks available and decide early whether tricks are scarce or whether spare tricks are floating around for the taking.
Count your sure trumps. Since you know the trump suit before bidding, top trumps and high cards in long suits are near-guaranteed tricks; bare or low trumps are far less reliable. Bid the tricks you can genuinely control and leave the speculative ones out of your number.
Bidding zero is strong but dangerous. A successful zero scores 10 points and is achievable with all low cards and short suits, but you must duck every single trick. Watch for being forced to win late once your safe low cards are gone.
Play to your number, not to win. Once you have bid, extra tricks are poison. If you have already made your bid, actively dump high cards and avoid winning; if you are short, push hard while you still have the cards to do it.
Throw your losers early. If your plan needs you to shed certain cards to hit your bid, get rid of dangerous high cards while you can still safely under-cut, rather than being stuck winning an unwanted trick at the very end.
Mind the tiny hands. In the one-, two-, and three-card rounds prediction is mostly position and luck, and the dealer's hook can box you in. Bid conservatively, respect the trump, and accept that these hands swing the game.
Track which high cards and trumps have been played. Knowing what is already gone tells you whether your middling cards have quietly become winners, which is the difference between making and busting your bid.

Variants

Random trump (classic Oh Hell): turn up the top card of the undealt stock each round to choose trump, instead of the fixed rotation our engine uses. · Softer scoring: award 1 point per trick won plus a 10-point bonus only for an exact bid, instead of the all-or-nothing 10-plus-bid standard. · Quadratic scoring: hit your bid for 10 plus the square of the tricks bid (10, 11, 14, 19, 26...), making large successful bids far more valuable. · Penalty scoring: a successful bid scores its value while a miss deducts the difference, so over- and under-bidding actively costs you points. · Up-and-down deal pattern: count hands down to a single card and then climb back up, instead of the straight 7-down-to-1 sequence. · No-trump rounds: play the one-card round, or selected rounds, with no trump suit at all (our rotation already includes a no-trump round in the cycle). · Wider player counts: in the broader tradition the game scales from 3 up to about 10 players with smaller deals, though our tables run the four-player version.

Oh Hell — frequently asked questions

How do you play Oh Hell?

Each round, every player is dealt a hand and a trump suit is set. Going clockwise, each player bids the exact number of tricks they expect to win. You then play tricks clockwise, following the led suit when you can; the highest trump or highest led-suit card wins each trick. You score only if you win exactly your bid. On Love Card Games it is a four-player game where the hand size shrinks from 7 cards down to 1 over the course of the rounds, with the trump suit rotating each round.

What is the goal in Oh Hell?

To predict and win the EXACT number of tricks you bid each round, no more and no fewer. Hitting your bid scores 10 points plus the number of tricks bid; missing by any amount scores zero. The player with the highest cumulative score after the final round wins, so consistency across every round matters more than dominating any single hand.

How is Oh Hell scored on this site?

We use the classic method: win exactly the number of tricks you bid and you score 10 points plus your bid (a correct 0 = 10 points, a correct 2 = 12 points), and you score 0 if you are over or under by any amount. Scores add up across all rounds and the highest total wins. A common softer house variant awards 1 point per trick plus a 10-point exact bonus, but our tables use the standard 10-plus-bid scoring.

What is the dealer hook (screw-the-dealer) rule?

The dealer bids last and is forbidden from bidding a number that would make the total of all four players' bids equal the exact number of tricks available that round. This forces every round to be over-bid or under-bid, guaranteeing that at least one player cannot make their bid. Our engine enforces it automatically, nudging the dealer's bid if it would balance the table. It is the key rule that keeps Oh Hell tense.

Why is the game called Oh Hell?

The name captures the exact moment a player realizes they are about to overshoot or fall short of their bid, ruining their score. Because the dealer's hook forces every round to be over- or under-bid, that groan is guaranteed somewhere at the table each round. The name has been softened in old rule books to Oh Pshaw, and in Britain the same game is called Nomination Whist, Contract Whist, or Blackout.

Is this real Oh Hell, and what is the Kachuful engine?

Yes, this is the authentic exact-bid Oh Hell game. We run it on our Kachuful (Judgement) engine, because Kachuful is simply the South Asian name for the same game. The bidding, the dealer's hook, the changing hand sizes, the trick play, and the hit-your-bid-exactly scoring are all true to Oh Hell. The main house specifics are that it is a four-player table and the trump suit rotates each round rather than being turned up from the stock.

How many players can play Oh Hell here?

On Love Card Games, Oh Hell is a four-player game, and smart bots fill any empty seats so you can always start instantly. The broader Oh Hell tradition allows anywhere from 3 to about 10 players with adjusted hand sizes, but our Kachuful/Judgement engine runs the classic four-player version.

Can I play Oh Hell free online with bots?

Yes. On Love Card Games you can play Oh Hell free in your browser with no download and no signup. You can play solo against smart bots that bid and play to make their own contracts, or sit at a multiplayer table with friends and let bots fill any empty seats.