How to play Oh Hell

Oh Hell — also called Oh Pshaw, Blackout or Nomination Whist — is the trick-taking game that punishes greed and rewards a cool head. The twist is in the bidding: you don't try to win as many tricks as possible, you try to win exactly the number you promised. One too many or one too few and you score nothing. Here you play against three bots.

Goal

Have the highest score after the final round. The number of cards dealt changes every round — it climbs from 1 up to 7, then falls back to 1 — so each hand is a fresh, fast puzzle.

Bidding

• Each round a card is turned up to set the trump suit.
• In turn, every player bids how many tricks they expect to take, from zero up to the hand size.
• The dealer bids last and is "hooked": their bid may not make the table's bids add up to the number of tricks available — so the hand can never come out perfectly for everyone.

Playing & scoring

Play follows ordinary trick-taking rules: follow the led suit if you can; if you can't, play anything, and the highest trump (or the highest card of the led suit) wins. Take exactly your bid and you score 10 plus your bid; take any other number and you score zero. So bidding well is everything — count your sure winners, remember that a low bid is easy to make but worth little, and watch for chances to "dump" a trick you don't want onto an opponent. Bidding zero and dodging every trick can be as satisfying as sweeping the board. N starts a new game.