Oh Hell

In card games, Oh Hell, also known as Perpetual Aggravation, Oh Jerusalem, Oh Pshaw, Blackout, Screw Your Neighbor, Nomination Whist, or Animal, is a trick-taking game. In Dutch, this game is called boerenbridge, which, when translated literally, means farmer's bridge. It is played by three or more players with a conventional 52-card deck, though with more than six or seven players, a 73-card deck of the type used for 500 or more than one 52-card deck should be used.

The general rule of Oh Hell is that players bid on how many tricks they will take. The goal is to make your bid exactly. Going too high or too low is bad. Aside from that rule, there are a multitude of variations.

Contents

1 Specific "Base" Rules 2 Scoring 3 Variations 3.1 Order of Hands 3.2 Making bids 3.3 Trump suit 3.4 Double deck 3.5 Miscellaneous

Specific "Base" Rules

Here is a specific four-player version; variations are listed below. There are 52 cards in the deck. On the first hand, one card is dealt to each player. This increases by one per hand, until the 13th hand, in which everybody gets 13 cards. Then for the 14th through 25th hand, the number of cards dealt goes down from 12 to one. After each player has his hand, one undealt card is turned up to determine the trump suit. On the 13th hand, there are several ways of determining the trump (see below).

The player to the left of the dealer bids first. Each player gets exactly one bid. The dealer bids last, and cannot bid so that the sum of everyone's bids equals the number of tricks. For example, if five cards are dealt, and the first three bids are two, one, and zero, then the dealer may not bid two. However, if five cards are dealt, and the first three bids are three, one, and two, then the dealer may bid whatever he wants. The play proceeds as in an ordinary trick-taking game.

Scoring

1. Basic scoring: Each player who makes his bid scores 10+bid. Players who fail to make their bid score 1 point per trick taken. The drawback of this method is that it is sometimes too easy to make a zero bid when few cards are dealt. There is only a small reward for making bigger, riskier, bids.
2. Progressive scoring: Each player who fails to make his bid scores 1 point per trick taken. A successful bid of zero is worth 3 times the total number of tricks for that hand. (So, zero bids are rewarded more when more cards are dealt.) (For numbers of players other than 4, the multiplier of 3 should be adjusted.) A successful bid greater than zero is worth 10 + bid*bid points. So, a bid of 1 is worth 11, a bid of 2 is worth 14, a bid of 3 is worth 19, a bid of 4 is worth 26, and so on. This has the advantage of rewarding riskier bids, and making it possible for someone to catch up from behind.
3. Negative scoring: Each player making his bid scores zero points. Getting one trick more or less than the amount bid scores 1 point. Getting two tricks more or less than the amount bid scores 3 (1 + 2) points. Getting three tricks more or less than the amount bid scores 6 (1 + 2 + 3) points, etc. The player with the least points at the end of the game wins. This rewards sacrifices, as it's often beneficial to take an extra trick (pushing you over the limit), so someone else even gets further away from their goal.
4. Adjusted basic scoring: Similar to basic scoring, with the change that a zero bid is worth five plus the number of tricks. Thus in the round of 1, a successful zero bid is worth 6 points, while a successful one bid is worth 11 points.
5. Spades double: In variations where the trump card is chosen randomly, some play that if a spade is turned up, the points for that round double.
6. Adjusted basic scoring II: Also similar to basic scoring, but bidding zero is worth 5 points, and failing to make a bid is 0 points.

Variations

There are literally dozens of ways to play Oh Hell, mixing and matching various rule changes. Here is a sample:

Order of Hands

1. The stated order: 1, 2, 3... maximum-1, maximum, maximum-1... 3, 2, 1. The maximum is the highest number of cards each person can receive from the total cards. For a 6-player one-deck game, 8. For a 7-player, two-deck game, 14.
2. For a shorter game: 1, 2, 3... maximum-1, maximum.
3. Alternatively: Maximum, maximum-1... 3, 2, 1. This may have the result of the winner being determined with one or two hands to spare. Alternatively, if it isn't, the game may come down to complete luck.
4. When playing with progressive scoring: 1, 2, 3... maximum-1, maximum, 1, 2, 3... maximum-1, maximum. Since progressive scoring has the goal of facilitating comebacks made with large bids, it is necessary to have many cards in the final hands.
5. The inverse of the stated order: maximum, maximum-1... 3, 2, 1, 2, 3... maximum-1, maximum.

Making bids

1. The stated version, also called "Screw the dealer": Each person bids in order, and the dealer cannot make it "work". Frequently in the round of 1, this results in the dealer not having any choice in his bid.
2. Public bidding, no restrictions: Each person bids out loud in order, with no restriction on the dealer's bid.
3. Private bidding: The scorekeeper writes his bid on the scoresheet, and then each other person privately passes his bid to the scorekeeper for marking (such as holding fingers under the table). Once everyone has bid, the scorekeeper reads off everyone's bids.
4. Knocking: After each player has chosen his bid he places his fist on the table. When everyone has chosen they knock on the table together three times, and on the fourth they show their bid by the number of fingers. If the total number of bids "work" then everyone bids again. After three bids, everyone has to change their bid.

Trump suit

1. Stated option: After the deal is complete, the dealer flips the next card over; this suit is trump. One drawback is that when all the cards are dealt out (such as the round of 13 in a 4-player game), there is no "next card" to turn up. There are several ways of determining the trump for this hand:
   • The dealer's last card is turned face up to determine trump, the enters his hand, as in Whist.
   • A card is randomly flipped up to determine trump, then the deck is shuffled and dealt.
   • The round is played no-trump.
2. Spades are always trump.
3. The player with the highest bid in the regular bid auction chooses trump after everybody else has bid. If two players bid the same number, the player who bid first picks trump.

Double deck

With more than 6 or 7 players, the game becomes fairly short, so a double deck may be used. This introduces ambiguities as to what happens if both Aces of trump are played on the same trick. If two (or more) of the same card are played on a trick...

1. Pinochle rule: The first one has precedence.
2. Cancellation rule: None of them can win the trick. If this eliminates all potential winners (i.e. all cards in trump and the led suit are matched)...
   • Up the ante: The same player leads again, and this trick counts double.
   • Exception: The first copy of the highest eligible card wins. For example, in a 7-player game, if hearts is trump, and the cards are in order, 3s, Qh, 7h, Qh, 8d, 7h, 3s, all trumps have been cancelled, and all spades have been cancelled. The diamond is ineligible to win the trick, so player 2, the first Qh, wins the trick.

Miscellaneous

In some variants, in rounds where each players has only one card, the players don't look at their cards when bidding, instead, they place their card face up on their foreheads as in Blind Man's Bluff (poker), so they all see the cards of the other players.de:Ficken (Kartenspiel)