How to play Oh Hell

Oh Hell is one of the most popular trick-taking games in the English-speaking world, known also as Up and Down the River, Blackout, Elevator and many other names. It is simple to learn: each hand you say exactly how many tricks you will take, and only an exact bid scores. The catch is in the word "exactly". A strong hand can win tricks it doesn't want, and the dealer's "hook" means the bids can never add up to the tricks available, so every hand someone is bound to miss. Reading your cards, counting what is out and steering the play onto your number make it a game of skill.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings appear. Choose a difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy), the number of players (you and two, three or four computers), the length of the game and the scoring, then press PLAY.

• The table: you sit at the bottom and the computer players sit around the table, each playing for himself. A "D" marks the dealer. Each name shows that player's total, and during play a badge shows tricks taken against the bid, such as 1/2: green when a player is exactly on the bid, red once he is over.
• The top band: the status line says whose turn it is. One chip shows the hand number and the cards each player holds; the other shows the trump suit and the sum of the bids against the cards, such as "Bids 6/5", so you can see at a glance whether the table has bid too much or too little.
• Bidding: on your turn a panel opens above your hand. Set your number with minus and plus and press BID. If you are the dealer and your number would make the bids add up to the cards, the button is crossed out and the status line tells you why.
• Playing: tap a card or drag it onto the table. Playable cards are lifted and glow; a card that isn't allowed shakes and the status line explains why.

After each hand a sheet shows every player's bid, tricks, points and total; press NEXT HAND to continue. You can drag cards within your hand to rearrange them. The menu button in the top-left corner pauses, starts a new game or turns the sound off, and the "?" opens this guide. The game is saved as you play, so you can press CONTINUE later. At the end, the results screen shows your place, everyone's total, how many of your bids you made and your statistics.

Rules

The cards. A standard 52-card deck, aces high: ace, king, queen, jack, ten and so on down to the two.

The hands. The first hand deals 10 cards to each player, the next 9, and so on down to a single card; then the hands grow again, one card at a time, back up to 10. That makes 19 hands. The shorter game goes from 7 cards down to 1 and back up to 7, 13 hands. The first dealer is chosen at random, and the deal passes to the left.

The trump. After the deal, the next card of the pack is turned face up, and its suit is trump for the hand.

Bidding. Starting from the dealer's left, each player bids once how many tricks he will take, from zero up to the number of cards in the hand. There is no passing, but zero is a bid like any other. The dealer bids last, and he may not make the bids add up to the number of tricks: this is the "hook", and it means at least one player will miss in every hand.

The play. The player on the dealer's left leads any card. You must follow the suit led if you can; if you can't, you may play any card, a trump or not. The highest trump wins the trick; with no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads the next trick.

Scoring. With the standard scoring, an exact bid scores 10 points plus the bid: a bid of zero made is worth 10, a bid of 3 made is worth 13. A missed bid scores nothing, whether you took too many tricks or too few. With the per-trick scoring, every trick you take scores 1 point, and an exact bid earns a bonus of 10.

Winning. After the last hand, the highest total wins. Players tied for the top share the win.

Strategy tips

• Aces and high trumps are tricks; most other cards are not. A king is a trick only if its ace is gone or you can lead it late; small trumps often win when the others run out of a suit.
• Zero is a real bid. With low cards and no trumps, bidding zero is often the safest 10 points in the hand, especially in the short hands near the middle of the game.
• Fewer cards, more luck. In a one-card hand your card is everything: an ace or a high trump wins, almost anything else loses. Bid accordingly.
• Watch the bid total. When the bids add up to more than the cards, tricks will be scarce and fought over; when they add up to less, somebody will be forced to take extra tricks. Plan for which kind of hand it is.
• Get rid of danger early. If you need no more tricks, throw your high cards on tricks someone else is already winning, while you still can.
• Keep a low card for later. A small card in each suit is your way to lose a trick on purpose at the end of the hand.
• The dealer's dilemma. As dealer you know everyone's bid, but one number is barred. Choose the miss that hurts least, or the bid that someone else is more likely to break.
• Count what is out. Remember which high cards have gone and which players couldn't follow suit; that tells you which of your cards will win.

Difficulty levels

The difficulty you choose sets all the computer players:

• Easy: bids by a rough count of its cards, forgets the cards of earlier tricks and often plays a careless card.
• Normal: counts its tricks carefully, remembers every card played, and plays to its bid: it wins the tricks it needs and ducks the ones it doesn't.
• Hard: before bidding, plays its hand out in many imagined deals and bids the number that scores best; before each card, plays out every choice in deals that fit what the others have shown.
• Crazy: the strongest: far more imagined deals, only deals that fit what everyone bid, and it plays to keep its rivals off their bids too.

Modes

• Players: you and three computers (the standard four-player game), two, or four. Statistics are kept for each difficulty and each number of players.
• Hands: 10 down to 1 and back to 10 (19 hands), or 7 down to 1 and back to 7 (13 hands).
• Scoring: 10 plus the bid for an exact bid, or 1 point a trick plus 10 for an exact bid.