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Oh Hell! - Card Game Rules
3-7 people can play. Best with 4-6.
Use a standard 52 card deck. Cards rank (low to high):
A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 J Q K
To play with Uno cards, remove wild cards. Non-number cards (like skip) are worth 0.
Sequence of Hands
The game is a series of hands. Play first with 7-10 cards per player:
- 3-5 players, 10 cards each;
- 6 players, 8 cards each;
- 7 players, 7 cards each
(because of the limit of 52 cards). Each hand is one card less, down to one card each, then one more per hand back to the starting number.
Example: With 7 players, hands are: 7 cards, then 6,5,4,3,2,1, then 2,3,4,5,6,7, for 13 hands to the game. A game should take 45 minutes.
Winning
The object is for each player to bid the number of tricks he thinks he can take from each hand, then take exactly that many; no more, no less. Points are only for making the bid exactly.
The hook is at least one player will fail each hand, because the number of tricks bid may not equal the number of tricks available.
Deal
To determine first dealer, draw cards. Player with highest card deals first. Dealer rotates clockwise each hand. Deal one card at a time, then turn a card face up. Its suit is the trump suit for the hand. Trump suit beats other suits. Put undealt cards in a stack with the face-up trump on top.
Bid
Bidding each hand begins with the player to the left of the dealer, then continues clockwise back around to the dealer, who bids last. Each bid is the number of tricks that player will try to take. You can't pass, but you can bid zero and try to take no tricks. A bid may be changed only if the player to the left hasn't bid. Remember the hook: the dealer may not bid the number that would cause the total number of tricks bid to equal the number of tricks available; a hand will always be "over-bid" or "under-bid".
Play
Play begins with the player to the dealer's left, who leads the first card. It may be any suit (including trump). Play follows clockwise. Follow the suit led if possible. If not, play any other card, including trump. The player who plays the highest trump card, or if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led, wins the trick. That player leads the next trick. Continue until all tricks are won.
Score
The scorekeeper notes each bid and resulting scores on a score sheet.
A player who wins the exact number of tricks bid scores 10 plus the tricks bid (10 points for zero tricks, 11 for 1 trick). Players who take more or fewer tricks than they bid score nothing. The scorekeeper, having written down bids, writes "1" in front of successful bids and crosses out those that fail.
Source
Modified from pagat.com