Oh Hell

Oh Hell is a variant of popular trick­taking card game Spades. Oh Hell! is also known by many other names, including Oh Hell!, Elevator (l\'Ascenseur in France), Up and Down the River (in Australia and New Zealand) and 10 op en neer in the Netherlands. In Britain it is often known as Nomination Whist, a name which also sometimes refers to different games.

Other names include Bust (in Australia and New Zealand), Boerenbridge (in the Netherlands), Kachuful (in India) and German Bridge (in Hong Kong).

Players and Cards

* Oh Hell! is played by 4 players. A standard 52 card deck is used. The cards in each suit rank (from high to low) A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

Object of the Game

* The object is for each player to bid the number of tricks he thinks he can take from each hand, then to take that number of trick or more. Points are awarded only for making the bid exactly or over.

Play

* Starting player leads the first card. The suit of this card names Trick Suit. Each player must follow the Trick Suit led, if he can. If not, he should play the trump, or any suit if he has no trump.

* The player who has played the card with highest value (the trump card or the card of the suit led, if no trump was played) wins the trick. The player (winner of the trick) then leads to the next trick. Continue until all tricks have played and won.\n\n

Game Mods

* The game has one variation: SIMPLE\n

Simple Oh Hell!

* In the Simple Oh Hell!, the LAST card always acts as the trump.

* At the begining of each hand, a player bids number of tricks (1 to 10) he will try to take or 0. In Simple Oh Hell!, players can not skip bidding.

* If zero is selected, a player should not take any trick, otherwise he will lose points.

* The number of taken tricks should not be more than bid limit (bid number + 2) For example if your bid is 4, you should not take 7 tricks (just 4, 5 or 6)

* Playing higher rank card (if available) in round is mandatory for suit (spade) only.

* Leading with the trump is not allowed, until a trump was played forcibly in the current hand.

Score in Simple Oh Hell!:

If at the end of the hand the player:

* won exactly bid number of tricks he gains: bid number x 10 points

* won less than bid number of tricks he loses: bid number x 10 points

* exceeded over bid limit (bid number + 2) he loses: bid number x 10 points

* won more than a bid number of tricks he gains: (bid number x 10 points) + exceeding bid number. For example bid number = 5, taken tricks = 6, the exceeding bid number is 6 - 5 = 1, so player’s score is (5 x 10) + 1 = 51

* Finally if a bid number is equal to zero and a player didn’t win a trick, he gains 50 points.

* Taking any trick, he loses 50 points.