Topics: Trick Capturing : Oh Hell

Oh Hell! is also known by many other names, including Blackout, Elevator (l'Ascenseur in France), Oh Shit!, Bust and Up and Down the River (in Australia and New Zealand), Boerenbridge or 10 op en neer in the Netherlands. From 3 to 7 people can play. The game is best when played with 4 to 6. A game of Oh Hell consists of a series of hands, played with a standard 52 card deck. In each hand players bid how many tricks they are going to take and get points at the end of the hand if they took exactly what they bid. Unlike other trick taking games, a player does not score if he takes more than what was bid. The first round, players each start with one card. The next round each player is dealt two cards, and each successive hand size is increased by one, up to the maximum hand size. The maximum hand size is whatever can be dealt out evenly to all the players. Extra cards are set aside after each player has received the appropriate number of cards, and the top one is turned over to define the trump suit. Variants include starting with the maximum hand size and going down to one, starting with one, going up to the maximum, and then back down to one, and starting with the maximum, going down to one, and then back to the maximum. Key characteristics: trick taking, exact bidding, variable hand size