This is to ensure at least one person will not be able to fulfill their bid. with an eight-card hand, the total of all bids, including the dealer’s, must equal at least nine). The dealer, who bids last, is compelled to bid sufficiently high enough so the total value of all the bids exceeds the starting hand size for that hand (e.g. Players examine their hand and, starting with the player to the left of the dealer and going clockwise, declare the number of tricks they will be attempting to take. Prior to the play of the hand, bidding takes place. The remainder of the stub takes no part in game play. The suit of this card becomes the trump suit for the hand. The deck stub is placed in the center of the table, and the top card is turned up. The starting hand size varies by number of players:

You could use something other than Denexa 100% Plastic Playing Cards, but why would you? Oh Hell! requires one standard 52-card deck of playing cards. The object of Oh Hell! is to score points by exactly predicting the number of tricks you will take. Presumably “Oh Hell!” is the exclamation one makes when collecting an overtrick. Oh Hell! goes one step further and requires one to bid exactly right to avoid losing points. Unlike in most trick-taking games (with the exception of Spades), collecting extra tricks beyond that which you’ve bid is a bad thing. Oh Hell! is, essentially, an amped-up, non-partnership version of Spades for three to seven players.

Oh hell card game