- Score sheets
- Card games
- Oh Hell!
How to score Oh Hell!
Before each hand you bid exactly how many tricks you will take. Every trick scores 1, and hitting your bid on the nose adds 10. Keep the hands on the free Oh Hell score sheet below, or let Tabletales add them up. The highest total after the last hand wins.
- 3 to 7 players
- One standard deck
- 19 hands for 3 to 5 players
- Highest total wins
Tabletales is free on iPhone and iPad.
This is the real Scorepad, live: a whole three-player game, 10 cards down to 1 and back up. Tap any hand to change it.
Oh Hell!
A trick-taking game where the hand size changes every deal and the goal is to bid exactly how many tricks you will take, no more and no fewer.
Year from BoardGameGeek.
How to play Oh Hell!, in brief
You bid how many tricks you’ll take, then try to take exactly that many, while the hand size changes every deal. Highest total wins.
- Deal and turn up trumpDeal from a 52-card deck, aces high, and turn the next card up: its suit is trump and beats the rest.
- BidFrom the dealer’s left, everyone says how many tricks they’ll take; 0 counts. The dealer bids last and can’t make the bids add up to the tricks in the hand.
- Play the tricksA trick is one card each. Follow the suit led if you can. The highest trump takes it, or the highest card of the suit led, and the winner leads next.
- Shrink, then growStart at 10 cards (8 with 6 players, 7 with 7), deal one fewer each hand down to 1, then build back up to the start.
Say how many tricks you’ll take. Then take exactly that many.
The tricks score 1 each whatever you bid. The bonus is only for getting your bid exactly right, and a bid of 0 counts too.
What a hand is worth
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| Each trick you take | 1 |
| Taking exactly what you bidBid 2, took 2: 10 + 2 is 12 | +10 |
| An exact bid of 0No tricks, but the bonus still counts | 10 |
| Missing your bidOver or under: bid 2, took 3 is just 3 | Tricks only |
- Bid, with the dealer lastEach player bids how many tricks they will take. The dealer may not bid the number that makes the bids add up to the tricks in the hand, so someone always misses. That is the hook.
- Score the tricksEveryone scores 1 point for every trick they took, made bid or not.
- Add 10 for an exact bidTook exactly what you bid? Add 10. One trick over or under and there is no bonus.
- Go down, then back upWith 3 to 5 players, deal 10 cards, then one fewer each hand down to 1, then back up to 10: 19 hands. Six players start at 8 (15 hands), seven at 7 (13 hands).
- Highest total winsAfter the last hand, the highest total wins. Pagat breaks a tie by dealing more full-size hands until someone is ahead.
Hand 4: the hook catches Jonas.
Seven cards each. Mara bids 2 and Jonas bids 3. You deal, so you bid last, and 2 is off limits because it would make the bids add up to 7. You bid 1. Mara makes her 2, you make your 1, and Jonas takes one trick too many. This is hand 4 on the Scorepad above.
| Player | Bid, then tricks taken | Hand |
|---|---|---|
| You | Dealer. Bid 1, took 1Exact, so 10 + 1 | 11 |
| Mara | Bid 2, took 2Exact, so 10 + 2 | 12 |
| Jonas | Bid 3, took 4One over: no bonus, just the 4 tricks | 4 |
Nineteen hands, added as you go.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. In Oh Hell, type each player’s points after every hand: Tabletales keeps the running totals, marks the winner and saves the game with the night.
- A row for every handLeave the game on Highest wins and switch to By hand. Each deal gets its own numbered row, and the TOTAL line shows the running score.
- Type a hand your wayType each hand’s points, or type them the way you count them: an exact bid of 2 is 10 + 2, and Tabletales adds it up. A miss is just the tricks.
- The bids stay at the tableTabletales keeps scores, not bids, and it won’t enforce the hook. Say the bids out loud or write them on the sheet below.
- And the night is keptSave it with who played and a photo from the table. Each game gets a history: how often you play it, who with, and who holds the high score.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- Oh Hell!, with its scores
Common Oh Hell! scoring mistakes
- Letting the dealer make it fitThe dealer’s bid may not make the bids add up to the tricks in the hand. Pick any other number.
- Paying the bonus for a near missThe 10 is only for taking exactly what you bid. One trick off, either way, and it is gone.
- Scoring a miss as 0In the usual scoring a missed bid still keeps 1 point per trick. Only the Blackout style scores a miss as 0.
- Scoring a made 0 bid as nothingBid 0 and take no tricks, and you score the 10 bonus.
Oh Hell! scoring, answered
- How do you score Oh Hell?
- Each trick you take is 1 point, and taking exactly the number you bid adds 10. Bid 2 and take 2 for 12; bid 2 and take 3 for 3.
- Why can’t the dealer bid any number in Oh Hell?
- The dealer bids last and may not make the bids add up to the number of cards in each hand. That rule, the hook, means at least one player misses every hand.
- How many hands are in a game of Oh Hell?
- In Pagat’s rules, 19 for 3 to 5 players (10 cards down to 1 and back up), 15 for 6 players and 13 for 7. Many tables pick their own run of hands.
Oh Hell! score sheet
Print one for the table: five players and 19 hands, with room for each bid, the hand’s score and a running total, and the scoring at the bottom.
Score another game
Scoring varies from table to table: Blackout (and Bicycle’s Oh Pshaw) scores only an exact bid, at 10 plus the bid, some tables drop the hook, and the run of hands differs (Up and Down the River often goes 10 to 1 and back, Contract Whist 7 to 1 and back). Rules checked on 19 October 2026 against Pagat, Bicycle Cards and Wikipedia.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
