Oh Hell Strategy — Bid Like a Pro

Bidding is everything

In Oh Hell, you never score much by playing well. You score by bidding accurately. The rule that forces the total of the bids to differ from the number of tricks makes sure that at least one player misses in every deal: the strategy is not to be that player.

The scale says so. A bid made scores 5 points, plus 5 per trick bid; each trick over or under costs 5. Bid 2 and make it: +15. Bid 3 and take only 2: −5. Between the two, 20 points for a single trick bid too many.

Everything else — the order of your cards, whether to trump or to discard — follows from the bid you made and the work needed to keep it.

Counting your tricks

Before bidding, count what you hold, suit by suit. Three questions per suit:

1. Is it the trump suit? A trump is the safest card you hold.
2. How many high cards (Ace, King) in the other suits? They rarely win against a trump.
3. How many short suits (one or two cards)? A short suit runs out quickly: you can then trump or discard, which helps as much to take a trick as to avoid one.

Trump card value

A trump is the safest card in your hand, but its value depends on the higher trumps the others may hold. A rough scale:

Add up your estimates, then bid the rounded total. In the small deals most of the deck is set aside: a King or a Queen of trump is worth more there, since the Ace is often not in play.

Outside trump: be careful

A card of another suit, even an Ace, has no guarantee. Led early, it often wins. Later, an opponent who has run out of the suit will trump it. Again, rough values:

• Ace, outside trump: about 0.7 trick. Lead it early if you are counting on it.
• King, outside trump: about 0.3 trick. Do not build a big bid on it.
• Everything else: 0. Filler.

Seat position

The eldest, first to bid, knows nothing of the other bids. Their line:

• Count strictly.
• Bid with caution: round down.
• With a weak hand, bid 0.

The dealer, last to bid, has all the information. Their line:

• Add up the bids made so far.
• Compare with the number of tricks in the deal.
• Bid the value that prevents equality, as close to your estimate as you can.

An example: a deal of 4 cards, and the others have bid 3 tricks in all. The bid you cannot make is 1. If you valued your hand at 1 trick, you must choose between 0 and 2: bidding 0 and taking a trick costs 5 points, bidding 2 and taking only one costs 5 points too. Choose the side your hand will follow more often.

The extreme deals

The one-card deal

Mostly luck. With one card, you win the trick if:

• you hold a trump, and nobody holds a higher one;
• or nobody plays a trump, and you hold the highest card of the suit led.

With any one card, you take the trick about one time in N, N being the number of players. Bid 0 by default, 1 if you hold a trump. A 0 made scores 5 points, a 1 made 10.

The deals without trump

In the deals of 7 cards there is no trump: only the suit led can win the trick, and a card of another suit is worth nothing. There are as many of these deals as there are players.

• An Ace wins any trick in which its suit is led. Its suit still has to be led.
• A long suit, four cards or more out of 7, pays only if you hold the lead: whoever leads chooses the suit.
• Do not bid too high: with no trump to take the lead back, a fine suit may never be played.

Reading opponents’ bids

When the eldest bids 4 in a 5-card deal, they are telling you they probably hold the Ace of trump and several high trumps. You now know that:

• your small trumps are worth less: they hold higher ones;
• a King of trump you counted as a trick will probably not make it: the Ace is most likely with them;
• your high cards in the other suits gain in value: they will have to follow suit like everyone else.

When to bid zero

A zero made scores 5 points: the smallest winning bid, half of a 1 made (10 points). You bid it when the hand cannot take a trick, not in order to score. It is the right bid when:

• you have no trump, or a single small one;
• your high cards come with low ones in the same suit, so that you can play under;
• your hand is mostly low cards, which you can play under the others’.

Avoid zero with a high card alone in its suit: if that suit is led, you will have to play it. Each trick taken in spite of yourself costs 5 points.

Common mistakes

1. Bidding too high without trump. A high card is worth nothing if its suit is never led.
2. Counting Jacks and 10s as tricks. Outside trump, they almost never win.
3. Forgetting your seat. As dealer, you must fit your bid to the total already on the table.
4. Trumping too early. Your last trump, spent on a small trick, will not be there for the next ones.

In summary

• Count your trumps first, the rest second.
• Bid with caution as eldest; as dealer, fit your bid to the total already made.
• Zero is a bid like any other, not an admission of weakness.
• Without trump, count your lengths as much as your high cards.
• Read the other bids: each one says something about a hand.

A 3 made scores 20 points; a single trick over or under costs 5. A modest bid made is worth more than a big one missed.