'Oh Hell!' is a card game played the world over. There are many different variations of the same game played all over the world.

The rules described below are the rules played at The Cartier 'Oh Hell!' Tournament held each year at the jewellers Cartier in London, England. These rules, we believe, allow for the most competitive and strategic game. Strategic because it allows for a player to choose trumps (not a random card) and competitive as the scoring allows for a far more exciting game.

The game is best played with 4 players. In the case of a 3 player game, the two's, three's, four's and the five of clubs should be removed from the deck.

1. Each game is 23 hands from 13 cards each down to 2 cards each and from 3 cards back up to 13. Players alternate as Dealer in a clockwise direction. One Player is nominated as Scorer.

2. The suits are rated Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs. Aces are the highest card and two's the lowest.

3. The person on the left of the dealer makes the first bid. The bid being the amount of tricks that the player believes he can win in the hand.

4. Bidding continues clockwise until the dealer who bids last.

5. The dealer cannot make a bid that equals the number of tricks in hard (there must be too many or too little bids when all bids are added together). For example in a hand of 6 cards Player A bids 1 trick, Player B bids 0 tricks, Player C bids 3 tricks which means Dealer cannot bid 2 and therefore can either bid 1 or less (1+0+3+1=5 bids for 6 tricks, the hand is played 1 underbid) or bids 3 or more (an overbid hand).

6. The person to bid the highest number of bids, names the trump suit which can be any of the 4 suits or 'no trumps'.

7. In the event that two or more players have equal bids, the bidder nearest to the LEFT of the dealer names the trumps (i.e. the first player to have made the highest bid).

8. Play begins with the first Player left of dealer who can lead out with any card from his hand. All suits must be followed by the same suit unless the player has a void in which case the player can throw any other suit including the trump suit.

9. If the trick is trumped the highest trump takes the trick.

10. The winner of the trick leads the next trick by playing any card from her hand. Play continues until all tricks have been played out.

SCORING:

At the end of the hand 10 points are scored for making the correct bid plus one point for each trick taken whether correct or not. For example Player A bid 1 trick and made 1 trick therefore he scores 11 points (10+1). Player B bid 0 tricks but made 1 trick therefore she scores 1 point (0+1).

The highest scoring Player at the end of the game is the winner.

The Annual Cartier 'Oh Hell!' Tournament began in 1995. The tournament formula was created by Tessa Kennedy and Tomasz Starzewski. Cartier Ltd. kindly sponsors the tournament with all money raised going to charity.

ORGANISING A TOURNAMENT

• The above games rules apply. Two decks of cards are assigned to each table. As one deck is dealt, the other is shuffled in preparation for the following hand. The person to shuffle the cards is always the player sitting opposite the dealer in that hand. Players pick a random card from the deck to select the Dealer for the first hand (highest card is first Dealer).
  
• The tournament is played with 32 people.
  
• The first round has all 32 people playing on 8 tables of 4 players each.
  
• The winner and first runner up from each table go on to play in the second round.
  
• The second round is therefore played with 16 people on 4 tables of 4 players. (First round winners and runner ups should be split up so they do not play each other again in the second round).
  
• The single winner from each table then go on to the Final Round - the final table of 4 players.
  
• The winner is the tournament champion.
  

NOTES

• It is quite possible for someone who was a first runner up from the first round to win the tournament and even beat the winner from their first round table in the finalists table.
• A losers bracket can also played with the 16 people who were knocked out of the first round with the same rules.

The are many variants on the game. Variants include starting the game with one card, playing with up to 7 players, random trumps based on the first card upturned in the leftover cards pile, and minus scoring for failed bids.

Some of the rules to these variations are also on the internet:

John Mcleod's Rules (based on the Oh Hell! Club of America rules)
Jeff Goldsmith's Culver City Style Rules
David Barker's Rules
Nicholas Cheung's Rules