Oh Hell - Card Games That Don't Suck

[@undersci]

A key rule missed by Quinn is that each player must be referred to by a highly insulting nickname throughout the game.

[@Toasty_93]

This is my family's go-to card game. Every time someone comes to visit, this game gets played. Every time someone new is added to the family, this game is taught. I'm very fond of it.

[@Juz_P]

Wonderful choice! "Oh Hell" (Oh Sh#t when we got older) was one of my favorite family card games growing up, and one of the first where us as young teens were allowed to play with a table full of adults. And swear. We would go 1-7, and then play 7-card special/fun hands of (if I can remember) »» No Trumps // Misère (take no tricks, and lose points for each trick you take) // Misère No Trumps // Bid Before Trumps Revealed // Bid Blind (choose # tricks before you look at your cards) // Pass 3 left (after you bid tricks) // Choose 2 at random from right (after) and then back down again to 1. So many fun memories! Thanks guys!

[@AshLeonardJ]

I’m here in 2024 because of Only Murders in the Building S4E2

[@kathleenfitzgerald1604]

ME TOO. I used to play it but forgot how. LOL

[@1979coma]

Same here

[@rosscoulbeck682]

Yep, saw it and I was like....I know that game! Our family plays a version called "Sweaty Betty" (no idea why). Essentially the same except it uses that variation at the end where you all reveal your bets at once, and we go down from 10 to 1 then stop (generally because we play it with a lot of people and otherwise it might take forever)

[@Acevenuis]

We've always played from 1 to 10. It makes the entire game more exciting and keeps all the players engaged from beginning to end. While starting at 10 and going to one makes the last few hands much less fun typically as some people are clearly knocked out.

[@Iertak]

We’ve played this game extremely often as we grew up (still do, especially my parents). Great to see it shown here! With all the versions being posted, here is ours: Play - Start at one card, go up to max, then start at max and go back down to one. - No trumps. - Hidden bids, everyone reveals simultaneously. It might fit, it may be completely off. Scoring - If you made your exact bid, you get 5 points +1 for each trick. - If you did not make your exact bid, you lose cumulative points for each trick you are removed from your bid (1 over/under =-1, 2 over/under =-3, 3 over/under = -6, and so on). Great series, keep up the good work!

[@kalmanperenyi6696]

In Hungary we call this game Rikiki, I have no idea why :D Also played in a lot of different ways. My favourite version (the way I was taught as a kid) is we start with 1 card (on your forehead as you mentioned), and go up to 17 (with 3 players, 13 with 4 players). That means, in the last turn only 1 card left (or 0 with 4 players), so you can actually to keep track of the cards still in play. But then we stop, do not go back to 1. So we start with a pretty luck based game, but in the end it gets viciously tactic and skillful :) Also about scoring: winning hand scores 10 + 2 times the tricks taken, while losing hand scores -2 times the difference between what you promised you'll take and the actual tricks you took. (Negative scores can happen in the beginning because of this.) Ah and one more thing, instead of flipping a card to determine the trump, we randomly decide the first trump, and then starting from that we loop the trumps through the game: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, sans - meaning "without trump", so 1 in every 5 games there isn't any trump actually. It also spices things up a bit.

[@richie7823]

I've been waiting for this game to appear on this series. I love this game and it was my personal gateway into the hobby - we call it Nomination Whist where I'm from, just to add to the already long list of names... But it's absolutely fantastic, and it's great to see it getting some "formal" recognition in the hobby. Thanks again for starting this series - it's been superb so far! Edit: We always stop Nomination Whist when you get to the single-card round but because variants have been mentioned, we also play a variant that I think my buddy's Grandad created called Pentiguess (I think). The rules are exactly the same as the game explained in the video (stopping at the single-card round), but every single round you pass one card around the table after nominating the number of tricks you'll win. In earlier rounds you can screw other players over by giving them a high trump after they nominate zero, for example, but in later rounds it creates complete chaos that's often pretty hilarious - worth a shot if you've already played and enjoyed this game!

[@algytaylor9061]

I know it as nomination whist as well, and only played it 10-1, not back up again. But yeah, amazingly fun game

[@MsSagittariusA]

I had always heard that Wizard was based on this, but I see now they are SUPER similair

[@TheBioRules]

I was going to say, this is just Wizard without the special deck.

[@HellTanner121]

I didn´t know that, but my boardgame group has been hooked on Wizard for countless years. Just can´t quit it. So at least we seem to have a new variation for it now °_°

[@Jugggiler]

Immediately made me think of Wizard too

[@andreasmalits395]

Yeah very similiar... but with Standard Cards ... aaand different scoring...pretty different scoring. I'll try it out soon

[@greensleevez]

Wizard is a bit more fine-tuned rules-wise, with additional cards to introduce a sixth player and to add more strategy.

[@matthewcrawford4216]

Oh yeah this is a great game. Used to play this as a kid with family gatherings. It is a lot of fun. I love this new segment of the channel! Definitely introducing this to my kids.

[@nialls1048]

Contract Whist has always been my favourite card game, been playing it for years with family and then played it in Sixth Form free periods. Now play it with my Uni friends too, great video as always!

[@ceceliaclaire1439]

In my family we score it a bit differently, for each trick a player wins, they get 10 points, for each trick a player loses, they lose 5 points, & if a player bids 0 tricks & gets 0 tricks, they get 5 points. other than that (and the fact that we start at 7 instead of 10), it’s exactly how we play it at home. You make enemies very easily.

[@adgh18]

Easily my favourite card game. Played a variant of this where the highest trick caller decides the trick suit for that round, but think I will have to try this version

[@BlindManBert]

A variation of “Oh Hell!” that I really enjoy is to only deal out a single card for the hand in each round, then two cards, three, four, five, six, and so on up to some limit (say ten cards). Hitting your bid exactly with ten cards is quite hard, though much easier with just a few cards. And then in each round, with the growing number of cards in the hand, it gets successfully harder and harder. A mess of fun. If you hit, you get ten points plus your bid added to your score. If you miss, then you get your bid subtracted from your score. That’s the way I’ve learned to play it and may be an obscure variation.

[@BlindManBert]

Another minor point is that it’s better for the dealer to place the deck and revealed trump card in front of them and not in the middle. Players should play into the middle of the table, stacking the cards and making it easier for the winner to grab the stack when they win the trick. Just a procedural issue. When I play I also have a marker object or chip to indicate the dealer position, which rotates.

[@cahalanemacguinness1092]

We’ve played and enjoyed this game for years. The variant we play has a great mid game twist. We start the game with 1 card and increase each round up to 6. In the middle of the game are two hands each of 7 cards - the first is Misère where you must lose each trick and score -2 for each trick you take. The second 7 card hand is called Nomination where you declare how many tricks you will win and THEN. reveal the trump card. You score the usual way for each trick you take. Regular play then continues, decreasing back to 1 card.

[@BrunsterCoelho]

Cool alternative, will try it out!

[@OiDivision]

My friends and I go away camping each July and take a myriad of small box/card games to play over the course of the weekend. Last year we pretty much exclusively played Oh Hell. It really is that addictive!

[@aendien7527]

When I was a kid, this was THE game that the whole family would play till late at night on holidays. We had a super weird German name for it, and no one knew where the game originated from. Over the years, I kept on teaching it to friends; none of them had heard of it before. I liked it so much that I even developed a mobile app for it. And only after I had released the app on Google Play, I found out that the game is called Oh Hell, and 'my' game, which I named 'Trick Call', is just a variant of it. ^^

[@emberchord]

Well? How was it called? :D

[@slankk]

@@emberchord Very likely @aendien7527 is referring to Doppelkopf

[@ElinneaG]

We always called this game Bid in my family, and everyone was required to thump their fist on the table three times before we all showed our bids simultaneously. It was a favorite for many gatherings. One year we played it while counting down to New Year’s and it was very thematic. :D

[@InuShiek]

I've been playing Oh Hell (my grandfather refused to say "the H word" so he called it "Fingers" instead because we used fingers to bid 🤣) for over 20 years and I've never gotten tired of it. Such a fun game lol

[@mrequi1]

Funny, how nostalgic. My grandfather wouldn't say the 'H' word either. So he always called it "That F**ing, Co*k Su*king, Fa**ot as*ed, Je*ish, Da*o, Wh*p, Sp*c game" Or something like that (Granpa did have a few anger issues and drank a lot, so we never could be quite sure of what said after abt 10AM)😊🙄✌️🤡 {He DID use his fingers during the game. But usually only one on each hand. 🤣🤡

[@definitelynotcarrie]

I have this book of card games from when I was a kid, I want to say it was published by Klutz. It has this game in it and I always giggled as a kid because of the name. It's where I learned one of my favorites, Egyptian War (or also known as Egyptian Rat Screw). Wanted to add that I want to try this one because I love Spades (trick taking as well, but with partners which is interesting in itself because all of your conversation is heard by everyone) but you can't play Spades with 3, so I want to give this one a go. Thanks again for this series, I've been enjoying it!

[@christhornton92]

This game is nostalgic to me. My grandma and grandpa would play that with my family every time they came to visit.

[@RobertKonigsberg]

Oh Hell was the game we played in college when we had too many people for Spades. We always played with 5 and 6, and it was **always** a wild hoot. Thanks for the reminder, I would love to play this again.

[@TheAerilon]

You can find a score keeper for Oh Hell on you mobile phone, very handy!

[@Cook66]

In Norway we play a variant of this called melding (bidding), but it has a few different rules. It is usually played with 5-7 people, as if you're fewer than that there are plenty of better games to play. I don't particularly like this game, but my family plays it a lot when we are more than 5 people. * You start by dealing 1 card, up to the maximum of possible cards depending on how many people play (5 people would be 10 cards), then back down to 1. * There is no trump * You bid using the hand method shown at the end of the video * If you bid 0 and get 0 tricks you get 5 points * If you bid more than 0 and get exactly your bid you get 10 points + your bid amount. * If you get anything other than your bid you get 0 points. * Since the people who get the first and last round have an advantage we draw cards to see who starts dealing. This creates a situation where people try to avoid getting tricks on good cards because they are trying to play safe. If you can't get out of a suit you often end up with too many tricks. It is a deceptively complicated game since the amount of cards not in play and the amount of trick vary. I have no idea how it would play with trump and I bet there is no way I'll be able to convince my family who has been playing this for half a century to try doing something different.

[@tallkyle831]

"I play this game but with different rules and I don't like it very much" is the board game version of "I made this recipe but substituted tinned meat for the steak and oregano for the salt and it was disgusting."

[@Cook66]

@@tallkyle831 Well, I didn't invent this game, like I said my family has been playing it for over 50 years. Playing card games is not like cooking, it requires other people to participate and I'm a single person participating in a group activity that has agreed upon rules which have been the same for longer than I've been alive. I haven't changed anything at all, I just shared the version we play here. I don't like the game as much as other games, but I like card games a lot more than sitting alone not participating in the activity the rest of my family is engaged with. If it was just up to me we would be playing a different game or the Oh Hell version of it, but it is not just up to me. I'll float the idea the next time we play, but these versions of it isn't fundamentally different and still feature the same thing I don't like about the game, which is how it changes so much depending on how many tricks are used and how you have imperfect information due to much of the deck not being dealt. To use your cooking analogy: You can spice up a steak however you want, but and the end of the day, its still a stake. A stake can only be as good as a stake can be without fundamentally altering the dish. It's the same way with this card game, I like stake, I just prefer pizza.

It's great. We call it Plump here in Sweden. Plump referring to the theoretical lump of ink you put on top of any failed guess to mark what a loser they were :p

[@Blogofoa]

Thanks for this video! This was a game my family played when I was young and was a mainstay in our household. We had a version with with cards for bidding your tricks, which was done in secret and revealed all at once.

[@JimmyDeemo]

I'm so glad you guys covered this game. It's been the go to card game in our family for tens of years. It's just always what we end up playing. Give it a try folks.

[@chrishillery]

This is pretty close to how we played it (I believe we went from 1 up to 10 and then back down), but the scoring is radically different. In our games, if you made your bid, you would score your bid squared. This incentivized bidding high. But, if you miss your bid, you lose points equal to how much you missed by *cubed*. So if I bid 4 and won 1, I'd lose 27 points. Same if I bid 1 and won 4.

[@TheSchnitzelable]

We call it Riki-tiki or Rikiki. We play a different version. You start with one card each 1st is a blind game and from second round you raise the number of cards till there is no left and then you go down with cards every round till one card.

[@TheSchnitzelable]

We also guess the number of tricks by having our hands together in the middle of the table and we show the number after knocking on the table 3 times so no one have time to speculate by knowing what the other is guessing

[@CaptainHoers]

The part where the cards dealt go from 10 down to 1 and back up to 10 is how my family played Switch (nothing to do with Nintendo, more of an ancestor of Uno) on holiday for yeeears. Can confirm it makes a three act structure out of playing the same game for 19 rounds.

[@rmsgrey]

My family's variant differs in a few ways: 1) We start with as close to a full deck as possible (17 cards each for 3-player; 13 for 4; 10 for 5), go down to 1 card each, and stop there. 2) Rather than drawing a card to determine trumps, we use a preset sequence, including no trumps, arranged so that the 1 card hand has a trump suit (with no trumps, if you're not on lead, you should bid 0 even with an ace) 3) We allow the total bid to match the available tricks - it introduces a tactical element of trying to throw off the number of tricks someone else wins without throwing off your own count - for example: if someone leads a king when you hold the ace, you could play nice and let the king win, knowing your ace will probably win later, but if you win that trick with your ace, that means they miss out on a trick they were counting on, and need to try to win something else later. Also, it just doesn't feel good to be the dealer, sat there with two aces and four twos and be told you can't bid 2 that round...

[@dammitrevenge]

We call it "Nobse" in our group and it's quite alike. But we start with 1 card and go up and there basically is no trump card, which still works good. To get a trick, you have to play the highest card. It gets really nasty when someone comes out with an 8 and everyone else starts to smirk and slips out a lower card, usually breaking the game for the first player. But you can also try to bait with low numbers and try to get your count of tricks. I really like it, though it takes longer than most other card games we play in the pub. Also we have this special rule that when you announce 0 tricks on your turn and manage to not get any tricks, you write down a strike (or something as a reminder) and once you get three of them in a row, you get a bonus. And I think the bonus ramps up with every three strikes, but it's rare enough that someone gets three in a row at all.

[@Pumbz]

In Denmark this is called "Tips" or "Agurk" (cucumber) and you make hidden bets with whatever small object you have nearby, preferably matches. Plus if you bet wrong you get minus 10 points plus the amount you bet wrong. Been playing this game all my life. Super simple and elegant game with a lot of comeback potential. Its good clean fun !

[@orlandonerz2999]

Love this Segment! I would love it though, if you would give a shout out to the ready-to-play versions because while some people may love the low costs of playing with regular decks,, others might be happier with special cards and a rulebook. In this case: WIZARD, last segment TICHU and so on.

[@Thelocalpsychopath]

We always play that the person that bets the highest gets to start, to encourage higher bets (closest clockwise to the dealer breaks ties). Also we do the "successful 0 trick bet = 5 points" thing that someone else mentioned to also encourage people to actually bet. Oh, and we do as many #1 rounds as there are players since going first is such a huge advantage and going last sucks (since you probably have to bet 1 and lose). Really fun game!

[@ecyor0]

A slight variation on the trick bidding part I quite like - instead of going round and bidding in sequence, everyone puts fingers into the middle of the table simultaneously to declare their bid. This can lead to hands where everyone can potentially win, but more often than not leads to cries of dismay as you confidently put 1 finger out only to see everyone else has put zero and leaving you rethink your life choices.

[@LGRuggeri]

Our scoring is way harsher actually. When you miss your bid (called number of tricks), you LOSE points equal to 10+your bid instead of just gaining fewer points. Really puts the focus on accurately predicting how make tricks you'll take, and adapting when things go horribly wrong.

[@ramamlyhandsomy]

There's card game called durak ( fool in Russian ) definitely worth looking into.

[@hanzdarm7849]

Absolutely! We played it till the next morning. Something no other card game manged.

[@darkwood_8224]

I tried playing that game with my very Russian family and I’m just too stupid and not Russian enough to do it

[@puksindheep7561]

We play this game in family (5 people) and we play starting at one card up to 7 then down to one and it’s great! lots of room for trash talk and trying to get in people’s head.

[@kwinvdv]

One additional rule I often play with is that the 2's switch the trump suit for that trick to the suit of the played 2. Any additional 2 would change the trump suit again, unless the 2 is played with the suit of the normal trump in which case the normal trump suit is fixed. This makes games a little more unpredictable.

[@ianbirchfield5124]

i remember playing this once at a friends house before we lost contact. i couldn't remember what it was called. when he said the name (whist) i thought he said it was called "'k wist 't" which is dutch for "i knew it" which considering the gameplay makes perfect sense as a name, but because i misheard it, it took me ages to find this game again. thank god i did. we played the game from 1-10-1 and did the devil's bridge thing only with ,the first and last trick when we had 1 card left.

[@taylorleyhew9093]

I've always enjoyed Hearts. You need exactly 4 people, and it usually takes 5 or 6 tricks before people start to get it, but then they start playing for blood and it descends into an incredible multilayered bluffing game.

[@shello912]

Very similiar to "Differenzler", a variation of "Jass", which is basically THE Swiss national card game. There's even a weekly TV show during summer that tours through different cities to determine the ultimate Jass city live on national TV.

[@crucius]

I love Skull King, which is a really great, fun, trick-taking game.

[@rebeccahh5487]

I learned Oh Hell in Canada with my dad's family and oh hell it was so much fun. I'm so happy that you made this refresher video for me to brush up and teach my American friends. Would you like to cover a dice game called 10,000? It's another equally "this shouldn't work but it's so fun" It involves 5, 6-sided dice. Single 5 die are 50 points, 1 die are 100 points, Three of a kind is 100x the face value Triple 2 = 200 Triple 3 =300 triple 5 = 500 Triple 4 = 400 Triple 6 = 600 Triple 1 = 1,000 points 4 of a kind is 200x 5 of a kind is 500x the face value Rolling 1,2,3,4,5 or 2,3,4,5,6 is 500 points After you get 1000 points in a single series of points you can keep your hand and get on the score board Once on the score board you can keep any value of points that you generate, but don't squander with a dud throw End Goal is to get exactly 10,000 points. You can not keep any points that would put your score over the 10,000 The game is just as exciting with 2 players or 8 or more or whatever.

[@mrequi1]

Yah we yanks been playing OH Hell & 10,000 for a long time. We probably invented em (and will take credit for it regardless)

[@camposbeca]

In Argentina its called "La Podrida" which translates to "The Rotten". Absolutely great game. We play from 1 up to 7 BUT we add a [number of players] rounds without a trump and then we play back down to 1. So in a 5 player game you have 7 rounds + 5 rounds without a trump + 7 rounds = 19 rounds. Great game!

[@MagikanVearlae]

A variation of this that my family always plays when we get together my dad called “Scoring Trumps”. Start at 10 cards finish on 1 and rather than turn a card for trumps it alternates each round in the pattern of Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, No Trumps, repeat. This makes the last round especially interesting with one card each and no trumps, though can be quiet harsh to the dealer if they want to bid 0 but are forced to say 1.

[@RichRauenzahn]

We’ve played this as Looney or To Hell and Back with the variation that on the way back up you must use your previous bid from the way down.

[@j.prt.979]

My family plays this game with a few strange but fun caveats: 1. We play it with a deck of Rook cards instead (more than one if it’s a family gathering or something). Low numbers are low, lol. A rook is the highest card possible, and its suit is whatever the trump suit is. 2. You’re allowed to cheat in the way advised against in this video! If you’re caught, however (later they see you play a card of the suit you cheated in before), then you lose ten points and can’t gain any points from that hand. (Also, if say someone cheated but you’re wrong, you lose 10 points and can’t get any in that hand). 3. If you take more tricks than your bid, you lose 10 points. 4. You can have a negative score.

[@lp7197]

Question. The bidding process is somewhat confusing. We cannot exceed the bid that corresponds to the number of cards dealt or the total for each player. ?

[@jefffoster8392]

Love it! Our family plays the 5 card rounds blind were you don't reveal the trump card until after you announce the tricks you'll take.

[@Jhimbob]

I love the small box version of this game designed by Alan Moon called Black Spy! It came out with that series of deluxe games by Zman like Parade, Arboretum and Sky Tango.

[@citylifechurchlivestreamin7160]

I've been playing this game for years! Can confirm -- it's amazing!

[@alxlima]

This is one of my favorites, also because it works well in large groups. Good to know the way we played has an official name (it's Devil's Bridge). Just scoring is a bit off: here, successful bidders get 1 point for each trick and others get negative points for the difference between their bid and tricks they won.

[@fnord3125]

i LOVE this one! this is the first card game in this series i'd actually played before, though it's been ages

[@sethcunningham2640]

My family and I actually play it under another name: "trump." It's a great introduction to lots of card game concepts like tricks, following suit, and trump.

[@sid3986]

Seth Cunningham we used to play “trump” as kids too, this was in 90’s in India. Similar to Oh Hell (trick taking) except you go from 1-card to 13 cards each (once) and add up. One Scoring rule that makes Trump more interesting than Oh-hell is if you dont make the tricks you bet (even if you’re one short), you lose 10 points per trick (so if you bet 5 and made 4, you’re score is -50) conversely if you make all tricks you get 10 points per trick +1 for extra tricks (if you bet 5 and made 7, score is 52)

[@JamesVokes]

We play this a lot in our family and our only rule varient is a 0 guess scores half cause it's much easier to sabotage yourself than actually get the right number.

[@ajinkyarajguru431]

So in India we played this with multiple decks and as many people as it would allow. 7 down to 1 and up again. In the last round of 7 card instead of the trump suit being revealed, the first person to not have a card of the leading suit can declare the suit of his choice. It was called Judgement based on your skill at judging the likelihood of making tricks

[@marcorc5167]

This is like "Tute Cabrero" but with poker cards. In Tute Cabrero your goal is to either end up first or last, if you end up in the middle (as in, you end up second if you have three players), then you lose the round. It's an awesome game but this one sounds cool too, I'll give it a try.

[@javiertalay]

We play a variant of this with my father, uncle and cousins. There are no triumph, the priority is for the one who played the highest card first, there are 2 jokers which can go as the higher card, or the lower card and finally, we go up from 3 cards to 8, and when going down you take the jokers out from the deck

[@sahapsilalahi147]

We play a variant of this in Indonesia! We call it "Truf," which just means "Trump." The rules differences: - 4 players only, 13 tricks every round (you deal all 52 cards) - You each bid using one (or more, this is a special rule) of your cards in your hand, which is revealed together with everyone else's bids - The trump is the suit of the highest bid - Play starts with the highest bidder - Can't lead with the trump if it hasn't been broken (like in Hearts) - Scoring ... maybe later - Play until one player reaches an agreed-upon point threshold Used to play this all night long! Sooo good.

[@Maxi100ful]

In The Netherlands this is called Boerenbridge (farmers bridge). Yet we don't play with point when you win but with penalty points when you lose. I think it is great because you can still win with a garbage card hand unlike most games.

[@thomaspierick570]

This is fantastic because I have been playing euchre for years and years (another trick taking game) and this is a nice new game that my friends should be able to pick up fast! Great choice

[@callopski]

Ohh this is by far my favorite cardgame. But we dont use a trumpsuit. We call it "plump" in swedish, basically meaning dot. And never knew that was what Trick in trick-taking meant always thought it meant trick as in tricking someone.

[@bbqturtle]

We play this game to... we go from 1 to 13, and we have teams of two. That makes the tricks a little more exciting. But, there isn't the rule about needing to have one more than others bet on.

[@TheBatesd1]

We played your way, first hand everyone gets one cars. Second hand everyone gets two cards, ect. We called it Oh pshaw

[@FernandoCanoG]

Mind sharing the rules for team play? Thanks!

[@bbqturtle]

@@FernandoCanoG hi! So, I'll try. We start by dealing the first hand at 1 card, then 2, ... To thirteen. Dealer rotates. Left of dealer bids tricks, all the way around, and you sit across from your teammate (like euchre). Once all four player have bid, play begins with whoever bid the highest. You have to follow suit, but if you are out of a suit, you may Trump with the Trump suit. (One card is flipped up for Trump). At the end of the hand, you compare total count bid to tricks taken (bid 3, took 4). Each bid trick is worth 3 pts, unbid tricks are worth 1 each. If you don't take at least the number of tricks, you get -3 for each trick you bid (if you bid 3, took 2, you would receive -9 points). Once you get to 13 cards, you have to cut the deck to see what Trump is before you deal. After you have at least 8 cards dealt out, you can throw in (and call for re-deal) if you have no Trump or aces. After you do your hand of 13, you do another hand of 13, then 12, then 11, etc. For the first and last hand (of one) all rules are the same, but if you bid a trick and get it, or if you get set, instead of +3 or -3, you get +13 or -13. Allows both a quick (but not insurmountable) start, and potential for comeback at the end. If you have any questions let me know!

[@FernandoCanoG]

@@bbqturtle thanks you so much!!! Are you writing about a 4 player game right (2 teams of 2)? Have you ever tried a 6 player game (3 teams of 2)?

[@bbqturtle]

@@FernandoCanoG yes! We only play with 4 players. I can imagine 6 players with either three teams of two or two teams of 3. Of course you could only play up to 8 cards in that situation. I think it would be fun but slightly less strategic.

[@AndICanTalk2]

Love these videos! Everything you all do is great. Thank you

[@ilkka.k]

IMHO a great variation on this one is that the first trick every round is being led by the player who bid the most tricks. In my experience the only minor flaw of the game is that there seems to be a winning strategy of bidding zero almost always.

[@guicon2007]

Alguien que hable español que me confirme si este juego es el que se conoce como "La Podrida" aqui en Argentina y Uruguay ,y si es asi hay algun tutorial donde se expliquen las reglas en español? lo jugaba antes pero me olvidé y me encantaba.....gracias!

[@pabloandrada6558]

Bueno, un año después llego a ver este video, y encuentro a alguien diciendo lo que yo buscaba. Sí, es "La Podrida". Yo armé un reglamento en español en Facebook hace como una década, buscando encontrar jugadores pero...no tuve mucha suerte. Igual, lo jugué por tanto tiempo, que si hay algo que no recuerdes, preguntame. Como dicen en el video, en todos lados se juega distinto.

[@thelegendarybeng5329]

My family and I have always enjoyed Up and Down the River for the years, its a great, quick and easy fun game. The way we play it has been a bit more lucked based with rounds of differing amounts of cards, starting at 1, up to 7, and then back to 1, and everyone bidding on the number of tricks at the same time. Its good, albeit largely luck based, fun time to just get mad at your family because they made one move that made everyone else miss their bid

[@locustsun]

We played this at work when we weren't busy a LOT, it's the best group game, everyone usually loves this!

[@alvarney]

We play starting at 7 cards down to 2, the 2 to 7. So you play 2 trick hands back to back. But in the entire game you are not allowed to bid 0 in back to back rounds. This little rule adds more than you think! :)

[@bglamb]

Can confirm that this rule is invaluable and stops some cheesy play when people work out that 0 is a fairly easy number to hit, especially as the hands get smaller!

[@stevemgap]

This game is a lot of fun. My family play this when I go back to visit. Even my grandma played up until she was 90. It is a lot of laughs... there are always surprises and people mildly screwing each other over. We usually just play down to 1. Also we predetermine all of the Trump... and who deals each round. For example with 4 people playing we would play 13 rounds .... 13H, 12S, 11D, 10C, 9(No trump), 8H, 7S, 6D, 5C, 4(NT), 3H, 2C, 1D. Each round a new person deals... so on the last round (with 1 card) the same person isn't stuck as the dealer each game. Like they said... there are a ton of variants. I play a lot of board games but honestly some of the most fun I have ever had was playing this with my family.

[@ohno-wi1vb]

I’ve played a very similar game but without the changing number of cards dealt! Might have to try this !

[@SupermarketSweep777]

I learned this from my grandma. She actually had one of the 1970s vintage games that has bid cards and plastic holders. I bought a similar one off of Ebay years ago. If you like them game it can be a good investment.

[@davidfarquhar3917]

We used to play it in university. Many an hour spent on this game. Especially fun with a few drinks and lots of people with a single card on their head trying to out think each other

[@jeffblack9074]

This game is great, I used to play it with my grandma. When we played we started at one card (also a great way to teach the game much faster) and we would go up to 10, and on the 10th card there would be no trump, which adds a layer of depth because it completely changes how you bid.

[@timojaak]

As others have mentioned, Oh Hell is very much like Rage (boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/568/rage) which has been around since 1983. Rage adds special cards that can cause the trump to be cancelled or changed as well as bonus positive or bonus negative point cards plus a wild card that can be anything. I've been playing it since the last 1980s and it's one of my favourite games.

[@eierkoek]

a version i know is very similar called bollen. only with 4 players. you start with 1 card in hand and go up to 7 cards with a trump. 1 round of 7 with no trump and back down again from 7 to 1 card with trump. every round you try to guess how many hits you get. the winner is the one with the least failures. with a tie, you count the amount of hits betted and succeeded.

[@gamercow517]

Oh Hell is one of those games that after a while, you can play VERY quickly, especially on 3/2/1. Getting negative points for missing your total can be murder.

[@cpesper]

This game was always a staple in my family. If I remember correctly, it came to be known as "that stupid game" by my mother and her sisters, all of whom LOVED to play it.

[@AvianBreak]

Love games like this. Do Euchre for a future episode!

[@Delegirous]

@@MaybeAnnatar True but the team dynamic of Euchre is integral to its magic

[@darthfishis]

I absolutely love playing up and down the river with my granparents and my cousins. Well worth playing and learning.

[@GregSole]

Great game. I play every week like clockwork and it's always a great time. I strongly feel that the blind bid is the better way to play the game though, as the unanticipated swing of drastic over or underbidding changes the dynamic of the round so much, with everyone sometimes scrambling like mad to lose everything they possibly can.

[@agataster2903]

Did this game come from Spanish game called La Pocha? I am trying to find the rules for the spanish version - I have a spanish deck and apparantely you play this game with only 40 cards, while here I think you play with all the cards+ standard deck? I used to play La Podrida as a kid but can't remember the rules and can't really find any good guides anywhere. Any advices let me know :)

[@RobertWSquirrel]

As far as games in the Whist family go, we got a lot of mileage out of Hearts (and occasionally Partnership Spades when we were feeling cooperative and had exactly four players). They both seem to have a bit more room for disrupting the strategies of your opponents than Oh Hell does, and also feel less random? Though I haven’t tried Oh Hell so I might be mistaken.

[@Varis78]

My grandmother taught me this game when I was little, and I'd totally forgotten about it until this video reminded me. Thanks! I can't wait to play it again. :D

[@qazwiz]

I learned Oh Hell from the book of games sold via insert card in Bicycle decks of cards supposed name is because what you usually say ... (when going over)

[@jonnyramsden1161]

There's a good game that's another whist variant where it combines whist and poker in a way that's quite balanced but I can't remember the name (I thought it was casino or Boston but googling those aren't the right games). Basically the interesting thing is that you use the same hand for both so you might have a good poker hand but a naff whist hand or vice versa. You score points in both parts of the game but I can't remember the details! Some friends taught it me on holiday a few years ago and we played it non stop for a week, some good times

[@Wise_That]

My family calls his Hi-Lo (because you count down and then up) My favorite variant of this is to score like this: - Gain points ONLY when you hit your bet, score the number of tricks plus 2 (bet 0 get 0, score 2 points. Bet 2 get 2, score 4) - LOSE points equal to the difference between your bet and your get (bet 10 get 9, score -1 points) This way you have to play a lot more strategically, as you always want to be as close as possible to your bet. In the video's version if you think you are going over you are strongly incentivized to take everything you can. Additional rules: 5s and one-eyed jacks are NO TRUMP rounds, where only on-suit cards can win. This adds a lot of variance in the low-card rounds.

[@ThomasMaltuin]

I learned a variant of this but it was called "Back-alley Bridge"

[@jwspiker]

we called this 'moron bridge' but we did allow the dealer to to bid a number equal to the number of tricks. there are a lot of variants to this. I like this at 5 players at lot

[@dancingfishfilms]

if you like trick based games, my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE is called slippery Anne - it turns it on its head. you want as few points as possible, like golf, but any time you win tricks if they have any hearts in them you gain a point for each. if you win a trick with slippery Anne herself, the Queen of spades, oh shit you've just got yourself 10 whole points! it's great fun. you play a round with each suit as trumps then a final round with no trumps, and they're all very unique.

[@Mastajosue]

Interesting game! I’ll try it with my wife this weekend, she loves card games. Here in Ecuador we’ve got a very famous card game called 40 (“cuarenta” in Spanish) and its really cool! You should try it!

[@fabricioycaza]

please continue this series. Thank you.

[@wyburp7970]

Seems like a great game! (i like the serie by the way) can you do a coop-card game next?

[@Fitzybitzy9595]

Wybu RP Euchre is technically co-op (2v2) and is super similar to oh hell

[@vendmr]

We play 1->max->1, 3 point for each made trick+10 for making it, -5 for each trick you are off your bid, and even bids are allowed.

[@jesusbuddhaman]

We used to call this Sink or Swim. We played it exactly like this. My grandfather taught it to us. We would play it with several decks of cards if all our cousins were over.

[@Canuckfan717]

My family plays this game where the winner gets 10 + (whatever they bet) squared so if someone were to bet 6 and win 6 then they would get 46 pts, however if you lose you take whatever you missed on your bet and square that and then minus those points so if I bet 7 and only got 5 then i'd be missing by 2 and lose 4 pts.

[@stevenirving6096]

I work on a fishing boat, and there is a LOT of of Hell played on the boat during off days

[@ghostshellsaito]

You missed the name "Countdown"! My Grandpap taught me and my siblings and we still play it now.