Glossary
Card game vocabulary for Oh Hell — and trick-taking games in general.
- Bid
- Before play begins each hand, every player predicts how many tricks they will win. That prediction is their bid. In Oh Hell, making your bid exactly earns a bonus — being off by even one trick costs you. Bidding is therefore a skill: too high and you'll chase tricks you can't win; too low and you'll have to throw away potential winners. See the bidding rules for details on order and constraints.
- Dealer
- The player responsible for shuffling and distributing cards for a given hand. The dealer position rotates clockwise after each hand. The dealer is also typically the last to bid, which is both an advantage (you see all other bids first) and a disadvantage when the Screw the Dealer rule is in effect.
- Follow Suit
- The requirement to play a card of the same suit as the card that was led to a trick. In Oh Hell, you must follow suit if you have any cards of that suit in your hand. If you have no cards of the led suit, you are void in that suit and may play any card — including trump.
- Hand
- The cards dealt to a player for a given round of play. Also used to refer to the entire round — a "hand" in Oh Hell consists of dealing, bidding, and playing through all the tricks until every card has been played. The number of cards per hand varies throughout a game according to a schedule (e.g. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 for the descending format).
- Lead
- To play the first card to a trick. The player who leads chooses which suit will be followed (subject to trump). In Oh Hell, the player to the left of the dealer leads the first trick; after that, the winner of each trick leads the next. On the first trick of each hand, you may not lead with a trump card unless your entire hand is trump.
- No Trump
- A hand played without any trump suit. In Oh Hell, this occurs when the entire deck is dealt out — typically in larger games where the math works out to exactly zero remaining cards after dealing. In a no-trump hand, the highest card of the led suit always wins the trick.
- Rank
- The value of a card within its suit. In Oh Hell, cards rank from lowest to highest: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace. Aces are always high. Rank determines who wins within a suit — when two players follow the same suit, the higher rank wins. Trump beats all non-trump cards regardless of rank.
- Round
- Sometimes used interchangeably with hand — one complete deal-bid-play cycle. In the context of Oh Hell's schedule, a game consists of multiple rounds, each with a different number of cards dealt.
- Ruff
- To play a trump card when you cannot follow suit. If you are void in the led suit and play a trump card, you ruff the trick — and unless a later player plays a higher trump, you will win it. Knowing when to ruff (and when to slough instead) is central to Oh Hell strategy.
- Screw the Dealer
- An optional rule (enabled by default on ohhell.app) that constrains the dealer's bid. Under this rule, the dealer's bid may not result in the total of all bids equalling the number of tricks available. In other words, the dealer is forced to make a bid that guarantees at least one player will be wrong. This rule ensures the scoring tension exists in every hand. See the bidding section of the rules.
- Slough
- Also called a discard. When you cannot follow suit and choose not to (or cannot) play trump, you slough — playing any other card, typically a low-value one you're happy to lose. Knowing which cards to slough is as important as knowing which to keep. A common mistake is sloughing a card you'll need later to protect a bid.
- Suit
- One of the four categories of cards in a standard deck: ♠ Spades, ♥ Hearts, ♦ Diamonds, ♣ Clubs. Each suit contains 13 cards (Ace through 2). Spades and Clubs are black; Hearts and Diamonds are red. In Oh Hell, one suit is randomly designated as trump each hand.
- Trick
- A single round of card play within a hand. Each player plays one card to a trick. The player who played the highest card of the led suit wins — unless someone played a trump card, in which case the highest trump wins. The winner collects the cards and leads the next trick. In Oh Hell, collecting the right number of tricks (exactly your bid) is the entire point of the game.
- Trump
- The designated power suit for a hand. A trump card beats any card of any other suit, regardless of rank. For example, if Spades are trump, even the 2 of Spades beats the Ace of Hearts. After dealing each hand, one card is flipped to reveal the trump suit for that round. When multiple trump cards are played to a trick, the highest trump wins. See playing tricks for how trump interacts with the led suit.
- Void
- Having no cards of a particular suit in your hand. When you are void in the led suit, you are not required to follow suit — you may ruff with a trump card or slough a card from another suit. Being void in a suit is often strategically valuable: it gives you the freedom to play trump (and potentially win tricks you didn't expect) or dump losing cards. Tracking which suits opponents are void in is part of advanced play.
With the vocabulary down, read the full rules, study the strategy guide, and see how you stack up on the leaderboard.