UP TO TEN AND DOWN AGAIN

A British variant of THE "Oh Hell" PLAYING-CARD GAME

Players

3–10.

Objective

The winner is the player that has the most points by the end of the game.

Set-up

The game is played with one deck of playing cards with 3–5 players or two decks with 6–10 players.

There are 19 rounds in a game. Each round has a corresponding trump suit (see Table 1).

One player is the 'dealer' (deals the cards for that round). The player to the dealer's left is the 'caller' (bids first). And the player to the caller's left is the 'leader' (leads first). Each round, the roles switch clockwise.

1. Dealing

The number of cards dealt per player corresponds to the round (e.g. each player starts with 1 card on the first round, 2 cards on the second, etc.), until the 11th round, at which point players are dealt a decreasing number of cards (9 cards in the 11th round, then 8 in the 12th, etc.). See Table 1.

2. Bidding

After dealing, each player looks at their 'hand' (the cards that they have personally been dealt). Then each player in turn, starting with the caller, 'bids' (predicts how many tricks they will win this round). These bids are noted down for later scoring.

3. Gameplay

After bidding, each player takes turns to play one card from their hand, starting with the leader and going clockwise.

The player to play the first card of a trick can play any card they want. Other players can play any card they want as long as the card 'follows suit' (is of the same suit as the first card played in that trick); if a player does not have a card of this suit, they can play any card they want.

The highest card wins (an A is considered higher than a K). If a card does not follow suit, it cannot be considered higher—unless it is of the trump suit, in which case it is always considered higher than a card of any other suit. If the same two cards are played in the same trick (only possible if two decks are in play), the card to have been played first is considered the higher of the two.

The player to play the highest card wins the trick and puts the cards of that trick aside. That player then plays the first card of the next trick.

Once every card in players' hands has been played, the round is over.

4. Scoring

After the round is played, the number of won tricks are counted. 10 points are awarded to each player that won the same number of tricks that they bid, and 1 point is awarded to each player for each trick they won.

Once the points for that round have been noted down, the next round starts.