🤞 Oh Heck
🂡 Cards · 5 playsOh Heck
Bid exactly what you’ll win. Not one trick more, not one less.
About Oh Heck
The trick-taking game with a nasty twist and a polite name. You, Fox, Owl and Bear play 13 rounds, with hands shrinking from seven cards down to one and climbing back to seven. A turned-up card sets trump, then everyone bids exactly how many tricks they’ll take. Nail your bid and score 10 plus the bid; miss by one or by five and you get a big fat zero. The kicker: the dealer can’t bid the number that would make the bids add up to the tricks available, so every single round somebody is going down. Follow suit if you can, highest trump wins the trick, and the best total after 13 rounds takes the game. Easy, Normal or Hard AI.
How to Play
Each round a turned-up card sets trump. Bid how many tricks you’ll take. The dealer can’t bid the number that makes total bids equal the tricks available. Follow the led suit if you can. Highest trump wins, else the highest card of the led suit. Make your bid exactly: 10 + bid. Miss by any amount: 0. 13 rounds with 7-6-5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5-6-7 cards. Highest total wins.
💡 Tips & Strategy
Bid what your hand will really take, not what you hope. Aces and high trumps are near-certain tricks; Kings are maybes; a long side suit is worth little in a big hand because someone will trump it. In the tiny one- and two-card rounds a single trump can be the whole bid — and zero is a perfectly good bid with a weak hand.
Exact is everything: one trick too many scores zero, just like one too few. Once you've hit your number, switch to ducking — throw your highest cards under someone else's winner and keep your low cards to stay out of trouble. If you still need tricks, cash your sure winners before opponents run out of the suit and start trumping.
As dealer, the rule bans the bid that makes everything add up, so read what Fox, Owl and Bear bid first. Bids totalling fewer than the tricks available means someone will be forced to win extras; more means somebody is going down. Pick the side of that squeeze where your hand is safest. In the last rounds, check the scoreboard — a safe bid that protects a lead beats a heroic one.