Oh Hell Help

Oh Hell Rules

NeuralPlay Oh Hell supports many variants, such as Romanian Whist and La Podrida. The default rules are described here. Custom rule options are described in the Rule Options section.

NeuralPlay Oh Hell is a 4-player game played with a standard 52-card deck. The game consists of a sequence of rounds.

Each round consists of four stages: dealing, bidding, play, and scoring.

Dealing

At the start of the game, the dealer is chosen randomly. The deal then rotates clockwise after each round. For the first round, each player is dealt 10 cards, and 1 card is turned face up to determine trump. The suit of the face-up card is the trump suit. The cards remaining in the deck are not in play for this round. On subsequent rounds, the number of cards dealt to each player decreases by 1 until only 1 card is dealt to each player. After reaching 1 card, the number of cards dealt increases by 1 until 10 cards are again dealt to each player. This final 10-card round ends the game.

Bidding

Bidding begins with the player to the left of the dealer and rotates clockwise. Each player bids the number of tricks they expect to take in the round. The dealer is the last to bid and may not make a bid that causes the sum of all bids to equal the number of tricks available in the round. This is known as the hook rule and ensures that at least one player does not make their bid exactly.

Play

Play consists of tricks, with each trick consisting of 4 cards, 1 from each player. Each trick has a leader, a suit led, and a winner. The leader plays the first card, which establishes the suit led. The highest-ranking card played in the suit led wins the trick unless a trump card is played, in which case the highest-ranking trump card wins.

The strength of a card in a given suit is determined by its rank. The card rankings in increasing order are: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, T, J, Q, K, and A.

The player to the left of the dealer leads first. Play continues clockwise with each player playing a card in turn. Players must follow suit when possible. A player who has no card in the suit led may play any card.

After each player has played a card on the trick, the winning player takes the trick and places it aside until the scoring stage. This player is the leader of the next trick. Play continues until players have no cards left in their hands.

Scoring

After the round has been played out, players receive 1 point for each trick taken and a 10-point bonus if the number of tricks taken equals the bid.

The player who has the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

Web Links

Many websites discuss Oh Hell and its variants. Here are a few we found helpful.

• Wikipedia - Oh Hell
• Wikipedia - Romanian Whist
• Pagat.com

Preset Game Rules

Oh Hell can be played with many different rule options. We have included some preset rules to show some of the variety. See Rule Options to customize the rules.

Preset options are available for the following game rules.

• Oh Hell. The game described in the Oh Hell Rules section.
• Romanian Whist. The deck is smaller than the default; only the top 8 cards in each suit are used. The dealing pattern goes from 1 to 8 and then back down to 1, with the 1-card and 8-card rounds repeated 4 times (once per player). Players must trump when they cannot follow suit. Successful bids score 5 points plus the bid. Unsuccessful bids are penalized by the difference between the bid and the number of tricks taken. The preset is a four-player game. Romanian Whist-style custom games also support 3, 5, or 6 players.
• La Podrida. Uses the rules described in the Oh Hell Rules section, except players must trump when they cannot follow suit.
• Oh Pshaw. The dealing pattern goes from 1 to 13 cards. On the 13-card round, when there is no card to turn up, there is no trump suit. There is no hook rule, so the bids may total the number of cards dealt. A successful bid scores 10 points plus the bid. A failed bid scores no points.

Learning Features

NeuralPlay Oh Hell offers many features to help you learn and improve your play. These features may be enabled, disabled, or adjusted in Settings. The features include the following.

• Hints. By default, the AI will show you a hint when you ask for one. In Settings, you may ask the AI to always show you a hint, or ask the AI to check your bid or play and show you a hint only when it differs from yours.
• AI points estimate. When enabled, the AI will show an estimate of the number of points that will be scored for each legal play. This is an estimate of the expected value of each legal play, averaged across many simulation results. The AI-suggested play may not be the play estimated to score the most points. This may be due to strategic considerations or noise.
• Card counter. When enabled, a counter shows which cards have been played.
• Analyze bid. When enabled, an "Analyze" button is shown during bidding. Tap the button and enter a bid to estimate the chance of the bid succeeding.
• Competitive mode. Enable competitive mode to play without assistance. Hints, undo, viewing all hands, analyze bid, and other learning aids are disabled.

Rule Options

Many different variations of Oh Hell are played around the world. NeuralPlay's Oh Hell offers many popular rule options for you to customize the game to your liking. Options include the following.

Players

• Number of players. Choose 3, 4, 5, or 6 players.

Dealing

• Maximum cards. Choose from 1 to 13 cards.
• Minimum cards. Choose from 1 to 13 cards. If the minimum is greater than the maximum, the minimum is adjusted to equal the maximum. When the minimum and maximum are equal, the same number of cards is dealt in every round.
• Deal pattern. Choose from the following.
  • Down then up. The number of cards dealt starts with the maximum, goes down to the minimum, and then returns to the maximum.
  • Down only. The number of cards dealt starts with the maximum and goes down to the minimum.
  • Up then down. The number of cards dealt starts with the minimum, goes up to the maximum, and then returns to the minimum.
  • Up only. The number of cards dealt starts with the minimum and goes up to the maximum.
  • Maximum only. The maximum number of cards is dealt for 10 rounds. The repeated-rounds setting does not apply to this pattern.
• Repeated rounds for each player to deal. Choose from the following.
  • None. No rounds are repeated.
  • Minimum round only. The minimum-card round is repeated so each player has a chance to deal a minimum-card round.
  • Maximum round only. The maximum-card round is repeated so each player has a chance to deal a maximum-card round.
  • Minimum and maximum rounds. The minimum- and maximum-card rounds are repeated so each player has a chance to deal both rounds.
  • All rounds. Every round is repeated so each player has a chance to deal it.
• Trump determination. Choose from the following.
  • Turn up a card. The suit of the face-up card is trump. If no card is available, the round is notrump.
  • Turn-up-card variations. Depending on the selected option, the round is notrump when the maximum number of cards is dealt, or when the face-up card is a 2 through 6, an ace, or an ace or king. If no card is available to turn up, the round is also notrump.
  • Always. Spades is always trump, or every round is played notrump.
  • Fixed sequence. Trump follows the selected repeating suit order. Some sequences include a notrump round.
• Romanian Whist style. When enabled, the number of players and maximum number of cards determine the deck. The deck contains the highest complete ranks (all four suits of each rank), and every card is dealt in the maximum round. With the common maximum of 8 cards, 3 players use 24 cards (9 through A), 4 use 32 (7 through A), 5 use 40 (5 through A), and 6 use 48 (3 through A). With 4 players, every available maximum from 1 through 13 is supported without adjustment. If the selected maximum cannot satisfy both requirements, it is adjusted to a supported value. For example, selecting a maximum of 10 with 5 players is adjusted to 8 and uses a 40-card deck. Lower ranks are removed from play.

Bidding

• Style. Choose sequential bidding, starting with the player to the left of the dealer, or simultaneous bidding. Simultaneous bidding automatically disables the hook rule.
• Hook. Choose whether the sum of the bids may equal the number of tricks available. The hook rule may be disabled, enabled for every round, or enabled only when at least 2 cards or at least 6 cards are dealt.

Playing

• Initial leader. Choose whether the player to the left of the dealer, the dealer, or the highest bidder leads initially.
• Must trump when void. Choose whether to require a player to trump when void in the suit led.
• Lead trump. Choose whether trump can be led anytime, only after trump has been broken (a trick has been trumped), or after the first trick.

Scoring

There are many ways to score. In the formulas below, bid is the player's bid, taken is the number of tricks taken, and abs(...) is the absolute value.

• Successful bid (non-zero). Examples include: 10 + bid, 5 + bid, 5 + bid², 10 × bid, 5 + 10 × bid, etc.
• Successful zero bid. Examples include: 10, 5, 5 + (# cards dealt), 5 × (# cards dealt), etc.
• Failed bid, too many tricks. Examples include: 0, taken, -bid, bid - taken, -5, -5 - 5 × abs(bid - taken), etc.
• Failed bid, too few tricks. Examples include: 0, taken, taken - 10, -bid, taken - bid, -5, -5 - 5 × abs(bid - taken), etc.
• Failed zero bid. Examples include: 0, taken, -taken, -5, -5 - 5 × taken, etc.

Computer Players

NeuralPlay computer players offer 6 levels of play. Level 1 is reasonably easy and good for beginners. Level 3 should be fun for most players. Level 6 is the most challenging.

The computer players use different AI methods depending on the level. Levels 1 and 2 use simple methods designed for beginners.

Level 3 uses a rule-based AI. Its rules include examples such as "In first seat, lead low when I do not want tricks" and "In fourth seat, play just high enough to take the trick when I want tricks." These rules provide consistent, logical play.

Levels 4 through 6 use Monte Carlo simulation to determine the best play. The AI deals the unknown cards randomly, tries each legal play, and plays the deal to the end to get a result. This is repeated for many deals of the unknown cards. The average result for each legal play is computed and the legal play with the best average result is chosen.

Levels 4 through 6 differ in how many times the unknown cards are dealt. In general, more deals produce a more accurate simulation and better play. The trade-off is that more deals take more time, so level 6 may play more slowly than level 4, depending on the device.

Since levels 4 through 6 do not use rules, you may observe either surprisingly good plays or odd mistakes that may not appear to follow logical rules. Overall, our tests show that these levels play better than the rule-based level 3. The randomness also makes the computer players feel more human and less predictable.

If you prefer more consistent, logical, and predictable computer opponents, level 3 may be best.

Whichever level you choose, you may adjust bidding aggressiveness. For individual control, choose Custom, which provides separate settings for each seat. For each seat, you may adjust play thinking, bid thinking, and bidding aggressiveness. South's custom settings control the strength of the hints you receive.

We continue to research and develop improvements to the computer players.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change the hand sorting?

See Settings → Hand Sorting. You can change the rank order and suit order, and choose to alternate red and black suits.

How do I reset my game settings to the defaults?

Go to the main screen and choose Menu → Reset.

What are N, NE, E, S, W, and NW?

These stand for North, Northeast, East, South, West, and Northwest—the player positions around the table. You are always South. Depending on the number of players, computer players occupy some or all of the other positions.

What does "claim" mean?

Claiming means that you expect to take all the remaining tricks. When your hand is clearly high, you may claim to speed up play. The AI checks the claim; if it succeeds, you receive the remaining tricks and the round ends.

How do I contact NeuralPlay with suggestions and feedback?

Please contact us at support@neuralplay.com.