A trick-taking bidding game in the Oh Hell / Estimation family — every round, you have to know exactly how good your hand is before a single card is played.
How to play
- Each round, every player is dealt a hand and a trump suit is revealed.
- In turn, each player bids the exact number of tricks they think they’ll win this round.
- Cards are then played out in tricks, following suit when you can — the highest card of the led suit wins the trick, unless trumped.
- Scoring, once the round is played out: 1 point per trick you won, plus a 10-point bonus if you won exactly the number you bid. Missing your bid never costs you points — you just lose the bonus.
- The match runs for several rounds; highest total score at the end wins.
Good to know
- 2 to 12 players — scales from a small table to a full room.
- Hand size (and therefore how many rounds fit in a match) adjusts automatically to however many players are seated.
- Host setting: deal back up after 1 — controls whether hand sizes shrink to one card and climb back up, or run one direction only.
- The real tension: the bonus dwarfs a single trick, so it’s often right to stop winning tricks once you’ve hit your number — and the dealer is barred from making the bids add up, so someone always has to be wrong.