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, scaling 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.
- Host setting: lay down winning hands. When your cards, what’s been played and the face-up trump card prove you’ll take every trick left however you play, a button lets you take them all at once. Everyone’s cards are then turned face up so the table sees why.
- 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.