During a holiday visit, a friend taught her large family to play Oh Shit! The first night they played it till 6:00 AM, the second night till 7:00 AM. I became addicted at an early age not because playing the game was so much fun, but because of the emotions that the players demonstrated during the game. This game gets some real emotions going. |
This also gets some
real emotions going, |
First Hand
The dealer deals seven cards face-down to each player and then turns over the next card in the deck and places it on top of the deck. The suit of that card is trump. The number of cards dealt changes with each hand, see the "Dealing" section below, but first:
Who Leads Off
After dealing and bidding, see the "Bidding" section below, the person to the left of the dealer throws out one card face-up. This is called leading off the trick (a trick is performed by each player throwing out one card in turn). Thereafter, the person who wins the trick, leads off the next trick.
Playing and Winning a Trick
The person to lead off, throws out one card, face-up. The other players, in order, must also throw out one card of the same suit (clubs, diamonds…). If a player does not have a card in their hand of the same suit, they can throw out any card. The person who throws out the highest card winds that "trick" and takes the little pile of cards.
The Highest Card
Normally, the highest card is simply the highest card of that suit, for example the ace of clubs (if clubs were lead off). However, if a person does not have a card in their hand of the suit that was lead off, they may decide to throw out a card of the suit that was determined to be trump (assuming the trump suit was not lead off). If a person throws out a card of the trump suit, they win the trick unless someone also throws out trump but of a higher value.
Trump
After dealing cards to all of the players, the card on the top of the deck is turned over and placed on top of the deck. The suit of this card is now the trump suit. All trump cards are more powerful than cards of any other suit. For example, the deuce of trump is higher than the ace of any other suit.
Leading off with Trump
You cannot lead off with trump until trump has been broken.Breaking Trump
If, and only if, you do not have any cards in your hand of the suit that was lead off, you can throw out any card in your hand. If you decide to throw out a card of the trump suit and no one else has previously thrown out a card of the trump suit, you have broken trump.Dealing
For the first hand, seven cards are dealt to each player. In the next hand six cards are dealt, then five, four, at that point there are three ways to go:
Traditional
three, two, one. When the final hand (the one card hand) is finished, the scorekeeper announces the winner and is dismembered for cheating. The problem with this dealing method is that by the two card hand the winner is pretty well known.Up the River
three, two, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. This makes it a pretty long game. The more games you have time for, the more chance the less skilful have of winning.New
five, six, seven. This is the best of both worlds. The game is not too long and everybody has a chance of winning in the last hand and be punched out by player who lead up to that point.Bidding
After the cards are dealt and trump is established, all players looked at their hand and try to determine how many tricks they will win. The scorekeeper records their bid. A trick is when each person throws out one card and the person with the highest card wins the little pile of cards.
Keeping Score
If, and only if, a player makes exactly the number of tricks that they bid, they receive points equal to the number of tricks they won plus one point. In this way, a player who bid zero tricks is rewarded with one point. A player who bid and won one trick would receive two points....
Option for More than Four Players
When more than four players are playing, it becomes very easy to make your bid and the game becomes less exciting. To make the game more difficult, use this rule:
If you do not have a card in your hand of the suit that was lead off and you have cards of the trump suit in your hand, you must throw out a trump card.
Records
Because total score is usually run below 20 points it is easy to remember the highest score ever achieved by your friends. However, the highest total scores depend upon how many people are playing. So in fairness there will be a highest score for three people and a highest score for four people... For a long time Charles held the highest score for four people. Then, came Mike.
Beginners Luck
We had to repeat the rules over and over again to Mike. He just didn't have a clue. On the third game he was biding like a wild man. He would bit five tricks and we would have to remind him that he only had four cards in his hand and therefore could only bid four tricks. So he bid four and won four tricks. Yep, you guessed it, he took the record for four people.
Paul (another Paul), who was a quick study, took the record for three people on his second game ever played.
Weapons
It is important to leave all weapons in a different room.
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