June 23, 2007 - Oh Hell!

My parents, Steve and Cathy Hasegawa, came over to play some cards. After my kids were in bed, they suggested we play "the bid game" - known to the rest of the world as Oh Hell! The seating was myself, my mother, then my father. We started with 16 cards each, planning to work our way down to 1 (I'm not sure why you don't go the other way, there is no tension in the last couple hands if you work your way down). As we reached the midpoint of the game, I had built up a good lead. We took a short break, at which point my dad asked to switch places with my mother. He was convinced that she had been hosing him with her bidding the whole game. Of course, we switched and dealt the hand of 8 cards. My mother (who is annoyed now), promptly bids 6 (as it turned out, she had no cards under a 10 in her hand, but she also only had a single trump). I was thinking about bidding 3, because of A-K-J in non-trump + 2 middle trump. Know that my mother would lead, I let her have her 6 bid, and bid 1. My mother lead a card and I end up taking the trick with a 7, giving me my one trick! I lead a low trump and won again, because my mother had no trump left. Frustrated, I said - why did you build 6!?!? At which point, my dad busts up laughing (which he did not stop for 10 minutes). My mother, not happy about being laughed at then quit. I'm not real sure I'd have bid 6 with her hand, maybe 4. My dad didn't care, he felt justified that his low score was my mother's fault. Me? I was winning, so I'm claiming the win.