🛗 Elevator

🎯 The idea

Before a card is played, everybody says exactly how many tricks they will take. Take exactly that and you score. Take one too many and you score nothing — the same as taking one too few.
This is the only game here where winning a trick can be bad for you.

🛗 Why it is called Elevator

The hands go up and then back down: one card each, then two, then three, all the way to the top of the climb — and then back down to one. On the way up you are learning the deck. On the way down you are using what you learned.

🃏 Playing a card

One card is turned over at the deal and its suit is trump for the whole hand. It stays in the corner of the table so you never have to remember it.
Follow the suit that was led if you can — cards you may not play go grey. Highest trump takes the trick; if there is no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led takes it.

🪝 The hook — the rule that makes the game

The dealer bids last, and the dealer is not allowed to make the bids add up to the number of tricks. So somebody at this table is always going to be wrong, and it might be you.
The barred number is greyed out but still there, so you can see which one it was.

💯 Scoring

Exactly right: 10 points, plus your bid. So bidding 3 and taking 3 is 13.
Wrong either way: nothing. You never go below zero.
Bidding nought and taking nothing is worth 10, and it is one of the hardest things to do in the game — every trick you are forced to win breaks it.

👀 What to watch

The chip at the top says bid / tricks. If more tricks are bid than exist, somebody is going down and it may as well not be you. If fewer are bid, one is going spare — and somebody is going to be handed a trick they did not want.
Every seat shows took / bid. A seat in green is exactly right, which means one more trick would ruin them.

🙂 Levels

🌱 Sprout: two opponents, a short climb, and they bid what they can see.
🧭 Scout: three opponents who read the shape of their hand and duck once they have made their bid.
🏆 Ace: the full climb, against opponents who read the bidding before they bid.
A level sets the switches in ⚙️ Settings; change any and you are playing your own mix.

🤖 Auto

Tap 🤖 Auto at the top and the game plays your hand too — your bid, every card, and on up the ladder — at the same pace as everyone else. Handy when you need to put the phone down. Tap it again to take over; the game finishes the card it is on and then waits for you.

It plays for keeps, and here that bites harder than anywhere else: a hand is worth something only if the bid was exactly right, so one card too many or too few and the whole hand scores nothing. Those hands are on your score and there is no replaying a rung of the climb. It bids the gold number and plays like an opponent at your level, seeing only what you see. The button stays lit the whole time, so it is never a mystery who is playing.

📖 There is no official Oh Hell

This is a folk game with a dozen names — Oh Hell, Blackout, Up and Down the River, Nomination Whist. These are our rules, not the rules. Common differences:

• Dealing the top hand twice instead of once.
• Minus points for a miss, instead of nothing.
• Scoring 1 per trick plus 10 for the bid.
• No hook at all, so every bid can be made.
• Starting at the top and only coming down.

📜 The rules

🖨️ A card for the table

Print the rules on one sheet, fold it into a card and keep it in the deck box. One side, no scissors. Open the printable rules card

🔎 What everything means