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Nomination Whist

7 down to 1 and back again

Nominate the tricks you’ll take, then take them. Trumps go round hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades and no trumps; every trick scores a point, and an exact bid scores 10 more.

Learn how to play
Players
Length
Dealer

Trumps: ♥ ♣ ♦ ♠ then no trumps · 1 point a trick + 10 for an exact bid

Part of the Oh Hell family: play Oh Hell (turned-up trumps)Contract Whist

Play Nomination Whist online for free

Nomination Whist is the bidding game half of Britain learnt at the kitchen table, in the pub or on a caravan holiday: each round you say how many tricks you’ll take, and the score sheet does the rest. Play it here free in your browser against computer players, or start a private table and send the link to your family and mates. No download, no app and no sign-up.

Tables seat 3 to 7, and the computer takes any empty seat. Your games count towards your Oh Hell stats on the leaderboard, because Nomination Whist is the British branch of the Oh Hell family.

How to play Nomination Whist

  1. Deal. Seven cards each in the first round, one fewer every round down to a single card, then back up to seven: thirteen rounds in all. The short game stops at one card.
  2. Trumps. No card is turned up. Trumps follow a fixed order: hearts in round 1, then clubs, diamonds, spades and no trumps, and round again from hearts.
  3. Nominate. Starting left of the dealer, everyone says how many tricks they’ll take. With the hook on, the dealer, who nominates last, may not make the total equal the number of tricks.
  4. Play. The player left of the dealer leads. Follow suit if you can; if you can’t, trump or throw away. The highest trump wins, otherwise the highest card of the suit led, and the winner leads next.
  5. Score. Every trick you take is worth a point, and taking exactly the number you nominated earns a 10-point bonus. The highest total after the last round wins.

Nomination Whist scoring

Nominate three and take three: 3 points for the tricks and 10 for the bonus, 13 in all. Nominate three and take four: 4 points and no bonus. Nominate none and take none: the 10-point bonus on its own. Because every trick counts, a missed bid still scores something, but the bonus is where games are won.

Oh Hell scores differently: only an exact bid scores, 10 plus the bid, and its trumps come from a card turned up after the deal. If that is the game you grew up with, play it on our Oh Hell table.

House rules and how this table plays

Every family has its own version. This table deals 7 down to 1 and back up, rotates trumps hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades, no trumps, scores a point a trick plus 10 for an exact bid, and plays the hook unless you turn it off before you start. Some players call the game Nomination, Noms or Oh Hell; some play 13 cards down to 1 with four players, or a “blind” round. Those variations are not played here.

Nomination Whist is a game for every player on their own. If you are looking for the partnership game where the highest bidder names trumps, that is Contract Whist.

The complete Nomination Whist rules

The deal from seven cards down to one and back up, the trump order, nominating your tricks, the dealer’s hook, and the scoring, with a worked example of the score sheet.

Read the full Nomination Whist rules