Question 1

How do you play Judgement (Short)?

Accepted Answer

Each round you are dealt a hand — 5 cards in the first round, shrinking to 1 and growing back again. A card is turned up to set the trump suit. Every player says how many tricks they think they will take. Then the tricks are played, following suit if you can. You score only if you take *exactly* the number you bid.

Question 2

Is this free? Do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

Free, no account, no download. You play against three bots in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

Question 3

What else is this game called?

Accepted Answer

Oh Hell, Blackout. It is the same game under all of them: Oh Hell is the usual name in Britain and America, Judgement is what it is called across South Asia, and Kachuful is the Hindi name. Nomination Whist usually means the no-trump version.

Question 4

How does the scoring work?

Accepted Answer

Hit your bid exactly and you score 10 points plus one for each trick — so a bid of three, made, is 13. Miss it in either direction and you score nothing at all for the round. Taking more tricks than you bid is exactly as bad as taking fewer, which is the rule that makes the game what it is.

Question 5

Why can I not bid whatever I want in the last seat?

Accepted Answer

Because of the hook — the last player to bid may not choose the number that would make everyone's bids add up to the tricks available. Somebody at the table has to be wrong. It is the rule the game is named for: without it every round can be comfortable for all four players, and the whole point is that it cannot be.

Question 6

What does "following suit" mean?

Accepted Answer

If you hold a card of the suit that was led, you must play one. Only when you have none of that suit may you play anything else. This is enforced — cards you cannot legally play are dimmed rather than merely refused, so you can see the rule instead of running into it.

Question 7

Which card wins a trick?

Accepted Answer

The highest trump, if any trump was played. Otherwise the highest card of the suit that was led. A card that is neither trump nor the led suit cannot win however high it is — a discarded ace takes nothing, which is the part people forget.

Question 8

Is bidding zero a good idea?

Accepted Answer

Often the best bid on the table. Zero is scored like any other exact bid, and a hand full of low cards can make it reliably — while the same hand bidding one is a coin flip. Ducking well is a real skill and most beginners never bid zero at all.

Question 9

How should I decide what to bid?

Accepted Answer

Count your near-certain winners: aces, protected kings, and high trumps. Then add roughly half a trick for each suit you are void in, because being out of a suit is what lets a small trump matter. Then take a little off, because the count assumes every winner survives and in a real hand somebody plays over the top of you.

Question 10

Why did I lose a round I bid correctly on?

Accepted Answer

You did not lose it for bidding — you lost it for taking the wrong number. Once you have made your bid, extra tricks are poison, so late in a round the correct play is usually to throw your highest card away rather than win with it. Players coming from other trick games find this the hardest habit to break.

Question 11

How good are the opponents?

Accepted Answer

Competent rather than unbeatable, and deliberately so. They value their hands the way a person does, they duck once they have made their bid, and they take a trick with their cheapest winner rather than their best card. What they do not do is count cards — a bot that never forgets what has been played would beat almost everyone almost every hand, and losing to that is not fun.

Question 12

Do the bots cheat?

Accepted Answer

No. They see their own hand and the cards on the table, exactly as you do. The deal is fixed when the round starts, from the game number, and nothing is re-dealt or adjusted based on how you are doing. Replay the same number and you will get the same cards.

Question 13

Why do the hand sizes go up and down?

Accepted Answer

It is the shape of the game. A one-card round is pure nerve — you see a single card and guess — and a seven-card round is a real counting exercise. Laddering between them means the game keeps changing character instead of being thirteen repetitions of the same problem.

Question 14

What happens on a one-card round?

Accepted Answer

Everyone gets one card and bids nought or one. It is the most luck-dependent round and often the funniest, because there is almost nothing to reason about — and it is still worth points, so a run of luck there can swing a game.

Question 15

Can I play with more or fewer players?

Accepted Answer

Yes — this site has 4-player and 3-player tables. Fewer players means more of the deck stays unseen, which makes every bid a bigger gamble; more players means the tricks are spread thinner and low bids get safer.

Question 16

Is there a version without trumps?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it plays quite differently. With no trump suit, being void in something is worth nothing and there is no way to beat a high card except with a higher one of the same suit. Bids get more predictable and the game becomes almost pure counting.

Question 17

Can I undo a card?

Accepted Answer

No. Three other players have already seen it, and a card you can take back is not a card you played. You can see exactly which cards are legal before you commit, which is the useful half of undo without the dishonest half.

Question 18

Can I replay the same deal?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every game has a number and the same number always deals the same cards for every round, so you can hand somebody the link and see who does better with identical hands.

Question 19

How long does a game take?

Accepted Answer

9 rounds and 29 tricks, so roughly 2–3 minutes depending on how long you think about your bids. The short version exists for when that is too long.

Question 20

Can I play on a phone?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The hand fans rather than laying out flat, because seven cards side by side on a phone would be fifty pixels each and unreadable — every card keeps its index and suit visible, and the one you are about to play lifts.

Question 21

Where does this game come from?

Accepted Answer

It appeared in Britain in the 1930s and spread under a lot of names, most of them jokes about the moment you realise your bid is going wrong. It has stayed popular for the same reason it started: the rules take a minute, and the bidding is genuinely hard.