The standard method of dealing has the dealer begin by dealing out 1 card to each player for the first hand. You will also want to determine beforehand the score keeper, method of keeping score, and the number of hands you will play since Oh Hell has many variations. The deal and play of the game proceeds clockwise, with players determining the initial deal by each drawing a card and the player with the highest card ends up being the initial dealer.

When playing with six or more players, using two 52 card decks for a total of 104 cards or a specialized 500 deck which has 63 total cards. In this game the ranking of the cards is conventional with an Ace being the highest card and a 2 being the lowest and all other cards ranked in order. When playing with five or fewer players, the standard 52 card deck works best. Unlike other trick taking games, the object of Oh Hell is to take the exact number of tricks you bid, no more and no less.

Some of the more politically correct may prefer one of the variant names for this trick taking card game, such as Oh Pshaw, Oh Well, or Up and Down the River, but for everyone else, Oh Hell sufficiently captures the emotions which can change quickly in this up and down game.