Rules

Nomination whist is a card game for 3 to 6 players

General rules of whist

	A suit is designated as 'trumps' and each player is dealt the same number of cards.
	One player leads a card and subsequent players lay a card in turn.
	Players must follow suit if possible, otherwise play a trump or throw a card of a different suit.
	When each player has laid a card a 'trick' is completed.
	The winner of the trick is the highest card in the suit led, unless a trump has been played, in which case the highest trump wins. Aces are high.
	The winner of the trick is the leader for the next trick.
	Play continues until all cards have been played.

Specific rules for nomination whist

	Ten cards are dealt in the first round, nine in the next and so on through 8, 7,...2, 1, 2, ...8, 9, 10 (for 6 players the order is: 8, 7, ..., 2, 1, 2, ...7, 8)
	Trumps are changed each round, rotating through Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, No Trumps.  (Apologies if this offends any bridge players).
	The lead player is also rotated each round.
	Once the cards have been dealt, the lead player estimates how many tricks they will win and makes a 'bid' of this number. Subsequent players each bid in turn.
	The last player cannot bid such that the total of the bids equals the number of cards dealt. For example, with 10 cards and 4 players, if the first three players bid 3, 0 and 3, then the final player could not bid 4 because 3 + 0 + 3 + 4 = 10. This ensures that on each round at least one player will get it wrong.
	Once the bidding is complete, the lead player leads and play continues as in normal whist.
	When the round is complete, the scores are calculated.

Scoring

	1 point per trick won, plus 10 point bonus if the number of tricks won exactly equals number bid. For example, if you bid 1 but win 2 you score 2; if you bid 3 and win 3 you score 3 + 10 = 13.
	For 3-5 players a score of 200+ is very good.

Nomination Whist is also known as 'Oh Hell' and 'Weetabix'. In addition, it seems that several different games go by the name of Nomination Whist. A similar version is described here: nomwhist