Nomination Whist online
Nomination Whist online: the version with two jokers
You can play a close cousin of Nomination Whist online in Joker AI: nominate how many tricks you’ll take, take exactly that many, and the score is kept for you. The game is Joker, played by four people on 36 cards with two jokers, so it isn’t the version your family plays at the kitchen table, but the nerve of it is the same. It’s free in the browser and on phones, with mates or with bots.
Which Nomination Whist do you mean?
The name covers more than one game in Britain. Most often it means a version of the game Americans call Oh Hell: everyone plays alone, nominates their tricks and scores for hitting the number. The same name is also used for a partnership game, sometimes called Noms, where the highest bidder calls a card to find a partner. Joker AI is close to the first and has nothing to do with the second.
There are no partners here. Four players sit down, each for themselves, and the last to nominate can’t make the numbers add up to the tricks going, so someone at the table will always come unstuck.
What changes from the kitchen table
| Usual house game | Joker in Joker AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pack | 52 cards | 36 cards; two jokers replace the black sixes |
| Players | Often 3 to 7 | Always 4 |
| Trumps | Turned up or chosen by the house rule | Turned up in hands of one to eight; named by the player after the dealer in the nines |
| Hitting your number | A bonus, often 10, plus your tricks | 50 plus 50 per trick nominated, so three is 200 |
| Missing | Usually just your tricks | 10 a trick; nominate and take none and it’s a shtanga, −200 |
House rules vary from one table to the next, so treat the middle column as a rough guide. What doesn’t vary here is the rule set: the engine holds one set of rules, and every number on this page comes from it.
The two jokers
This is the part with no British equivalent. Throw a joker on a trick and it wins outright, even over the ace of trumps, unless a later joker in that trick takes it instead. Or play it as a discard to get out of a trick you don’t want. Lead with one and you name a suit: either everyone must play their top card of it and the joker wins, or the joker counts as the lowest of that suit and gives the trick away.
A lot of the skill lies in what you nominate with a joker in your hand, because it’s a trick you can take or refuse at the last moment. The full rules set this out with examples.
Getting a game going
Open a private table and invite your friends; any seat nobody takes goes to a bot when you start. With no one about, quick play finds an open table or starts a 12-hand game at once. A game is 24 hands, or 12 if you’re short of time, or 40 with the extra chapters. You’ll need a free Amavie account.
Playing with a real pack instead? The score sheet prints on a single A4 page, or adds itself up on your phone.
What a hand pays
| Pass kept — bid 0, took 0 | +50 |
|---|---|
| Bid N and took exactly N | 50 + 50 × N |
| Bid every trick of the hand and took them all | 100 × N |
| Missed either way, took k tricks | 10 × k |
| Shtanga — bid at least one, took none | −100 · −200 · −100 × cards |
| Gold hand, per trick | +100 |
| Misère, per trick taken | −100 |
| Misère flipped — all nine taken, per trick | +100 |
The shtanga is the table’s choice when it is set up; −200 unless agreed otherwise.
Time to move: 30 seconds at tables with people, 15 against bots.
These numbers come straight from the game engine — the same ones the score sheet uses.
Nomination Whist questions
Is Nomination Whist the same as Oh Hell?
Usually, yes. In Britain the name is commonly used for versions of Oh Hell, and pagat.com lists it among that game’s other names. The same words also describe a separate partnership game, so check which one your table plays.
Can I play Nomination Whist online with friends?
You can play this two-joker relative with friends on Joker AI: open a private table and invite them. It’s a game for exactly four, and bots fill any empty seat.
Can I play on my own against the computer?
Yes. Bots play at a Normal or a Strong level, and a game with them can start at once. Your rating only moves in ranked games.
Why can’t the last player nominate any number?
The last player, the dealer, can’t pick the number that would make all the nominations equal the tricks in the hand. It guarantees that someone misses, and it’s the same “hook” many house games use.
Do I pay anything?
No. The game is free, and no money is at stake on any table. The shop only sells the look of your cards and table, in Quanta.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes, in the browser or in the apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, all on the same account. The game is played in landscape.