How to Play Pitch (a card game)

Pitch (also known as Setback, or Auction Pitch) is a card game that I’ve been playing with my extended family for as long as I can remember. It is always the go-to game whenever we are having family gatherings. However, I don’t think I’ve ever come across someone else that has even heard of the game. Now that we’ve all been social distancing for a few weeks now in the midst of coronavirus, my brothers and I have started to play a game or two of Pitch most nights. I thought I’d share some instructions on how to play the game, if you were looking for a new game to play.

Bear with me, it gets a little complicated, but once you pick it up it’s a really fun game.

There are several variations of Pitch, depending on region and personal preference, but I’m going to share the version I grew up with.

Basics

Pitch is a four player game, played in two teams of two. The objective of the game is to get to 12 points. Teammates sit across from each other, and don’t get to see each other’s cards. (hint: when first learning, it might be helpful to play a few open hands, where everyone can see all of the cards on the table). Anyone can deal first, as there is a different dealer each hand. Ace cards are the highest value, and 2 cards are the lowest value.

Dealing

The dealer will distribute 6 cards to each player, giving cards to the player on the left first, and dealing to themselves last. The dealer gives out three cards at a time, facedown. The hand just dealt will consist of 6 turns or “tricks” as they are called in Pitch, as each player has 6 cards. After the hand is entirely played, the person to the left of the dealer will become the new dealer.

Points

This is where it gets tricky. In each hand dealt, there are a total of four possible points to be earned. The points are determined by the trump suit (trump suit will be explained in the bidding section). The four points are: high card of trump (usually an Ace or King), low card of trump (usually a 2 or 3 card), Jack card of trump, and game point (which is slightly more complicated and will have a separate section). Because there are only 24 cards dealt each hand, there won’t always be a Jack of trump, and the high and low cards can vary from hand to hand. The absolute highest is ace, and the absolute lowest is 2, but these aren’t necessarily dealt either. So, each hand, you and your teammate want to try and get as many of these four points as possible.

Game Point

Game point is the only point not based on the trump suit. Instead, it is a tally of face cards and “10” cards that your team has won over the course of the hand (a hand is 6 tricks, it is over when everyone has thrown all of their cards). Each face card and 10 card has a value that is added up, and the team with the higher value gets the “game” point. The values are:

Ace = 4 points

King = 3 points

Queen = 2 points

Jack = 1 point

10 = 10 points

This makes 10 cards very valuable, as they will boost your value significantly more than face cards, when adding for game point. Remember, the suit does not matter for game point, all face cards and 10 cards are added.

Bidding

Players “bid” for the number of points they think their team can earn in the hand. You cannot bid 1, and the highest you can bid is 4, because there are only 4 points each hand (bidding 4 is rare, you would need an extremely good hand to confidently bid 4 points). The bidding starts to the player on the left of the dealer. The options are to bid 2 points, 3 points, 4 points, or pass. The advantage of bidding is that you get to choose the trump suit (unless you are outbid by another player). However, if you bid and you don’t score that number of points (or more), you lose whatever you bid. So, on the first hand, if you bid 2 and your team fails to score 2 points, your score would be -2. Passing is quite common, as players don’t want to bid on a bad hand and potentially lose points. If everyone passes, then the dealer is stuck with a 2 bid. If someone has bid a 2, but you want to bid, you have to bid higher than them with either a 3 or a 4. Usually, to confidently bid, you want at least three cards of the same suit, one of them being an Ace, and another being a face card. This isn’t always the case, however, and you might be stuck with only two of the same suit, or even just one. If you don’t have an Ace or a King, it’s probably not a good idea to bid.

Trump Suit

Whoever has the highest bid gets to throw the first card. Whatever suit is thrown first becomes “trump” for that entire hand, and any card in that suit becomes the highest ranking card. So, let’s say the dealer is player 1, to their left is player 2, then player 3 and 4. 1 & 3 will be the “odds” team and 2 & 4 will be the “evens.” Player 2 bids first, let’s say they bid 2 and everyone else passes. This gives player 2 the opportunity to choose the trump suit, so they will want to pick something they think they can win with. Player 2 will throw the first card, and let’s say it’s an Ace of spades. This makes spades the trump suit for the entire hand, and the highest spade card each hand will win the trick. Hopefully, between player 2 and 4, they can win hands with the Ace of Spades, 2 of Spades, and Jack of Spades, which would ¾ of the points for that hand. If the “evens” have enough spades between them, they will also likely win enough face cards and 10 cards to earn the game point as well.

Game Play scenario

Taking the same game scenario above, where player 2 led with the Ace of Spades, Player 3 would be the next player to throw their card. Because a spades card was the first card thrown this trick, player 3 has to throw a spades card if they have one. If they don’t, they can throw anything, but they might want to hold on to any face cards or 10 cards. However, let’s say Player 3 has the Jack of spades, and that is their only spade, Player 3 would have to throw that card giving the Jack of trump point away. Now, it is player 4’s turn. Player 4 doesn’t have any trump cards (spades, this hand) but they do have a 10. Player 4 knows that the “evens” will win this trick, because their partner threw the highest card in the beginning (ace of spades). A 10 card might not win a trick, but because the evens have already won this one, player 4 can safely throw the 10 card, which will count towards the game point at the end of the hand. Now it is player 1’s turn (the dealer). Player 1 has the 5 and the 2 of spades. Because neither of these cards will beat the ace of spades that player 2 threw, player 1 would want to throw the 5 of spades. They have to throw spades, because spades was led, but the 2 of spades is one of the points for the hand. If player 1 throws the 2 of spades in a different trick with no other spades, player 1 would win that trick because trump cards outrank all other cards.

Now, because Player 2 won the trick, they will lead off the next trick as well. The “evens” have already secured the 2 points that were bid (the high point — Ace, and the Jack point) so they are not worried about getting “set” (losing the points you bid, because you didn’t reach that number of points). Let’s say Player 2 has another spade, but it’s a 10, and they don’t know if the odds still have spades, because they were both able to follow spades on the first round. If one of them had the king or the queen, player 2 would lose the 10. However, they do have a King of Diamonds, so they decide to lead with that on trick #2. Now, this does not make Diamonds the trump suit, because it is still the same hand (with 6 tricks in a hand). However, because diamonds were led at the beginning of the hand, players do have to follow diamonds if they have it. This is one of the trickier parts of the game to understand: You must always follow suit if you have it (in this trick it’s diamonds) OR you can trump in at any time. This time, the only other player with trump is player 1, who still has the 2 of spades. So, player 2 leads with the King of Diamonds. Let’s say player 3 and 4 have diamonds but they are just a 7 and a 5. These cards don’t have any value, because they are not trump suit (spades in this hand) and they aren’t face cards or 10s, so they won’t be counted towards the game point. However, they are the only diamonds they have so they have to follow suit with them. Now it’s player 1’s turn, and because no spades were thrown, the 2 of spades will win this trick. Player 1 is “trumping in,” and will earn the low of trump point for the hand. Because Player 1 won that trick, they will have the first turn on trick #3, and whatever suit is thrown, again, players have to follow it if they can, or trump in.

So, this was a bit more complicated to write out than I imagined it would be. There are a lot of rules, and trying to learn anything from written instructions can be challenging. But there are a lot of great tutorials on YouTube and card game websites if you need visual instruction. Or, drop a comment and I’m happy to answer any question about Pitch. We all have plenty of time now to learn new things, so I wanted to share this card game that I’ve played my whole life, but has been a great evening activity during the quarantine.