Pitch

Players and equipment

Pitch is the North American bidding game grown out of All Fours, and it goes by Setback, Auction Pitch and High Low Jack depending on where you learnt it. The usual table is four players in two partnerships, partners sitting across from each other, and that is the game described here. It also plays each for themselves — Cutthroat Pitch — with two or more at the table, and six can play as three pairs; both are under Variations. The row here seats up to six.

One standard 52-card pack, no jokers. Cards rank ace high down to two in every suit. Play goes clockwise. You will want something to keep the score on, because a side's total goes up and down and can sit below zero for a while; SquareScores does that and nothing else — it deals no cards and sees no trick.

The deal

Choose a first dealer however you like; after that the deal passes to the left after every hand. Shuffle, cut, and deal six cards to each player, three at a time, starting on your left. The rest of the pack goes face down out of the way and is not used again in this hand. Only 24 cards are in play when four sit down, which matters: the two of trumps may not have been dealt at all, and nor may the jack.

Play

Every hand opens with one round of bidding, starting with the player on the dealer's left and going round once. A bid is the number of the four points — High, Low, Jack and Game — your side undertakes to win in this hand. You may pass, or bid higher than the bid before you. The bids are two, three, four and smudge, which is a bid to take all four points and all six tricks. The lowest bid is two.

The dealer bids last and has one privilege: the dealer may take the bid by matching the highest bid so far instead of raising it. That is called stealing the bid. And if the other three all pass, the dealer is not allowed to pass: the dealer must bid at least two, and plays the hand on it. Every hand gets played.

The high bidder is the pitcher. The pitcher leads to the first trick, and the suit of that first card is trumps for the hand — that lead is the pitch the game is named for. Some tables have the pitcher name a suit out loud before leading; either way the pitcher chooses, and the choice is made with the first lead.

On every trick you must follow suit if you can, with one exception that runs through the whole game: you may play a trump at any time, whether or not you hold the suit led. If you have no card of the suit led, you may play anything. A trick is won by the highest trump in it, or, if no trump was played, by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of a trick leads to the next, and after six tricks the hand is over.

Scoring

Four points are on offer in every hand, one each.

High

1

The highest trump dealt, scored by the side that was dealt it

Low

1

The lowest trump dealt, scored by the side that wins the trick it is played to

Jack

1

The jack of trumps, scored by the side that wins the trick it is played to

Game

1

The side whose tricks hold the greater value in tens and court cards

Smudge

5

All six tricks and all four points, bid as smudge beforehand

High is yours the moment trumps are known: nothing can beat the top trump, so the side holding it has the point. Low is the lowest trump actually dealt — the two if it is out, otherwise the three, and so on — and it goes to whoever takes the trick it is played to, not to whoever was dealt it. Jack goes the same way, to the side that wins the trick the jack of trumps falls in; if the jack was not dealt, nobody scores it that hand, and only three points are available. Game is a count of the cards in the tricks each side won: ten for each ten, four for each ace, three for a king, two for a queen and one for a jack. The whole pack holds 80 of these, but only the dealt cards count, and a tie scores Game for nobody.

Ten

10

The card that decides Game

Ace

4

Four, in any suit

King

3

Three

Queen

2

Two

Jack

1

One, trump jack included

When the hand has been played, each side counts what it won. The side that did not bid scores every point it took, always. The bidding side scores its points if it took at least the number it bid. If it took fewer, it is set back: the bid is subtracted from its total, and it scores nothing for the points it did win. A side at three that bids three and makes two goes to zero; a side at one goes to minus two, which is called being in the hole. A smudge that comes off scores five, not four; a smudge that fails — one trick lost, or a point missed — costs five, and the hand is still played out so the defenders can score what they take.

On SquareScores a round on the sheet is a hand. After each hand each side enters the points it scored in its own column: the defenders what they took, the pitcher's side what it took if it made its bid. For partners, switch Play in teams on in the Players section and tick two animals: each pair is one column on the sheet and either partner enters it. The sheet takes whole numbers from zero, so a side that is set enters 0 for the hand and owes its bid: it takes that many off the next points it scores before entering them, so a side set back three that then makes two enters 0 again and still owes one. A side in the hole is a side owing points, and the column shows the total it has climbed back to. The line is at 21 and the host can move it, but the line does not end the match, because of the rule under Ending: a side has to win on its own bid. Play on past the line until a side goes out properly, then End match banks the result and the next hand deals.

A worked hand

Alice and Ben play Cara and Dev. Alice, on the dealer's left, bids three; the others pass. She pitches the ace of hearts, so hearts are trumps, and that ace is High for her side before a trick is played.

Cara was dealt the jack of hearts and Dev the three; no two of hearts came out, so the three is Low. On the second trick Alice leads the king of hearts hoping to draw the jack, and Cara has to follow with it — Alice and Ben take the jack. On the fourth trick Dev throws his three of hearts on a club trick Cara wins with a trump, so Low stays with Cara and Dev. Then the count. Alice and Ben's tricks hold the ace of hearts, the king of hearts, the jack of hearts, the king of spades, the ten of diamonds and a queen: 4 and 3 and 1 and 3 and 10 and 2, which is 23. Cara and Dev's hold the ace of diamonds, the ten of clubs, the ten of spades, a queen and a jack: 4 and 10 and 10 and 2 and 1, which is 27.

Alice and Ben

Set back 3

High and Jack, two points on a bid of three

Cara and Dev

2

Low and Game

Alice and Ben

0

Entered on the sheet

Cara and Dev

2

Entered on the sheet

Alice bid three and made two. Her side scores nothing for the two it took and loses three: it enters 0 and owes three against the next points it makes. The two tens Cara and Dev gathered on tricks nobody cared about won them the Game point, 27 to 23, and the hand. Had Alice bid two, the same cards would have scored her side two and left Cara and Dev with their two, and the lesson of the hand is that one bid too many turns a plus into a minus.

Ending

The first side to 21 wins, with one condition that every table plays: you can only go out on a hand in which your side bid and made it. A side that crosses 21 on points taken while defending has not won yet; it plays on, and wins at the end of the first later hand it bids and makes. The defenders can keep playing hands against a side that is stuck at 23 or 24 waiting for a bid to come off, and sometimes the lower side bids, makes it and wins first, which is the whole drama of the end of a game of Pitch. Scores below zero are ordinary, and a side that has been set twice climbs back the same way as everybody else, one bid at a time. On SquareScores, when a side has gone out, tap End match: it banks the game, the leaderboard counts a game won, and the sheet is ready for the next deal.

Bid on trumps, not on faces

Beginners bid on a hand full of aces and kings and get set. The only cards that matter much are in one suit — the one you will pitch — and a long suit with the ace is worth more than three aces in three suits. The ace of your suit is High for certain; the king is High if the ace was not dealt, which with 24 of 52 cards out is better than even. Count how many of the four points your trumps give you for sure, and bid that, not the hand you hope you have.

Low is won, not held

Being dealt the two of trumps does not score Low in this version; you have to win the trick it falls in, or your partner does. So a lone two is a liability — it will be forced out under somebody's trump — while a two sitting beside a high trump is safe, because you can lead the high one and drop the two under it. When you hold a low trump and nothing to protect it, the best you can do is throw it on a trick your partner is winning.

The jack decides most hands

The jack of trumps is a point that can be captured, and the ace, king and queen of trumps all beat it. If you hold the jack and nothing above it, keep it back and hope to drop it on a partner's trick; if you hold the ace, lead it early and see what falls. Defenders should remember that the jack may not have been dealt at all: if trumps have been led twice and no jack has shown, it is probably in the dead cards, and there are only three points to fight over.

Tens are the Game point

Game is worth exactly as much as High, and it is the point the pitcher most often loses. A ten is worth as much as two kings and an ace together, and a ten in a plain suit is nearly impossible to save on your own, because any trump takes it. Partners defending should feed tens to each other's winning tricks and keep the pitcher's tens away from them; a pitcher with a one-suited hand should expect to lose Game and bid accordingly.

The dealer's steal and the forced bid

Stealing the bid at the same number is a real edge: with a fair hand the dealer gets to pitch at two or three without paying for it, so the player on the dealer's left should bid a little higher than comfort when the hand is good, to take the steal away. And when three have passed, the dealer is playing a two whether they like it or not — so on a weak hand, pass in front of the dealer and let them carry it.

Cutthroat Pitch

Everyone plays for themselves, the bidding and play exactly as above. Each player scores the points they take, the pitcher is set back alone, and the first to 21 on their own bid wins. With three or more at the table the others gang up on the pitcher, which makes bidding a harder sum. Two can play Cutthroat head to head, and it is a decent two-handed game, though with twelve cards out, the jack and the two are absent more often than not. On SquareScores leave Play in teams off for Cutthroat, so everyone has a column of their own.

Low to the holder

A great many tables score Low for the side that was dealt the lowest trump rather than the side that wins it, matching High. It makes the two a point you cannot lose and takes some of the play out of the hand; settle which way you are scoring before the first deal.

Pitching instead of bidding

In this older form, a player whose turn it is to bid may simply lead a card instead. That is a bid of four with the suit led as trumps, and nobody later can outbid it, though the dealer may still take it away by pitching too or by bidding smudge. It makes a strong hand play at four whether or not anybody would have bid it, so games are shorter and set-backs commoner.

Draw after the pitch

Once trumps are known, each player discards face down as many non-trumps as they like, and the dealer refills every hand to six from the undealt pack. You may not throw a trump away. It puts more trumps in play, makes smudge a bid you see, and makes Low a two far more often, because the two is more likely to have been drawn.

No trumps on the first trick

The pitcher may open with a plain-suit card, and on that first trick nobody may play a trump. The usual use is to lead an ace in a plain suit so your partner can drop a ten under it and bank a chunk of Game before the trumps start.

Smudge only over four

Some tables let a smudge, or shooting the moon, be bid only after somebody has bid four. Making it scores four, as if four had been bid, and failing drops the pitcher straight to minus four whatever the score was before.

Six-hand Pitch

Three partnerships of two, partners opposite each other, eight cards dealt to each and two discarded face down once trumps are known, so that six tricks are played as usual. Four cards stay out of the hand.

Ten-point Pitch

The big-table forms played across the Midwest — Oklahoma Pitch among them — add points for the off-jack, the jack of the same colour as trumps, for one or two jokers, and often for the three of trumps, and score Game to whoever wins the ten of trumps rather than by counting. Bids run from two up to the number of points in the hand, there is usually no smudge, and games are still to 21 at most tables. One nine-card form with a minimum bid of four plays to 52, and the host moves the line for it. The scoring sheet works the same way — a hand is a row, a side that is set enters 0 and owes its bid — but the row of points is a different one, so agree it at the table before the first deal.

Nine-card and Fish Pitch

Nine-card Pitch deals nine, bids run from three to six and adds points for the five of trumps and the high spade. Fish Pitch deals twelve, six in hand and six face down in front of you, which you may play blind from the second trick on. Fish Pitch keeps the ordinary bidding, the 21 and the set-back. Nine-card Pitch counts the other way: each side starts at 21, takes off the points it makes on a bid that comes off, and goes up by the bid when it is set, and the first side to reach zero or below on a hand it made — or a hand the other side failed — wins. It is the same arithmetic seen from the other end, so on the sheet enter it as ordinary Pitch, points made going up towards the line at 21.

How many cards do you deal in Pitch?

Six to each player, dealt three at a time, from a standard 52-card pack. With four players that leaves 28 cards face down and out of the hand, which is why the two of trumps and the jack of trumps are often not in play at all. Some tables then let everyone discard non-trumps and draw back up to six once trumps are known.

What are the four points in High Low Jack?

High is the highest trump dealt, and it belongs to the side that holds it. Low is the lowest trump dealt, and goes to the side that wins the trick it is played to. Jack is the jack of trumps, to the side that wins the trick it falls in. Game is the side whose tricks hold the most in tens, aces, kings, queens and jacks, counted ten, four, three, two and one. One point each, so four a hand, or five for a smudge that takes every trick.

What does it mean to be set back in Pitch?

If the side that won the bidding takes fewer points than it bid, it is set back: the number it bid is subtracted from its score and it gets nothing for the points it did win. A side can go below zero this way, which is called being in the hole, and climbs out by making bids later. The side that did not bid always scores what it took.

Can you win Pitch without bidding?

No. You need 21 or more, and you can only win at the end of a hand in which your side bid and made the bid. A side that passes 21 on points taken while defending keeps playing until it bids and makes a hand, and the other side can overtake it in the meantime by bidding and making a hand before it does.

Do you have to follow suit in Pitch?

Yes if you can, with one big exception: you may play a trump on any trick, even when you hold the suit led. If you cannot follow suit you may play any card at all. The highest trump wins the trick, or the highest card of the suit led when nobody trumped.

What is smudge in Pitch?

A bid to take all four points and all six tricks. It is worth five points if it comes off, and costs five if it fails, which it does the moment the pitcher's side loses a trick or misses a point. You only get the five for a smudge you bid; winning every trick on a bid of four scores four.

Is Setback the same game as Pitch?

Yes. Setback, Auction Pitch and High Low Jack are all names for this game, taken from the penalty, the bidding and the points. The name Pitch comes from the first lead, which decides the trump suit. Cinch, Pedro and Smear are cousins that add more points to the hand and are different games.

Can two people play Pitch?

Yes, as Cutthroat: the same six-card deal, one round of bidding where the dealer bids last and may steal, and each player scores for themselves. With only twelve cards dealt, Low is often a five or a six and the jack is missing more hands than not, so bids of two make most of the game.