Pitch (Setback) — rules card

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Pitch (Setback) 3 to 8 players · one 52-card pack THE IDEA • There are exactly FOUR POINTS in a hand, however many people are playing. • You bid for the right to name trump, and then you have to take at least as many points as you said. • First to 10 wins. THE RULE THAT CATCHES EVERYBODY • Even when you CAN follow the suit that was led, you may play a TRUMP instead. Always. • The only thing forbidden is throwing away a different suit while you still hold the one led. • This is not how Hearts, Spades or Euchre work, and it is most of what makes Pitch its own game. THE BIDDING • Bid 2, 3 or SMUDGE — or pass. Smudge says you will take all four. There is no bid of 4; that is what Smudge is. • If everybody passes, the dealer is stuck with it at two. • The dealer may MATCH the highest bid to take it. Everybody else has to beat it. • The winning bidder leads the first card, and WHATEVER SUIT THEY LEAD IS TRUMP. THE FOUR POINTS • HIGH — the highest trump anybody played, to whoever held it. • LOW — the lowest trump anybody played, to whoever held it. (Every card is played here, so that also means whoever was dealt it.) • JACK — the jack of trump, if it was dealt at all, to whoever WINS THE TRICK IT FALLS IN. That may not be who played it. • GAME — count the cards you took: ace 4, king 3, queen 2, jack 1, and a TEN IS WORTH TEN. Most points takes Game; a tie gives it to nobody. • The ten beating the ace is the strangest thing in this game, and it is right. SCORING • Make your bid and you score everything you took. • Miss it and you are SET BACK by the amount you bid — which can put you below zero. That is the "setback" the game is named after. • Everybody who did not bid always scores what they took, made or missed. WORDS THIS GAME USES Pitch — To lead the first card, which also names trump. The game is named after the act. Trump — The suit that beats all others. Here it is decided by a card somebody led, not announced — which is why the game keeps a chip on screen saying what it was. Smudge — A bid to take all four points. The highest bid there is. Set back — Losing the amount you bid because you did not make it. Your score can go negative. Game point — The fourth point, won by counting the value of the cards you took rather than by any single card. WHERE THESE CAME FROM No authority exists. This is the honest answer and it belongs on the card. Auction Pitch is a folk game with a dozen published versions that contradict each other, most of all about Low. Pagat records several; none of them is "the" rules, and neither is this. These are ours. w.richardpringle.com/games/pitch/ ▲ FOLD ▼ ▲ FOLD ▼ ▲ FOLD ▼ FOLD & TEAR