Pitch Basics

Pitch is fast-paced, partnership, trick-taking game with a variety of popular rule options. The game is also known as Auction Pitch or Setback. Unlike some other trick-taking games, the goal in Pitch is to capture cards representing at least the number of points you bid.

Trickster Pitch currently supports 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 9-, 10-, 11-, and 13-point versions. Described below are the two most popular played in automatch Play games: 4-point and 10-point. See the Variations and Options sections for a discussion of all the available versions.

4-point Pitch

Our 4-point variation is played with a standard 52-card deck with Ace high. Six cards are dealt to each player resulting in 24 out of 52 cards in play per hand. Points are awarded for being dealt the lowest-rank trump in play, for taking the highest-rank trump in play and the Jack of trump (if in play), and a game point awarded for taking the most game-point points (see Scoring, below).

10-point Pitch

Our 10-point variation is played with a 54-card deck, the standard 52 plus two Jokers—red and black (Trickster Pitch designates Jokers with a ★). The two Jokers are ranked between the 10 and Jack with the red Joker ranked higher than the black Joker. Trump consists of all the cards of the called suit plus the off-Jack (Jack of the other suit the same color of trump), and the two Jokers for 16 trump cards. One point is awarded for taking the Ace, Jack, off-Jack, high Joker, low Joker, and 10 of trump. Three points are awarded for taking the 3 of trump. One point is awarded to the player who is dealt the 2 of trump.

Players are initially dealt nine cards. Following a single round of bidding, the player with the highest point bid (called the “pitcher”) chooses trump. (If all players pass, the hand is redealt.) Once trump is set, starting with the player on the pitcher’s left, the non-trump cards are discarded and the hands refilled to six from the undealt cards (if a player held more than 6 trump, the lowest-value trump cards are discarded as well). After the other three hands are refilled, the pitcher gets all the remaining cards and discards back to six. All the discarding and refilling is handled automatically in Trickster Pitch.

Math Moment: We start with a 54-card deck and deal 36 cards, 9 to each of 4 players. That leaves 18 cards undealt to be used to refill hands after the discard. In the extremely unusual case that none of the non-pitchers held trump, all of 18 undealt cards would be used to refill their hands. In that case, the pitcher would get no more cards but would still have to discard 3 to get back to 6.

Bidding

After the cards are dealt, starting with the player to the dealer’s left, players bid the number of points they and their partner expect take. In 4-point pitch, there’s a maximum of 4 points unless the Jack of trump is not in play, in which case there’s only 3. In 10-point pitch, there are 10 points available, and the opening bid must be at least 5. The highest point bid becomes the pitcher and earns the right to choose trump.

If the first three bidders pass, the last bidder (the dealer) must bid. This is typically referred to as “Stick the Dealer” or “Force Bid.”

Play

Following bidding and the setting of trump (and discard/refill in 10-point), the pitcher leads the first trick. In our 10-point game, you may only play trump. When you are out of trump, your hand is folded. In our 4-point game, you must either follow the led suit or play trump. You may play trump at any time in our standard 4-point rules.

Play continues until all the playable cards are played.

Scoring 4-, 5-, 6- and 9-Point

Points are awarded to the pitching team only if they make their bid. Points earned by the defenders are always awarded.

Up to four, five, six or nine points are awarded as follows:

The game point is awarded to the team which has taken cards worth the most points according to the table below. Points are assigned by rank independent of suit. Trump doesn’t matter here. If both teams amass the same number of points, no game point is awarded.

You can view the breakdown of game point by clicking on the highlighted word “Game” in the hand score summary displayed in the scorecard at the end of each hand. Here’s an example game point breakdown:

The first team to 11 total points wins the game. In the event of a tie, the pitching team wins.

Scoring 7-, 10-, 11- and 13-Point

Points are awarded to the pitching team only if they make their bid. Points earned by the defenders are always awarded.

Seven to thirteen points are awarded as follows:

The first team to 32 total points wins. In the event of a tie, the pitching team wins.