Overview
Pitch is a trick taking game where teams of players try to be the first to reach 52 points. Pitch is played with two to eight players individually or divided into two teams.
Ranking of Cards
In Pitch, Aces are high and 2s are low. The off-suited Jack to trump is called the Jick. The Jick is ranked below the Jack of trump. In Pitch, Jokers are in play. The High and Low Jokers are ranked below the Jick and above the 10 of trump.
Presets
- Four Point: Played without Jokers
- Ten Point: Standard pitch as outlined in this guide
CardzMania offers these two presets as quick selection, but you can actually play any number of points from 4 points to 16 points by configuring different variations as you prefer.
Play Multiplayer Pitch Online
The Deck and the Deal
Pitch is played with a 54 card deck, with Jokers included. After teams are decided amongst the players, the dealer passes out 3 sets of 3 cards clockwise to each player.
How to Play
Auction
Beginning with the player left of the dealer, players bid on how many tricks they can make in the round. The minimum bid is 2 . Players must raise a bid made or pass. Once all players pass after a bid is made, the winner of the bid becomes the declarer. The declarer decides on the trump suit for the round.
If all players pass before a bid is made, the dealer must make a bid of 2. This is called Sticking it to the Dealer.
Play
The declarer leads the first trick and the suit of the 'pitched' card becomes the trump. Going clockwise, players try to win the trick. The winner of a trick leads the next trick.
Cards in tricks won are then tallied for points.
Scoring
Points are shared between teammates. Only trump suited cards are worth points.
Ace, Jack, Jick, High/Low Joker and 10 are worth 1 point each.
The 3 of trump is worth 3 points.
The 2 of trump is worth 1 point, but it is given to the person who played it, not the person who won it.
If a declarer loses their bid, the number of points they won is subtracted from their team's score. If they have negative points, they are 'In the Hole'.
After points are tallied, the cards are reshuffled and the dealer position rotates clockwise.
Winning
Traditionally, the team who reaches 32 points first wins the game, however, at CardzMania, you can decide the winning-point threshold.
Variations
CardzMania supports several customizable rules and options so you can play Pitch exactly how you like or how you grew up playing with your friends and family. In addition to the classic way of playing, we often have new creative options for you to try to spice up the game if you are interested in trying different spins for fun.
Points
Players determine a set amount of points when the game ends.
Rounds
Players determine a set amount of rounds (also known as hands or deals) that the game will go to (instead of the points selection above).
Timer
Players only have a set amount of time to make their turn after which a turn is automatically played for them and the game proceeds: Fast is 7 seconds, Standard is 15 seconds, Slow is 30 seconds, and Very Slow is 60 seconds. Players can also choose to disable the timer, but that is only for private tables.
Teams
Players can decide to play in teams or to play by themselves.
Max bid points
Players can decide to only win the number of points that you bid. There are no overtricks.
Only bidder scores
Players can decide that only the declarer can win points in a round
Deck
Players can select the deck to be used. The options available are default (full deck); five and up; two, five and up; nine and up; two, nine and up; six, nine and up.
Deal
Players can decide how many cards are dealt to each person. The options that are available are 6, 7, 8 or 9. When more than six cards are selected to be dealt, non trump cards are automatically discarded until you have 6 cards left in your hand (before the tricks start).
Draw
Players can choose to draw cards from the deck to discard non trump cards. When enabled, the declarer chooses the trump, after which the rest of the deck is distributed to all players. Then non trump cards are discarded until all players have 6 cards left in their hand (before the tricks start).
Trump start
Players can choose whether declarer must start with trump when they have declared trump before the start of trick taking. This option is enabled by default.
Trump anytime
Players can choose to allow playing trump on any trick irrespective of whether you have the suit or not. This option is enabled by default.
Minimum bid
Players can decide the minimum bid for Pitch.The options that are available are 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.
Dealer steal
Players can choose whether the dealer can steal the bid (make a bid equal to the current winning bid to become the declarer). This option is enabled by default.
Stick the dealer
Dealer can't pass if everyone else has passed. This option is enabled by default.
Shoot the moon
Players can select whether to play with 'shoot the moon' as a final point or not. They can also select what constitutes shooting the moon. Options available are winning all tricks or winning all points. When the declarer bids maximum points and successfully shoots the moon, this point will be awarded. This option is set to all tricks by default.
Game point
Players can select whether to play with 'game point' i.e. the player/team with the most points gets an additional point. This option is enabled by default for four point pitch and disabled for ten point pitch.
Trump High
Players can choose whether to play with trump high as an additional point or not. This option is enabled by default.
Trump Jack
Players can choose whether to play with trump jack as an additional point or not. This option is enabled by default.
Trump Ten
Players can choose whether to play with trump ten as an additional point or not. This option is disabled for four point pitch by enabled for ten point pitch.
Off jack
Players can choose whether to play with Off jack (same color as trump suit also known as the jick) as an additional point or not. This option is disabled for four point pitch by enabled for ten point pitch.
Jokers
Play with or without jokers in the deck, each joker counts as an additional point. This is disabled for four point pitch and defaults to 2 jokers for ten point pitch.
Trump Low
Players can choose whether low trump counts as an additional point. When enabled, they can also choose whether the point is awarded to the player who was dealt the low trump or who takes the low trump in trick making. This option defaults to low trump dealt as an additional point.
Trump Five
Players can choose whether trump five counts as five additional points.
Trump Three
Players can choose whether trump three counts as three additional points. This is disabled for four point pitch and defaults to 2 jokers for ten point pitch.
Trick Basics
Trick Taking games center around having the highest ranked card in a draw. Typically, players of trick taking games sit in a circle, sometimes in teams and sometimes playing solo, and are dealt a hand of cards. Given the specific game's card ranking (and trump - special suit that beats other suits), players draw a card from their hand in hopes that it outranks the other cards played. The player who outranks the others wins the trick for that round and gameplay is repeated until the cards are exhausted. Typically the player or team with the most tricks wins the game.
In a trick, each player plays a single card. One player is selected to start, then play proceeds clockwise around the table. If possible, players must play a card which is the same suit as the first card played - this is called 'following suit'. If a player cannot follow suit, then they may play any card in their hand. Based on the cards played, one player is declared the winner of the trick, usually for playing the highest value card of the trump suit, or of the suit of the card which started the trick.
After all cards have been dealt, normal trick taking commences. Remember all cards of the suit declared as trump (trump cards) beats any other suit. Whichever team wins seven tricks out of thirteen wins the round, winning all thirteen tricks is referred to as court. If the dealers team achieves this feat, its called a goon court. In single sir, winning the first seven consecutive tricks constitutes a court.
After cards dealt, depending on the trump, you have to figure out your strategy for the game whether to play trump first or not. In single sir / single sar winning the first seven tricks constitutes as a court or a goon court, so the strategy is very different than double sir / double sar. Whichever team (dealers team or trump callers team) wins seven tricks wins the deal and the opposing team becomes the dealer. In double sir, you have to win two consecutive tricks, so the strategy is totally different as you need to keep another high card to win the pile. Note that the second and the second last trick cannot be won, so you have to be extra careful about that too. This game is played in many variations so you have to be extra careful about the rules.
Based on the cards played, one player is declared the winner of the trick, usually for playing the highest value card of the trump suit, or of the suit of the card which started the trick.
Hand
The cards that a player is dealt forms their hand. Each round, a player selects one of the cards in their hand and plays them into the pile. In most trick taking games, all players are dealt the same number of cards and the hand is hidden from the other players, but in some games, like 500, a player can reveal their hand for bonus points.
Pile
The pile is the spot where players place their chosen card for the round. The player with the highest ranked card receives all of the cards in the pile and sets them to the side. In most trick taking games, the individual cards in the pile have a specific point value that is given to the winner.
Dealer
The dealer is chosen at random and passes out the deck of cards to form each player's hand. In most games, the dealer position rotates to the left once the deck needs to be re-shuffled and re-dealt.
Trump
Arguably the most important part of any trick taking game, the trump suit is the highest ranked suit in the game. Every game has its own method of selecting trump. Some games leave the selection up to the winner of the bid while some games make the suit of the lead card the trump suit.
Order
The ranking of the cards is dependent on the game. Ace is usually considered the highest in trick games, but some games from Europe, like Klaverjassen, have the Jack of trump the highest card.
Auction/Bidding
Most trick taking games contain an auctioning/bidding phase at the beginning of gameplay. During this time, players take turns bidding how many tricks they expect to win in the game. The player with the highest bid leads the first trick and decides the trump suit in most games. Often times, if the winner of the bid, sometimes called the declarer, fails to win the amount of tricks they bidded, they receive a lot of penalty points
Lead Card
The Lead card is the first card in the trick. In most trick taking games, subsequent players need to play the suit of the lead card if they can.
Card Game Basics
A deck of cards consists of 52 cards, with 4 distinctive subgroups. Each of these subgroups is recognised by a symbol and are referred to as suits. They consist of Clubs, Spades, Hearts and Diamonds. Each suit contains 13 cards which, generally, are considered in this order, Ace (A), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jacks (J), Queen (Q) and King (K). Some games include the two Jokers found in a standard deck but most games don't.
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