Pitch rules
What it is
Pitch is a four-player partnership trick-taking game with a very short auction and an unusual way of naming trump: the winning bidder simply leads a card, and whatever suit they lead is trump. There are only four points available in a hand — High, Low, Jack and Game — and you bid for how many of them you will take. Six tricks, a standard 52-card deck, and a bid you miss is subtracted from your score rather than merely lost. It descends from All Fours and is played across the American South and New England. This page describes the game as it is played at jpgames.app, which is four-point partnership Auction Pitch.
The deck
A standard 52-card deck, no jokers. Cards rank normally in every suit, including trump:
| High | Low | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | K | Q | J | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
There are no bowers and no reclassification — a Jack is just a Jack, and trump is an ordinary suit that happens to beat the others. If you have come from Euchre, this is the thing to unlearn.
Only six cards each are dealt, so 24 of the 52 cards are in play in any hand and the rest are never seen. That matters more than it sounds: it is why the Jack of trump often simply does not exist in a given hand.
The deal
Six cards to each of the four players, dealt in threes. There is no kitty and no exchange — what you are dealt is what you play.
The bidding
Starting to the dealer's left, each player either passes or bids a number from 1 to 4. A bid is a promise to take at least that many of the four points available. Each bid must beat the last.
The high bidder becomes the pitcher. If everyone passes, the dealer is stuck with a bid of at least 1.
There is no no-trump bid and no misère. Pitch is always a trump game.
Play
The pitcher leads to the first trick, and the suit they lead becomes trump. That is the whole trump-naming ceremony — no auction over suits, no turn-up. After that the winner of each trick leads the next, and there are six tricks in a hand.
The following rule is Pitch's own, and it is the one to read twice:
- When trump is led, you must follow with trump if you have any.
- When a non-trump suit is led, you may either follow that suit or play a trump — trump can always be played, whatever you hold.
- What you may not do is discard a different non-trump suit while you still hold the suit that was led.
So trumping in is always legal, but sloughing off is only legal when you are genuinely void of the led suit and have chosen not to trump.
The highest trump takes the trick. With no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led takes it.
Scoring
Four points are available each hand, and they are awarded for capturing specific cards rather than for winning tricks as such. A team can win five tricks and score almost nothing.
| Point | Goes to |
|---|---|
| High | the team that captured the highest trump dealt this hand |
| Low | the team that captured the lowest trump dealt this hand |
| Jack | the team that captured the Jack of trump |
| Game | the team with the most card value in the tricks they took |
High and Low are always awarded — some trump is always dealt, so there is always a highest and a lowest one. Note that Low goes to whoever captured it, not to whoever was dealt it.
The Jack point often does not exist. Only 24 of the 52 cards are dealt, so the Jack of trump is frequently not in play at all. When it is missing, only three points are available that hand.
Game is counted from the value of the cards you took in tricks:
| Card | Game value |
|---|---|
| Ten | 10 |
| Ace | 4 |
| King | 3 |
| Queen | 2 |
| Jack | 1 |
| Nine down to Two | 0 |
The Ten being worth more than the Ace is not a typo — it is why a modest-looking trick with a Ten in it is worth fighting for. If the two teams tie on card value, nobody scores the Game point.
Missing your bid is expensive. If the pitcher's team scores fewer points than they bid, they are set back: the amount they bid is subtracted from their score, and the points they did take count for nothing. The other team still scores whatever they took. Bid 3 and take only High and Low, and your team scores −3.
Making your bid scores what you actually took, not what you bid — the bid is a floor rather than a ceiling, so bidding 2 and taking all 4 scores 4.
Scores can go negative, and there is no floor.
Ending the game
First team to 21 points wins; the settings also offer 7 and 11.
If both teams would cross the target on the same hand, the points are counted in the order High, Low, Jack, Game, and the pitcher's team is counted first — so the pitcher takes a simultaneous finish.
Variants we implement
- Four-point partnership Auction Pitch, which is what this page describes.
- Target score — 7, 11 or 21, with 21 the default.
- Stick the dealer — the dealer cannot pass the auction out and must bid at least 1.
Where we differ from the common rules
- No smudge bonus. Some tables make a successful 4-bid an instant win whatever the score. Not implemented.
- No 5-point or 10-point Pitch. Variants that add the Off-Jack (the Jack of the same colour) or the Joker as scoring cards are not implemented; this is the four-point game.
- No no-trump or misère bids.
- A tied Game point is not awarded to anybody. Some tables give it to the pitcher's team on a tie; we drop it, which is the more common rule.
- Cutthroat Pitch is not implemented — this is the partnership game, four seats, fixed partners opposite each other.
Ready to play? Start a Pitch table — bots fill the empty seats, so a four-handed game starts whenever you do.
For the wider game, including the five- and ten-point variants above that we do not implement, see Pitch on Wikipedia.
Common questions
How is trump decided in Pitch?
The player who wins the bidding leads the first trick, and whatever suit they lead is trump for that hand. There is no separate naming step.
What are High, Low, Jack and Game in Pitch?
They are the four points available each hand. High goes to whoever captured the highest trump dealt, Low to whoever captured the lowest, Jack to whoever captured the Jack of trump, and Game to the team with the most card value in their tricks.
Why is the Ten worth more than the Ace in Pitch?
Only for the Game point, which is counted from card values: Ten is worth 10, Ace 4, King 3, Queen 2 and Jack 1. For winning tricks the Ace still beats the Ten.
What happens if you miss your bid in Pitch?
Your team is set back — the amount you bid is subtracted from your score, and the points you did take count for nothing. The other team still scores what they took.
Can you always play a trump card in Pitch?
Yes. Trump may be played on any lead. What you cannot do is discard a different non-trump suit while you still hold the suit that was led.