Pitch Card Game

Yes. The table on this page runs in your browser on a phone or a computer, with three computer players: your partner opposite and two opponents. There is no app to install and no account to create. Choose Easy, Standard or Expert in Options and deal.

Deal six cards each to four players in two partnerships. Bid once around, 2, 3 or 4, or pass; the dealer may equal a 2 or 3 and is stuck with 2 if everyone else passes. The winning bidder leads the first card, and its suit becomes trump. Play six tricks, following suit or trumping as you like, then award High, Low, Jack and Game. Make your bid and you score what you took; miss and you lose your bid. First side to 11 wins.

They are regional names for one family. Pitch and Auction Pitch are the bidding game played here, where the bidder pitches the first card to set trump. Setback is the same game named for the penalty of being set back by your bid, and High-Low-Jack is named for its points. Smear is a group of Pitch variations that usually adds jokers and extra points.

Four points are up for grabs each hand. High goes to the side that wins the highest trump dealt, Low to the side the lowest trump was dealt to, Jack to the side that wins the jack of trump, and Game to the side with more card points in its tricks, counting tens as 10, aces 4, kings 3, queens 2 and jacks 1. The bidding side scores its points if it reached its bid and loses the bid if not; the other side always keeps what it took. First to 11 wins.

A bid of four. The bidding side promises all four points: High, Low, Jack and Game. Make it and score four; miss any one and lose four. A moon cannot be taken by the dealer, and if the jack of trump was not dealt, the moon cannot be made. Written rules differ here: some let a made moon win the game outright or count it as five; this table plays it as plus or minus four.

If the first three players pass, the dealer may not pass and must bid at least two. It keeps every hand in play. It is on by default here; switch it off in Options and four passes throw the hand in, and the same dealer deals again.

Nobody names it. The player who wins the bidding leads the first trick, and the suit of that card is trump for the hand. Until then the table shows "Trump: set by the first lead".

You may always follow the suit that was led, and you may always play a trump instead, even when you could follow. Any other card is allowed only when you have none of the suit led. When trump is led, follow with a trump if you have one.

Yes. Pitch is also played cutthroat by two or three, each player scoring alone, with the same bids and points. This table is built for the four-player partnership game: if you are playing alone or with fewer friends, computer players fill the empty seats. A cutthroat mode is on our list for a later update.

"7-point" usually means a shorter match to 7, which you can choose in Options alongside 11 and 21. 10-point Pitch is a different deal: it adds two jokers, the off-jack (the other jack of trump's colour) and the three of trump worth three, for ten points a hand. Sources disagree on its deal, discards and bids, so this table plays the 4-point game only for now.

Yes. Use "Print the one-page cheat sheet" at the top of the rules: it prints the rules and scoring with a one-page summary of the bids, the four points, the Game card values, the set-back rule and a blank score line, so you can keep it beside a real table.

Bid on sure things: an ace of your long suit is High, a two is Low, and tens win Game. As the bidder, pitch your highest trump and keep leading trumps while you hold the top ones, then bring the jack home behind them. Play tens and aces into tricks your partner is sure to win. Under the default Low rule there is nothing to protect on your two, so never spend a high trump on it.

Choose Easy, Standard or Expert in Options; your partner plays at the same level as the opponents. Easy usually bids 2 when it holds an ace or a jack, never more, and mostly plays its highest card. Standard counts High, Low, Jack and Game before it bids, leads its top trumps, protects the jack and feeds tens to its partner; it shoots the moon only on a near-certain hand, which is rare (none in 1,000 seeded test matches). Expert simulates the cards it cannot see, including the 28 that were not dealt, to choose its bids and plays. No level sees your hand or the undealt cards.

The practice table works in a phone browser down to 320 pixels wide with tap-to-play, and a refresh offers to continue your match. To play with friends, open a HopLobby lobby and send one link: our party games run in the browser too.