Or if no trumps are played during the round the highest value lead card will win. Tricks are won by playing the highest value trump card. Once every player has played one card you will need to decide who has won the trick. If you are unable to follow the suit then you can play any card. Each turn players must put down a card, you must follow the trump suit if you can. Heart cards then become the most valuable cards in the game, outranking the other suits.

For example, if the Pitcher plays the 10 of Hearts the trump suit will be Hearts. When the bidding phase is over the pitcher will lead the play by choosing a card. This can be risky but can pay off in the long run. Players can also pass on the bidding altogether. Players can only bid once so you need to think carefully about what you do. However, if a player plays a 4 card then they can “smudge” this means they have the winning bid and become the Pitcher. Giving them a slight advantage in some cases. Every successive bid must be higher than the one that preceded it.Īlthough the dealer can bid the same amount as the preceding bid and win with it. With numbered cards being ranked 2 – 10, followed by the Jack, Queen, King, and finally the Ace cards. The cards follow the standard ranking when it comes to their value. The lowest bid a player can make is 2 and the highest is Ace. The player to the left of the dealer will bid first. Players bid to become the pitcher, like we mentioned earlier this is a very advantageous position. Once all players have their cards you can start the bid phase. The player to the left of the dealer should be dealt first. Each player should receive 6 cards in total. Under traditional Pitch card game rules, cards should be given 3 at a time. Choose one player to deal, they will then shuffle the deck and give out cards to each player. While Pitch is played with your standard 52 card deck, at most only 24 cards will be used during each round. So, if you’re ready to start read-on and check out the rest of our guide. But it works best with a group of 4 in our opinion. Pitch can be played with 2 or 3 players as well. This means most games of Pitch will have multiple rounds especially if you are playing with 4 players. Many people do lower the winning point requirement so the game is more likely to finish with just 6 tricks/ rounds. You are unlikely to do this in one game though. In classic Pitch rules, you need to be the first player to score 7 points to win the game. You do this by scoring the most points in each round. But make sure you check out the rest of our Pitch card game rules guide first! We particularly like these cards from Bicycle. Once you have your cards ready you can begin playing. Playing cards can be found in many shops and online.

You simply remove the Joker cards and use the standard deck of 52 cards. All you need to play the Pitch card game is a deck of playing cards. While Pitch can seem a little complicated for beginners, it’s actually got a very simple setup. And while it does have a bit of a learning curve to it, it’s sure to be a fun game for anyone. It remains a very popular game in the United States. Over time the game has seen many different versions, each with its own similarities and differences. Pitch is based on the English game of All Fours. We’ll talk more about this in the gameplay section below.

The more rounds you win the better you are likely to score. During each round players will need to choose a card from their hand carefully. The game consists of 6 rounds (or tricks if you want to use the proper term). But it does come with some potential risks as well. This will give them an advantage if they play strategically. The pitcher will lead the game and whatever suit they play will become trump. The game is quite strategic and the gameplay takes numerous phases including a bidding phase.ĭuring this phase, players will try to take control of the game by becoming the pitcher. Games like Whist, Pinochle and Spades also fall into this category. Pitch is described as a “trick-taking” card game.

Pitch card game online