Talk:Pitch (card game)

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What no five hand pitch and I was under the impression one had to "Shoot the Moon" if one thought he could recieve all points in one round and then and only then could he win with out recieving full points.

Let's say three players are down to one card each. The trump suit is diamonds. P1 has Kd, P2 has Jd, P3 has 2d. P1 takes the trick. Do the points for High, Low, and Jack go to P1 or are the points based on starting hand?

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[edit] Pitch with jokers

This may be a regional variation, I have played it this way with more than one group in Missouri. I don't know a name for it, it was always called "Pitch". If someone has a name for this specific variation, please change the subsection title.Rt66lt 01:47, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

I found a title on a website.Rt66lt 03:21, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Oklahoma?

Is "Oklahoma Ten Point Pitch" what some people actually call the game? Or does that heading mean that the rules described are how pitch is played in Oklahoma? In Nebraska we played the game like this, but we just called it "Pitch". Bugloaf 04:28, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Some Corrections need to be made here

Parts of this article are incorrect or incomplete. Here are my points that need to be added or corrected, because it requires some major changes, I figured I would leave these points here up for discussion for a week or so, if no-one disagrees, I will apply the corrections to the article.

Many of these items were taken from Hoyle, the Parker Bros? (Pitch 6) Card game, and a couple Pitch video games.

Pitch is an old-english card game.


It is pitch, not high-low-jack that requires players to deal out 2 or 3 cards at a time, in doing so the dealer "pitches" the cards, and that is how the game got the name 'pitch'.

Standard pitch is a four point game, the five is meaningless, the five may have meaning in another variation called 5 point pitch.

Another feature of pitch missing from this is the smudge bid.

There are two variations of the smudge bid and what it is worth. The smudge bid means that you are going to win ever trick that is played. The smudge bid is a gutsy bid because the entire game, win or lose is on that bid. (you get your bid you win the game, you miss your bid you lose your game). The score is irrelevant with a smudge bid. One variation of this rule requires the jack is played (thus recieving all 4 trick points) in addition to taking all the tricks. Another variation of this rule only rewards the smudge bid with 5 points (losing 5 for missing the bid).

Supernerd 20:58, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
I'm not sure how one determines what standard pitch is but I agree that the five is meaningless (or no different than the 4 or 6) in any Pitch game I have played. Liblamb 21:02, 29 December 2005 (UTC)
Pitch with the 5 (and possibly the 9) being special point cards is listed as a variant family called Pedro in Callery, Sean (1994). Card Games for Two. London: Ward Lock, 84-86. ISBN 0-7063-7223-9. . --Ironphoenix 18:19, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
Guess I should have read the discussion first... I moved the five card bid to a variant (probably should rename it to "5 point pitch" from above.) I agree also that the smudge bid variant should be in there as it can usually be very entertaining. devanl 13:40, 18 April 2006 (MST)

[edit] Rule variations.

I have played around mid new york and encountered anecdotally many rule variations on pitch. One of the main problems in trying to describe this game is that many regions use the same name to describe different variations all described on this page.

I have heard of a variation which allows for a 5 bid where the 5th point is a called "smudge". It involves collecting all the tricks in addition to the 4 points standard to pitch, High, Low, Jack, and Game.

There is another variation which involves using the 5 of trump as a point, a single point, such that there are 5 points in a game. I use this to play 2 handed, to avoid the pattern of only the first 2 tricks determining 2 of the points, and playing through what is normally 4 empty tricks to find out that there is no more points for game and no jack in play.

It is possible to play pitch for money, when allowable by law. It involves no teams, so cuthroat up to 8 players. A bid cannot be matched by the dealer, and the dealer cannot be forced to bid. The player who makes the bid either wins or loses : a set value is agreed upon for each point. If the player wins, he receives that value multiplied by the amount per point. If the player fails to make his bid, he pays that value multiplied by the amount per point to each remaining player. Another slight variation involves "Double on spades" where the amount wagered is doubled if spades is chosen as the trump suit.

I'm also familiar with the "smudge" bid when I've played pitch.--BigCow 04:10, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Another Variant

I've played where a single joker is added to the deck and called the "jick", it's a trump, worth one point, worth 1/2 point toward game, and is played between the 10 and the jack. It has the effect on gameplay of making the jack of trump more powerful, since it can score one more point, and the ten of trump less powerful since there is one more card that can take it. Makes a 5 bid valid, obviously, and also provides some nice variation within a hand once trump is pitched. By the way, my understanding of the name "Pitch" comes from "pitching" trump, the first card played. It's never required to state the trump suit, only to "pitch" it. Jdaniels2007 01:14, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

"Pitch" is cited as the term used for the opening lead in Gibson, Walter B. (1974). Hoyle's Modern Encyclopedia of Card Games. New York: Doubleday, 214-217. ISBN 0-385-07680-0. , so I think you're right about that being the origin of the name. --Ironphoenix 18:03, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Restructuring Proposal

This page is pretty disorganized, mainly because there are so many variants listed that it's hard to find anything specific. I suggest restructuring it into the following major sections:

  • Introduction (including history)
  • Basic rules
  • Optional rules
  • Variants (commonly-played collections of optional rules to be used with the basic rules)

This will have the benefit of separating explanations of how rules work from the listing of playable variants, and make specific rules or variants easier to find and understand. --Ironphoenix 18:10, 29 July 2007 (UTC)