Gamehelppitchfour

The game of PitchFour is played with two teams of two players each. The persons sitting across from one another are partners and scored as a team.

Start of the game The game starts by selecting a dealer and the dealer deals six cards to each player.

The Bidding Process Once all the players have been dealt six cards, the player to the left of the dealer will make a bid. The valid bids are Pass, 2, 3, or 4. After the first player makes a bid, each player to their left (moving clockwise) will make a bid in order. Once a player bids either 2, 3, or 4, the next player must bid higher than the current bid (except for the dealer). The last person to bid is the dealer. The dealer may submit a bid at the current bid level. In this case the dealer would win the bid. For example if the highest bid were 3, the dealer could also bid 3 and win the bid. If all the players have passed on their bids, the dealer may not submit a pass bid. The player that bids the highest will win the bid with the exception of the dealer, who may win the bid by bidding the same as the current highest bid.

Selecting the trump Once the winning bidder is established, that person will need to select a suit that will be trump for this game. The trump suit is a suit that will have the highest priority over all other suits for that game. The trump suit is actually determined by the first card the winning bidder throws.

Playing the trick A Pitch hand is made up of six tricks. During each trick every player selects one card to play in order starting from the trick leader. After the bid process the trick leader is the winning bidder. After the first trick, the trick leader is whoever won the previous trick. The player that wins the trick will gain procession of all the cards thrown for that trick and the cards are keep face down except for the first card of the first trick (this represents the trump suit for the game).

Winning the trick The lead suit for a trick is the suit of the first card that is thrown. The trick is won by the person throwing the highest value lead suit, unless a trump suit was thrown. If a trump suit was thrown, then the person throwing the highest trump suit value will be the winner of the trick. The value of the cards are 2 being the lowest and Ace being the highest.

Valid cards to throw during a trick The trick leader (person throwing the first card) may throw any card in their hand. After that, players have certain restrictions on the cards they may throw. If the first card thrown is a trump suit, each player must throw a trump suit card if they have one, otherwise they may throw any other card. If the first trick card thrown is a not a trump suit card, then each player may throw a trump suit card or a card that matches the lead suit of the first card thrown. If a player has no cards in the lead suit, they may throw any card. A player may throw a trump card at any time.

Ending the trick When all the six tricks have been played, that hand ends and the score for that hand is tabulated and added to the game score.

Scoring a Pitch game The cards "won" are combined for each team and calculated accordingly. There are 4 points that are possible to be awarded for each pitch hand. The points are calculated from the cards won by each team during the six tricks of the hand.

   One point is awarded to the team that has won the highest trump card.
   One point is awarded to the team that has won the lowest trump card.
   One point is awarded to the team that has won the Jack trump card. No point is awarded if the Jack was no in play.
   One point is awarded to the team that has won the most high-card points. No point is awarded in case of a tie. 

High-card points are calculated as follows.

   An Ace is worth 4 high-card points.
   A King is worth 3 high-card points.
   A Queen is worth 2 high-card points.
   A Jack is worth 1 high-card points.
   A Ten is worth 0 high-card points.

There are always 2 points awarded for each game (high trump and low trump). The point for Jack of trump will not be awarded if it was not in play. Also, if there is a tie for high-card points, that point is not awarded.

The team that did not take the bid is automatically assigned the points that they won during the game. The bidding team must have won enough points during the game to either equal or exceed their original bid to be credited with the points for that game. If the bidding team does not make their bid, points are deducted in the amount equal to the original bid.

A Pitch round After the pitch hand is scored, the person to the left of the dealer of the last hand becomes the new dealer. A new hand is dealt. A pitch game is won when a team reaches 15 or more points and was the winning bidder and won the bid. If the team that reaches 15 or more points was not the winning bidder, the team with the most points (15 and greater) will win the game. In this case, if there is a tie when a team reaches 15 or more points the round continues with a new game until a clear winner is established.