Welcome to Cutthroat Pitch

I’m excited to introduce you to Cutthroat Pitch, a fun and strategic card game that can be played with 2 or more players. The objective is simple: be the first player to reach a score of 21 before everyone else.

Getting Started

To determine the first dealer, we’ll choose someone randomly and then move clockwise for each new round.

Now, let’s shuffle the deck and deal 6 cards to each player. This will be our starting hand.

Understanding Card Rankings and Points

Let’s talk about the ranking of the cards. The Ace is the highest, followed by King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 as the lowest.

During the game, players can earn points by winning specific cards or meeting certain criteria. Bidding strategically can help you earn more points, so keep that in mind.

Let me break down the scoring system for you. In this game, there are four types of points: high, low, game, and jack.

High point is awarded to the team with the highest trump card in play. They get 1 point for that.

Low point, on the other hand, goes to the team that wins the trick with the lowest trump card. They also get 1 point.

The game point is the big one. It goes to the team that scores the most points overall.

And finally, we have the jack point. This is awarded to the team that wins the jack of trumps in a trick.

In total, there are 4 possible points to be won in each round.

Now, let’s talk about scoring for the game itself. Players tally up their scores based on the cards they won in the tricks. Here’s how it works:

• Aces are worth 4 points each.
• Kings are worth 3 points each.
• Queens are worth 2 points each.
• Jacks are worth 1 point each.
• And 10s are worth a whopping 10 points each.

BIDDING

Alright, let’s get this game started! First things first, everyone needs to get their hands. After that, we can begin the round of bidding. The player sitting to the left of the dealer will kick things off, and then it’ll go around the table, with each player either bidding higher or passing.

Now, what exactly are we bidding on? Well, we’re bidding on the number of points we think we can win in a round. The minimum bid is 2 points, but we can go as high as Smudge, which is 5 points. To win Smudge, you need to win all four points mentioned earlier, as well as all 6 tricks. It’s a challenging bid to make, but it can be worth it!

If all the other players decide to pass, then it’s up to the dealer to make a bid of 2. And here’s the kicker – the dealer can actually steal the highest bid by matching it. Sneaky, huh?

The bidding will keep going until all but one player has passed, or someone makes a bid of Smudge. Once the bidding is over, the player who made the winning bid becomes the pitcher. Congrats to them!

But hold on, there’s usually a little twist here. The remaining players often team up, at least temporarily, to try and stop the pitcher from achieving their bid. It adds an extra level of excitement and strategy to the game.

Now, let’s talk about gameplay.

When it comes to playing the card game, the pitcher is the one who takes the lead and determines the trump for the round based on the suit of the card played first. The other players have the option to follow suit or play a trump. If they can’t follow suit, they can choose to play a trump or any other card from their hand.

The trick is won by playing the highest-ranked trump, or if no trumps are played, the highest card of the suit led. The player who wins the trick collects the cards and gets to choose which card to lead with for the next trick.

The round comes to an end once all 6 tricks have been played.

SCORING

Scoring takes place after each round.

When I play the pitcher game, I have to see if I did what I said I would. If I did it, I get points. If I didn’t, I lose points. My score can even go negative! The other players get points too if they earned any.

But there’s one special kind of bid called a smudge. To win with a smudge, I have to get all 4 points and all 6 tricks. If I don’t bid smudge, I can’t get 5 points even if I do everything right.

Oh, and one more thing. If there’s no Jack of the same suit as the trump, nobody can win points.

The Game Ends

The game keeps going until someone gets 21 or more points in a round where they did their bid. They’re the winner!