What Are Pedro and Cinch?
Pedro, Cinch, and California Pitch are close cousins of the classic Pitch family, all built on the same idea, bid, choose trump, and capture scoring cards, but supercharged by two extra cards worth a huge five points each. The names overlap and shift by region: Cinch and Double Pedro usually mean the fuller partnership game, while California Pitch and plain Pedro often describe lighter versions closer to ordinary Pitch.
What unites them is the pair of fives. Add those to a Pitch game and the whole balance changes, because a single trick can now swing ten points. If you enjoy four-point Pitch and want higher stakes, this branch of the family is the natural next step.
The Two Pedros: Fives Worth Five
The heart of these games is the pair of pedros. The right pedro is the five of the trump suit, worth five points to whoever captures it. The left pedro is the five of the other suit of the same color, the five of diamonds when hearts are trump, for example, and it becomes a trump for the hand, ranking just below the right pedro.
So in the trump order the ace, king, queen, and jack sit at the top, then the ten and downward, with the right pedro at the five spot and the left pedro slotting in immediately beneath it, above the four. Both pedros are worth five points each when captured, which is why protecting your own and hunting the opponents' pedros is the central drama of every hand.
The Fourteen Points
A full Cinch deal offers fourteen points, far more than the four of standard Pitch. High, the highest trump dealt, is worth one; Low, the lowest trump captured, is worth one; Jack, the jack of trump, is worth one; and Game, the side with the most card-value points, is worth one. Then the two pedros add five points each, bringing the total to fourteen.
How Game is decided depends on the rulebook. In many traditional Cinch rules, every trump is in play after the redeal, so High is simply the ace of trump, Low the two of trump, and Game is the ten of trump itself, each scored by whichever side captures it. Lighter Pedro and California Pitch tables more often keep the familiar Pitch count: ten for a ten, four for an ace, three for a king, two for a queen, one for a jack.
Either way, the pedros dominate. Ten of the fourteen points sit on two cards, so the four single points often matter less than which side sweeps up the fives. Agree on the Game rule before you start, because it changes how valuable the ten of trump is.
How Do You Deal Cinch and Rob the Pack?
Cinch is a four-player partnership game using a standard deck, and its deal is distinctive. Each player receives nine cards to start. After the high bidder names trump, every player discards all their non-trump cards face down and is dealt back up to six cards from the remaining stock, so each hand ends up rich in trump.
The dealer goes last and robs the pack: they take every remaining trump from the undealt stock, then discard down to six cards. This ensures the important trumps are in play. The result is a six-card, trump-heavy hand for everyone, which is why the pedros so often appear and so much rides on catching them.
Bidding Up to Fourteen
With fourteen points available, bidding ranges far higher than in four-point Pitch. Players bid the number of points they expect their side to take, and the maximum bid is fourteen, a claim on every point in the deal. The high bidder wins the auction and names trump before the discard and redeal.
Judging a bid means weighing your trump length and, above all, whether you hold or can protect a pedro. A hand with the ace, king, and a pedro of one suit is worth a strong bid, while trump without a pedro is far less valuable than it looks. As in all Pitch games, missing your bid means being set the full amount, and setbacks of ten or more are possible here.
Playing the Tricks and the Cinch
Play follows Pitch conventions: the bid winner leads, players follow suit when able, and the highest trump wins any trick it appears in. A key tactic gives the game its name; cinching a trick means playing a middling trump specifically to stop an opponent from safely dumping a pedro onto their partner's winning card.
Because a pedro is worth five points but is not itself a high trump, it can be captured if a higher trump falls on the same trick. Skilled players lead high trumps to force pedros out, or cinch with a card an opponent cannot safely overtake, prying the five loose. Guarding your partner's ability to win the trick a pedro rides on is just as important.
Worked Example: Landing a Pedro Safely
Say hearts are trump and your side won the bid at 7. Your partner holds the five of hearts, the right pedro, and you hold the ace and king of hearts. Midway through the hand, the opponent on your right leads the queen of hearts. You win it with the ace, and now your partner, playing after you, can safely drop the right pedro onto your winning trick. That is five points banked, plus the ace for High.
Now reverse it. If your partner had to play the pedro before you could show the ace, an opponent sitting behind could overtake with the king or jack and steal all five points. That is why the order of play matters so much in Cinch: a pedro should land on a trick your side has already locked up, never on one still in doubt.
Add the Jack and Low from later tricks and your side might reach 8 or 9 points, comfortably making 7. Lose that one pedro to a careless play and the same hand can fall to 3 or 4, and you are set back seven.
Common Mistakes in Pedro and Cinch
The biggest mistake is bidding on trump length without a pedro. Six trumps sound impressive, but if both fives sit with the opponents you may struggle to reach even half the deal. The second is playing a pedro too early, before your partner has shown control of the trick. The third is forgetting the left pedro: new players often treat the off-color five as a plain card and throw it away, when it is a trump worth five points.
California Pitch, the Simpler Cousin
If the nine-card deal and pack-robbing feel elaborate, California Pitch offers a gentler entry point. It plays much like ordinary four-point Pitch, deal six cards, bid, pitch to set trump, but adds the two pedros worth five points each to the scoring. There is no discard-and-redraw, so the hand you are dealt is the hand you play.
This lighter version keeps the excitement of the fives while staying close to the Pitch most players already know. It is a good bridge between four-point Pitch and full Cinch, and a fun way to introduce the pedros without the extra procedure.
Scoring and Winning
Scoring adds up each side's captured points, the four singles plus any pedros, and the bidding side must reach its bid or be set the full amount. In the simplest method the non-bidding side scores whatever it takes; some traditional Cinch rules instead score only the difference between the two sides, so check which method your group uses. Cinch is traditionally played to fifty-one points, a long game that rewards consistent bidding over lucky hands.
Because a single deal can produce fourteen points, leads change quickly and a big set can be devastating. That volatility is the appeal: catch both pedros on one hand and you leap ahead, but overbid without the cards to back it and you can tumble just as fast.