The Four Points at a Glance
Every deal of four-point Pitch puts exactly four points on the table, and knowing how each is won is the whole game. The four points are High, Low, Jack, and Game. Two of them go to specific trump cards, one rewards catching a single card, and the last is decided by counting the value of the cards each side captures. A hand can be worth anywhere from zero to four points to your side.
Only trump cards score three of the four points, which is why the choice of trump, made by the bid winner pitching the first card, matters so much. The fourth point, Game, can be contested by any counter card in the deck.
High and Low: The Top and Bottom Trumps
High goes to the highest trump dealt in the hand. Whoever is dealt that card scores the point automatically; it cannot be lost in play because no higher trump exists to capture it. If the ace of trump is out, the ace is High; if the highest trump anyone holds is the ten, then the ten takes High.
Low goes to the lowest trump captured during play. Note the difference: High is scored by the holder, but Low is scored by whoever wins the trick containing the lowest trump. If you hold the two of trump but an opponent captures it in a trick, they score Low, not you. Protecting your low trump so your own side wins it is a real skill.
The Jack Point
Jack is worth one point to whoever captures the jack of trump in a trick. Unlike High and Low, the Jack point does not exist every hand; if the jack of the trump suit was not dealt, or sits in the undealt stock, there is simply no Jack point that deal.
Because the jack ranks below the ace, king, and queen of trump, it is vulnerable. If you hold it, you often need to protect it by leading trump to draw out the higher ones, or by hoping a low lead lets it slip through. Capturing the opponents' jack of trump is one of the most satisfying single points in the game.
How the Game Point Is Counted
Game rewards the side that captures the most card-value points, using a fixed count that has nothing to do with trump. Each ten is worth ten, each ace four, each king three, each queen two, and each jack one. All other cards, including your powerful aces and kings when you are only counting Game, contribute nothing beyond these values.
After the hand, each side totals the value of the counters in the tricks they won. The higher total takes the single Game point. Because tens are worth the most, chasing and protecting tens is often the key to winning Game; a hand that captures two tens is usually ahead on the count.
Making Your Bid or Getting Set
The bidding side must capture at least as many points as they bid. If they do, they score every point they actually took, which can be more than the bid. If they fall short, they are set: the full amount of the bid is subtracted from their score, and they take none of the points they won that hand.
The side that did not win the bid always scores whatever points they capture, with no risk of being set. This asymmetry is the tension of Pitch. The bidder can surge ahead or fall backward, while the defenders quietly bank points and try to steal one away.
Playing to 11 or 21
Games are commonly played to eleven or twenty-one points; twenty-one makes for a longer, more strategic match. You choose one target before you start. Because the bidder is the one who committed to a number, most rules let the bidder count out first when both sides could reach the target on the same deal.
When the bidder counts out first, the points are tallied in a set order, High, Low, Jack, then Game, so if the bidder reaches the target on High or Low, they win before the defenders can count their Game point. At pitch.ac you can pick an eleven or twenty-one point game to suit how long you want to play.
Ties, Zero-Game, and Edge Cases
The Game point can be tied. If both sides capture counters worth the same total, no one scores Game that hand; the point simply is not awarded. This is common in low-scoring hands where few tens and aces change hands.
It is also possible for a hand to award fewer than four points overall. If the jack of trump was never dealt, there is no Jack point, and a tie removes Game, so a deal can yield as few as two points, both from High and Low. Understanding these gaps helps you judge whether a bid of three or four is realistic.