Three-Handed Pitch: Everyone for Themselves
Three-handed Pitch, often called cutthroat, drops partnerships entirely; each player battles for their own score. It keeps everything that makes Pitch tense, the bidding, the trump, the scramble for points, but strips away any ally. The result is a shifting, tactical game where the two non-bidders naturally cooperate to stop the bidder, then turn on each other the moment the threat passes.
Because there are no fixed teams, alliances form and dissolve hand by hand. Three players is a sweet spot for Pitch, and you can start a cutthroat table for free at pitch.ac whenever you have an odd number of people.
How Is 3-Player Pitch Different From the Partnership Game?
Three-player Pitch uses the same deck, the same six-card hands, and the same four points as the classic four-player game; the big change is that nobody shares a score. In partnership Pitch you can feed counters to your partner and lean on their hand when bidding. In cutthroat, every card you give up goes to a rival.
The numbers shift too. Eighteen cards are in play instead of twenty-four, so the jack of trump is dealt only a bit more than a third of the time, and the lowest trump in play is often higher than a two. That makes the Jack point less reliable and makes Low and Game the points most hands are fought over.
Dealing the Cards
Use a standard fifty-two-card deck and deal six cards to each of the three players, typically in two rounds of three. That puts eighteen cards in play and leaves the rest unused for the hand. The deal rotates to the left after each hand, so the advantage of bidding last moves around the table.
With three hands out, trumps are less scarce than in the two-player game but still far from complete, so no one can assume they hold the top of a suit. Sort your six cards and look for a suit where you hold both length and a high card before the auction begins.
Bidding Around the Table
Bidding starts to the dealer's left and goes around once. Each player may pass or bid higher than the current bid, with two the minimum and four the maximum. The highest bidder wins the auction, leads first, and sets trump with the suit of that first card.
Many groups use stick the dealer here too: if the first two players pass, the dealer must take the bid at two. With two opponents ready to pounce, a forced two can be dangerous, so weigh your passes carefully when you are the dealer and the rule is on.
Playing the Hand
The bid winner leads, and play proceeds clockwise. Players must follow the suit led if they can, but may trump in when they cannot follow, or choose to trump a non-trump lead. The highest trump wins any trick containing one; otherwise the highest card of the suit led takes it.
Watch both opponents at once. A card that looks safe to lead can be trumped by either of them, and a counter you throw can be swept up by whichever rival is stronger in that suit. Every trick is a three-way calculation.
Scoring Cutthroat Pitch
Scoring uses the familiar four points, tracked individually. High goes to the highest trump dealt, Low to the lowest trump captured, Jack to whoever catches the jack of trump, and Game to the single player with the most card-value points, counting tens as ten, aces four, kings three, queens two, and jacks one.
The bidder must make the bid or be set the full amount. Each non-bidder scores independently whatever points they personally capture, so a single hand can help one opponent and not the other. Games usually run to eleven or twenty-one, and the bidder counts out first if more than one player could reach the target on the same deal.
A Sample Cutthroat Hand
Anna, Ben, and Cara are playing to eleven. Anna holds the ace, nine, and five of clubs plus three low hearts, and bids three. She pitches the ace of clubs, which wins High. Ben follows with the two of clubs, the lowest club dealt, and Cara follows with the queen of clubs. Anna captures the trick, so she already has High and Low.
Now Ben and Cara work together. Cara also holds the jack of clubs and has no hearts, so when Anna later leads a heart, Cara trumps it with the jack, and Ben throws his ten of diamonds onto that trick, pushing Cara ahead on Game. Anna finishes with two points against a bid of three and is set, dropping three. Cara scores Jack and Game for two, and Ben scores nothing, but he helped keep the leader in check.
Strategy: Gang Up, Then Break Away
The core dynamic of cutthroat is temporary teamwork. When you are not the high bidder, your first goal is to set the bidder, because denying them their bid is worth more than any single point you might grab. That often means the two of you should aim your strong trumps and low cards at the bidder rather than at each other.
But never forget the other non-bidder is also your rival for the win. Once the bidder is safely set, or clearly cannot make it, shift to grabbing points for yourself. Watch the scores closely: help stop whoever is closest to the target, and be wary of feeding a counter to a rival who is one hand from winning.
Common Mistakes in Three-Player Pitch
The biggest mistake is treating the other non-bidder as a permanent partner. Feeding them a ten to set the bidder is smart when the bidder is leading the match, but foolish when your fellow defender is the one about to win. Always check the scoreboard before you give away a counter.
Other common errors include bidding on the hope that the jack is out there, forgetting that two players can each trump a lead, and dumping a lone ace early in a side suit only to watch it get trumped. Finally, many players relax after the bidder is set. That is exactly when the real race between the two defenders begins.
Bidding and Winning
Bid conservatively in cutthroat, because two opponents give you more ways to lose a point. A hand that would safely bid three in partnership play might only be worth two here, since either rival can capture Low or steal the jack. Reserve higher bids for genuinely commanding trump holdings.
Play to eleven for a brisk game or twenty-one for a longer one. The first player to reach the target wins outright, with the bidder counting out first in the order High, Low, Jack, Game. Because scores climb unevenly, staying just behind the leader and pouncing late is often the smartest path to victory.
No third friend handy? Online tables let you fill empty seats with AI players, start a private room with a shareable four-letter code, choose a target of 7, 11, or 21, and switch on house rules like stick the dealer or dealer-may-steal before the first hand. It is a free, easy way to practice cutthroat instincts.