What Ten-Point Pitch Is
Ten-point Pitch is an enriched version of the classic four-point game, built for players who want more points in play and richer decisions each hand. It keeps the familiar core, bid, pitch to set trump, then capture scoring cards, but expands the trump suit with extra point-scoring cards, most notably the off-Jack and the ten of trump. More points on the table means higher bids and a longer, more strategic game.
If you already know four-point Pitch, you can pick up the ten-point version quickly; the differences are additions, not replacements. You can try it in your browser at pitch.ac and see how the extra scoring cards change the flow of a hand.
The Off-Jack: A Second Jack in Trump
The signature feature of ten-point Pitch is the off-Jack, sometimes called the jick. It is the jack of the suit that shares the trump suit's color, the jack of diamonds when hearts are trump, or the jack of clubs when spades are trump. During the hand it becomes an honorary trump, ranking immediately below the true jack of trump.
That ranking is important: in the trump order the ace, king, and queen sit above the jack of trump, which sits above the off-Jack, which sits above the remaining trumps. Capturing the off-Jack in a trick is worth one point, just like capturing the true jack, so two separate jack points can be won each hand.
The Ten of Trump as Its Own Point
Ten-point Pitch also elevates the ten of trump into a scoring card in its own right. In the four-point game the ten only matters through the Game count, where it is worth ten toward the card total. Here, the player who captures the ten of trump scores a dedicated point for it, on top of its value in the Game count.
That double role makes the ten of trump one of the most fought-over cards in the deck. It is a target both for the point it now carries and for the ten pips it adds to your Game total, so leading trump to flush it out, or protecting your own ten, becomes a central tactic.
How the Points Add Up
Each hand of ten-point Pitch puts several scoring awards on the table. The core set is High, the highest trump dealt; Low, the lowest trump captured; Jack, the jack of trump; the off-Jack; the ten of trump; and Game, the side with the highest card-value count. Between them, far more is contested each deal than in the four-point game.
Exact point totals vary by group, which is why it pays to confirm the scoring before you play. Some tables add a joker as an extra trump and point, and the game takes its name from playing a longer match to a higher target with this fuller pool of points. The constant across versions is that the off-Jack and the ten of trump are live, scoreable cards.
Bidding Goes Higher
Because more points are available each hand, bids climb past the four-point ceiling. Where classic Pitch tops out at a bid of four, ten-point tables let you bid higher to reflect the extra scoring cards you expect to capture. A bid still promises a number of points, and you still set trump by pitching your first card.
The bidding logic is the same but the targets shift. Holding the ace, king, jack, off-Jack, and ten of one color's trump is a monster hand worth a large bid, while a couple of middling trumps is worth little. As always, missing your bid means being set the full amount, and with bigger bids the setbacks are steeper.
Scoring Differences From Four-Point
The mechanics of scoring carry over, but there is simply more to tally. You still award High to the holder of the highest trump and Low to whoever captures the lowest, and you still count tens as ten, aces four, kings three, queens two, and jacks one for Game. On top of that you award the off-Jack and the ten of trump to whoever captured them.
The making-or-set rule is unchanged: the bidder must reach the bid or lose it from their score, and defenders bank whatever they take. With more points per hand, scores move faster, so a longer target, often thirty-two or more, keeps the game from ending too abruptly.
House Rules and Variations
Ten-point Pitch is a family of closely related house rules rather than one fixed game. Common options include adding one or two jokers as trumps that rank at the very top or bottom and score a point, playing with or without stick the dealer, and setting the winning target anywhere from a quick game to a marathon. The safest habit is to agree on the exact scoring cards before the first deal.
If you want to experiment, start from the four-point rules you know and layer on the off-Jack and the ten of trump first, since those two additions define the variant. Once they feel natural, you can try richer versions. At pitch.ac you can pick a variant and let the software handle the scoring while you focus on strategy.