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Auction Pitch is a card game:

• For 2 to 7 Players
• Standard Deck
• Ace is High

Deal

Players cut the cards to decide who is the dealer, highest cut wins.

The Hand Dealt to Each Player

Each player is dealt six face down cards in packets of three.

Bidding

Starting with the player on the dealer's left and going around clockwise, each player makes a bid for the number of points they think they can win. Each player passes or bids one, two, three or four [called 'shoot the moon', 'slam', or 'smudge']. Naturally, each bid must be higher than the previous bid, except the dealer could hold the previous bid if it is under four.

The highest bidder or the dealer that has held the previous bid is called the 'pitcher'.

Play

The pitcher leads on the first trick and the suit of the card defines the trump suit.

In the tricks where the lead card is a trump, the players have to either follow suit or choose a card to throw away from their hand.

In the tricks where the lead card is a non-trump the players either follow suit, trump or waste a card.

The winner of the last trick starts the next trick.

Scoring

The scoring system is the same as 'Seven Up' for the non-pitchers and goes like this:

• High - the player dealt the highest value trump gets one point

• Low - the player dealt the lowest value trump gets one point

• Jack - the player who gets the jack of trumps in a trick gets one point

• Game - the player who gets the highest value trick gets one point.

  • Ace - 4 marks
  • King - 3 marks
  • Queen - 2 marks
  • Jack - 1 mark
  • 10 - 10 marks

The Pitcher only scores if they reach their target or greater, if they don't reach the target they lose the same amount they bid.

Game

Game is usually defined by a player reaching seven points, but it can be set by agreement for ten, eleven, or 21 points.

In the case of ties:

• Pitcher beats any other player.
• If the tie is between two ordinary players the points are counted in this order:
  1. High
  2. Low
  3. Jack
  4. Game