Name: Pitch Tournament
Start: 2024-11-23T19:00:00-06:00
Location: Centennial Hall at VCYF

Pitch Tournament Rules
$20 per team. Players may arrive with partner or come as a single and partner up. Each team will play 5 games with a 30-minute time limit per game. Dealt hands may be finished after time is called. Whichever team is ahead at the end of “time” wins. At the end of five games, whichever team has the highest game average wins. In the event of a tie, ONE hand will be dealt. Players will draw straws, short straw deals.
Will play with 54 card deck (two jokers included); four players; pen and paper for scorekeeping provided. Losing team takes score sheet to tournament coordinator.
Deal
Each player is dealt nine cards in sets of three cards at a time.
Objective
Teams score points by winning hands with point cards in them. The first team to 31 points wins the game.
Card Rank & Points
Highest to lowest – Ace (1), King (0), Queen (0), Jack (1), Off-Jack (1), High Joker (1), Low Joker (1), 10(1), 9 (0), 8 (0), 7(0), 6 (0), 5(0), 4 (0), 3 (3), 2 (1*). *Player retains point anytime played.
Bidding
The player left of the dealer is the first to make a bid or pass on bidding. The minimum bid is five. Bidding continues clockwise, with players having to bid higher than any previous bid or pass on bidding. The highest bidder gets to determine the trump suit. If no player bids, the dealer has to take the bid for five.
Redraw
When the trump is determined, each player discards any non-trump suited/non-point cards, and the dealer gives each player the number of cards to get each player back to six cards including the bidder. The dealer starts with the player on his/her left.
Once each player is back to six cards, the bid winner receives any remaining cards in the deck (commonly referred to as the “widow” or “kitty”). The bid winner may NOT pass unused cards to their partner. The bid winner looks at the cards and keeps six cards for his/her hand. The bid winner needs to announce any trump suited cards that are discarded (commonly referred to as “burning”).
Misdeal
A misdeal will be called in a hand that a point card was accidentally discarded and is therefore not in play. Additionally, a misdeal is called if any player is dealt a hand without any point or face cards.
Game Play
The player that won the bid plays the first card. Only trump cards can be led on the first round. The player with the highest ranking card wins the hand and they and their partner earn those points*. The player that wins the hand leads the next hand. Once a player is out of trump suited cards, the rest of the player’s cards may be folded or held/played when an off suite is led, in an attempt to bluff.
Scoring
Points are awarded for the following cards: one point each for the Ace, Jack, Off-Jack, High Joker, Low Joker, 10, and 2. Three points for the 3.
Rules
If a team does not make their bid, their score goes negative by the amount that was bid.
To “shoot the moon”, a team must not be “in the hole”, meaning, no negative points, and must declare that they are shooting the moon during bidding. If their team does not earn ALL TEN points, they go “set” or negative ten points. If they DO earn all ten points, they automatically win the game.
Winning team gets 1/2 of entry fees, VCYF Stockman’s receives 1/2.