Pits is a five player
card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific.
Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...
, a cross between
whist
Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the rules are simple, there is scope for strategic play.
History
Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of ''trump'' ...
and
rummy
Rummy is a group of matching-card games notable for similar gameplay based on matching cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build '' melds'' which can be either sets (three or four of a k ...
, with the objective of playing all your cards first.
It is played with a 54 card pack (4 suits and 2 jokers). Threes are low, Aces high, Twos even higher and Jokers highest.
Once all the cards are dealt (the dealer getting 10, the others 11), the dealer plays a meld; one of a
singleton
Singleton may refer to:
Sciences, technology Mathematics
* Singleton (mathematics), a set with exactly one element
* Singleton field, used in conformal field theory Computing
* Singleton pattern, a design pattern that allows only one instance ...
, "n" of a kind, a run of 3 or more singletons or a run of three or more "n" of a kinds. For example a run of 4 pairs might be .
Subsequent players either pass or play a higher set of the same meld, e.g. {8,8,9,9,10,10,J,J}. Twos and Jokers are wild (they may represent any card), but 2s may not be played in runs of singletons, neither as a 2 nor as a wild card. Using wild cards, it is possible to play a meld of "10 of a kind" - 4 genuine cards, 4 twos and 2 jokers. A run of singletons that is all in the same suit (jokers counting for any suit) is better than a run of different suits, and a 'natural' meld is better than an otherwise equal meld that uses wildcards.
If all other players have passed, the player who played the last (and thus the best) set on the trick plays a new meld. If s/he has no cards left, the lead devolves to the next player who does. The winner of the round is the player who got rid of all his or her cards first.
In one hand, the first player gets 2 points, the second 1 point, the third is dealer for the next hand, the fourth is slightly in the pit and the fifth totally in the pit. In the next hand, the two players in the pit discard their best card, the first players chooses one of the two, the second player gets the other one. These players then discard any card they don't want; Fourth choosing, fifth getting the remaining card. Then dealer leads in this hand.
See also
*
Pit (game)
''Pit'' is a fast-paced card game for three to eight players, designed to simulate open outcry bidding for commodities. The game first went on sale in 1904 by the American games company Parker Brothers, having been developed by the clairvoyant Ed ...
External links
Pits rules
Shedding-type card games
Climbing games