Pinch

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Playing a turn
5. End of the game
6. Scoring
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

In Pinch you play your cards face up in front of you: every card in front of you is worth 1 point at the end, and every card still in your hand costs you 1 point. On your turn you play one card or several cards of the same value. If your cards match the number of cards another player has just shown on top of their display and are higher, you pinch them: their cards leave their display – into your hand, back into theirs or onto the discard pile. The game ends as soon as someone has played their last card, or the cards to draw run out.

• Players: 3–5 (for two, see "Duel" under Variants).
• You need: two standard 52-card decks with 4 jokers, and paper and pencil for the score.

Pinch is our own adaptation for ordinary cards, inspired by Abluxxen (English: Linko!; Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling, Ravensburger, 2014). It has not been playtested in this form yet.

The cards

Shuffle both decks together with 4 jokers: 108 cards. Suits don't matter – only the value:

Each value is in the game 8 times.

Setup

1. Choose a start player.
2. Deal 13 cards face down to each player. This is your hand.
3. Put the rest face down as the draw pile. Turn the top 6 cards face up in a row next to it: this is the market. Leave room on the other side for a discard pile.

Playing a turn

The start player begins; play goes clockwise. Your turn has two steps.

1. Play cards

You must play one card of your choice, or several cards of the same value, face up in front of you. Jokers can join them and take their value: three 6s and a joker are four 6s. A group made only of jokers is higher than any group of Kings (jokers played on their own are the highest cards in the game).

Lay each new play slightly offset on top of your earlier plays, so that everybody can see which group is on top. This pile of groups is your display. Only its top group can be pinched. The new group doesn't have to fit your earlier ones in number or value.

2. Pinch

Now compare your new group, one player after another clockwise, starting with your left-hand neighbour, with the top group of each other player's display. If your group has

• the same number of cards and
• a higher value,

you pinch their group. This is not optional – whenever both conditions are met, it happens. A group of equal value or with a different number of cards is safe. Jokers that were played on their own can never be pinched.

For each pinched group, you decide first:

• You take it: put the cards into your hand. The other player then draws as many cards as you took.
• You don't take it: now the other player decides: either they take the cards back into their hand, or they put them on the discard pile and draw as many cards as they discarded.

Either way, the pinched cards leave the display, and the group below becomes the top group again – and can be pinched in later turns.

Drawing: for each card, the drawing player chooses the market or the draw pile. Only when they have finished drawing is the market filled up to 6 again from the draw pile. The draw pile is not reshuffled when it runs out.

You pinch each player at most once per turn, but you may pinch several players in one turn, one after another clockwise.

If you pinched nobody, you may take exactly one card from the market or the draw pile.

Then the turn passes to your left.

Example: Anna plays three 7s. Ben's top group is two Queens – higher, and not three cards: safe. Carla's top group is three 4s: pinched! Anna takes the three 4s into her hand because she already holds a 4. Carla draws three cards – two from the market, one from the draw pile – and then the market is filled up again. Dan's top group is three 9s: higher than 7, so safe. Anna's turn is over.

End of the game

The game ends at once when either

• a player has no cards left in hand after playing – their last group doesn't pinch anybody any more; or
• the draw pile is used up and someone takes the last card of the market – even in the middle of drawing.

Scoring

• +1 point for each card in your display;
• −1 point for each card in your hand.

The values don't matter here. The highest total wins. On a tie, the tied player with fewer cards in hand wins; if that is equal too, they share the win.

Example: Dan has 17 cards in his display and 4 in his hand: 17 − 4 = 13 points.

To play longer, play as many games as there are players, with each player starting once, and add up the scores.

Tips for beginners

• Big groups are safe. Six 2s can only be pinched by six higher cards – and there are only eight of each value.
• A single low card on top of your display is bait: whoever pinches it may leave it to you, and then you can discard it and draw from the market.
• Take pinched cards only if you can play them again soon. Near the end every card in your hand costs a point.
• Watch the hand sizes. When someone is down to one or two cards, the game can end on their next turn.
• Keep a joker or two back: played alone, they can't be pinched.

Variants

• Classic: you may not draw a card when you pinched nobody. This was the rule of the first edition of the model game; it makes the game harder.
• Aces bite: in addition to Classic, Aces pinch Kings and lone jokers (same number of cards). Aces themselves can still be pinched by anything higher.
• Duel (2 players): each player starts with 2 jokers plus 11 more cards. Deal 13 more cards face up as a shadow display, grouped by value (overlap equal values). Kings and jokers never go into the shadow display: put each one onto the lowest single card of the market, forming a group there (if no single card is left, put it out of play), and draw a replacement for the shadow display – also whenever you refill it later. Taking such a market group when drawing counts as one card. The shadow display has only one layer: any of its value groups can be pinched with the same number of higher cards – if several could be, choose one. Cards pinched from the shadow must be taken into your hand. If you pinch both the shadow and your opponent, do the shadow first, and fill the shadow display back up to 13 at once. End and scoring are as usual.