Setback

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Basic terms
3. Setup
4. The four points
5. Bidding
6. Playing the tricks
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Setback, also called Pitch, Auction Pitch or High-Low-Jack, is a quick trick-taking game for two teams. There are only four points in each deal – High, Low, Jack and Game. You bid how many of them your team will win; the highest bidder chooses the trump suit simply by leading ("pitching") the first card. Make your bid and you score; miss it and you are set back by the amount you bid. The first team to reach 21 – on a deal in which it made its bid – wins.

• Players: 4, in two teams of two; partners sit opposite each other. For 2, 3, 5 or 6 players see Variants.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, and paper and pencil for scoring.

Basic terms

• Trick: each player in turn plays one card face up to the middle. The four cards form a trick; whoever played the best card wins it and keeps it face down in their team's pile.
• Lead: play the first card of a trick. The winner of a trick leads to the next one.
• Follow suit: play a card of the same suit as the card that was led.
• Trumps: the cards of the trump suit. Any trump beats any card of another suit.

Cards rank from A (high) down to 2 (low).

Setup

1. Pick a first dealer, for example by drawing cards. Deal and play go clockwise; after each deal the next player to the left deals.
2. The dealer shuffles and deals 6 cards to each player, 3 at a time.
3. The rest of the deck is not used in this deal.

The four points

For Game, count these cards of all suits in your tricks:

The whole deck is worth 80, but only 24 cards are in play. If both teams have the same total, nobody gets the Game point. If only one trump is in play, it is both High and Low for whoever gets it.

Bidding

There is one round of bidding, starting to the dealer's left. On your turn you pass or bid higher than the bid before. The possible bids are:

• 2, 3 or 4 – the number of points your team will win;
• Smudge – worth 5: your team wins all four points and all six tricks.

The dealer bids last and may steal the bid by equalling the highest bid. If the first three players pass, the dealer must bid 2.

The final bidder is the pitcher.

Playing the tricks

1. The pitcher leads to the first trick. The suit of this card becomes trumps.
2. On every trick, if you have a card of the suit led you must either follow suit or trump. You may trump even if you could follow.
3. If you have no card of the suit led, you may play anything.
4. The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. The winner leads any card to the next trick.

Play all six tricks.

Example: Anna is pitcher and leads the K♠ – spades are trumps. Ben (opponent) plays the A♠: he wins the trick and his team is sure of High. Later Anna leads the 9♦; Ben has diamonds but may still trump with the 3♠.

Scoring

Each team counts the points it won.

• Bid made: the bidding team scores all the points it won (bid 2, win 3 → score 3). A made smudge scores 5; a bid of 4 scores at most 4, even if you take every trick.
• Set back: if the bidding team wins fewer points than it bid, it loses the amount of its bid. A smudge bid fails as soon as the team loses a trick (−5), but play on so the others can score.
• Opponents always score the points they win.

Scores can go below zero.

Example: Anna and Carla bid 3. They win High and Jack, but Ben and Dan win Low and Game. Anna and Carla are set back −3; Ben and Dan score 2.

Winning the game

A team needs 21 or more points, but it can only win at the end of a deal in which it made its bid. Points collected against the other team's bid, or a failed bid, never end the game – so the winners may even have fewer points than the losers.

Example: You have 18, they have 24 (but they got their last points defending). You bid 3 and make it, they take 1. You win with 21 against their 25.

Tips for beginners

• Tens win Game. A 10 is worth more card points than all the face cards of its suit put together – bring your tens home.
• Only the Ace is a sure High. A trump King often wins High too, but the Ace may be out there.
• Lead trumps early as pitcher to pull out the opponents' trumps and catch their Jack.
• Protect the Jack. A lonely Jack of trumps is easily captured by a higher trump.

Variants

All optional – agree before you play.

• Draw: after trumps are set, players discard unwanted non-trumps and the dealer refills every hand to 6 from the rest of the deck.
• Pitching instead of bidding: you may lead a card instead of bidding – it counts as a bid of 4 in that suit. Only the dealer may still take over, with a pitch or smudge.
• No trumps on the first trick: the pitcher names trumps and may lead another suit; nobody may trump the first trick.
• Low to the holder: as in traditional Auction Pitch, Low counts for the player who was dealt the lowest trump.
• 6 players: three teams of two, partners opposite. Deal 8 cards each; after trumps are set everyone discards 2.
• Cutthroat (2, 3, 5 or more players): everyone plays for themselves with the same rules; the pitcher alone must make the bid. Common targets are 7, 11 or 21.
• Ten-point Pitch and Smear are popular extended versions with extra scoring cards.