Tired of the same old card games on game night? If you’re looking for something new that’s fast-paced, social, and perfect for a group, it’s time you met the Setback card game. This is a classic you can learn in the next 10 minutes and play for a lifetime, transforming your next get-together. Check out gamestopgiftbalance.com to know more
You might have already heard of this game without even realizing it. Whether friends call it Pitch, Setback, or High-Low-Jack, they are all talking about the same thrilling game of bidding and strategy. So, to answer the common question, “Is Pitch the same as Setback?”—yes, they are, and the fun is universal no matter the name.
The goal is simple: be the first player to earn seven points. You score these points by winning “tricks,” which are quick rounds where each person plays one card from their hand. The player who puts down the best card wins that round, capturing the cards played and moving a step closer to victory.
While it involves a little luck, Setback is one of the most accessible trick-taking games for four players because its rules are easy to grasp. This guide breaks down every step, from dealing the cards to scoring your first point. Forget confusing rulebooks—you’ll be ready to start a new game night tradition.
What You Need to Play: Setting Up Your First Game of Setback
Getting a game of the Setback card game started is incredibly simple. You just need one standard 52-card deck and four players. Unlike many other games, Setback (often called Pitch) uses a smaller, faster deck. Before you begin, go through the deck and remove all the number cards from 2 through 9. You’ll only be playing with the high cards: the 10s, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces of all four suits. This leaves you with a lean 24-card deck, ready for action.
With your deck prepared, it’s time to deal. The person dealing the cards shuffles the deck and then follows this simple procedure, which is a key part of the 4-player partnership Pitch rules:
- Shuffle the 24-card deck (Aces down to 10s).
- Deal the cards one at a time to each player, moving clockwise.
- Continue until every player has a hand of six cards.
Once the cards are dealt, the dealer’s job is done for this round. After the hand is played and scored, the role of dealer passes to the person on their left for the next round. This rotation ensures everyone gets a turn to deal. Now that everyone has their cards, it’s time for the first big decision of the game: making a bid.
The First Big Decision: How to Make a Winning Bid in Setback
The game begins with a round of bidding, also known as the “pitch.” Think of this as making a friendly bet on how strong your hand is. Starting with the player to the dealer’s left, you can either “pass” or state a number from two to four. A bid of “two” is a promise that you believe you can win at least two of the four available points this round. Each subsequent player must either pass or bid a higher number.
The real power of winning the bid is that you get to choose the “trump suit” for the entire hand. The trump suit acts like a super-suit; any card from the trump suit will automatically beat any card from the other three suits. If you win the bid, you establish the trump suit by leading a card of your choice to start the first round. For example, if you play the 10 of Hearts as your first card, Hearts becomes the trump suit.
So, how do you know if your hand is worth a bid? Look for a single suit where you hold multiple high cards. If you were dealt the Ace, King, and Jack of Spades, that’s a fantastic hand to bid on. You have a high chance of winning rounds (or “tricks”) if you make Spades the trump suit, which gives you a great shot at capturing the points you need to make your bid.
Once the bidding goes around the table, the person with the highest bid is declared the winner. If everyone passes, the dealer is forced to take the bid for two points. The high bidder now has the important job of leading the very first card, officially setting the trump suit and kicking off the action for the hand.
How to Play Your Cards: Winning ‘Tricks’ and Using Trump
After the winning bidder leads the first card, the game begins. This kicks off the first of six “tricks.” A trick is simply a round where each person, moving clockwise, plays one card. The four cards played are then won by a single player, who gathers them into a pile. The player who won the bid gets to lead the very first card, and as we learned, this card’s suit becomes the trump suit for the entire hand.
As play moves around the table, a fundamental rule comes into effect: you must “follow suit.” This means if the person leading the trick plays a Spade, you are required to play a Spade as well, if you have one. This is the most important rule to remember when learning how to play the Pitch card game. If you do not have any cards of the suit that was led, you are free to play any other card from your hand—including a powerful trump card.
This is where the trump suit shows its true power. Let’s say Diamonds are trump. If a player leads the Ace of Clubs (a non-trump suit), but you have no Clubs, you can play the 10 of Diamonds. Even though the Ace is the highest card in its own suit, your 10 of Diamonds is a trump card and will win the trick. Any trump card beats any card from a non-trump suit.
So, who wins a trick? The winner is the person who played the highest card of the suit that was originally led. However, if one or more trump cards were played, the person who played the single highest-ranking trump card wins the trick instead. The winner of the trick collects the four cards and then gets to lead the first card for the next trick. After all six tricks are played, it’s time to see who captured the valuable point cards.
The 4 Point System Explained: Nailing Down High, Low, Jack, and Game
Winning tricks is the only way to capture the valuable cards that earn you points. In every hand of the Setback card game, there are exactly four points up for grabs. Your goal is to capture as many of these as possible, especially if you were the one who made the bid. The points are:
- High
- Low
- Jack
- Game
The “High” point is awarded to the player who captures the single highest-ranking trump card played during the hand. For example, if Diamonds are trump and you play the Ace of Diamonds, the person who wins that card (and the trick it was in) scores the “High” point.
Similarly, the “Low” point goes to the player who captures the lowest-ranking trump card that hits the table. This one can be a surprise! If Spades are trump and the lowest Spade anyone plays during the entire hand is the 10 of Spades, then whoever wins that 10 scores the “Low” point.
Why the Jack is Special: Capturing the Most Important Point
You already know about High and Low, but the “Jack” is where the game gets part of its famous name and a layer of strategy. The rule is simple: one of the four main points in Setback, the “Jack” point, is awarded to the player who captures the Jack of the trump suit. If Hearts are trump, your mission is to win the trick containing the Jack of Hearts. Whoever has that card in their pile of won tricks at the end of the hand scores the point.
This point isn’t awarded to the person who was dealt the card, but to the player who wins the trick that it was played in. With High, Low, and Jack accounted for, there’s only one point left to fight over, and it’s the one that requires a little bit of math.
Counting the Cards: How to Win the ‘Game’ Point
The final point up for grabs is called the ‘Game’ point, which is awarded for capturing the cards that have a built-in point value. At the end of a hand, all players look through the tricks they’ve won and tally up the values of specific cards they captured. Only these five cards matter for the ‘Game’ point total:
- Each 10 = 10 points
- Each Ace = 4 points
- Each King = 3 points
- Each Queen = 2 points
- Each Jack = 1 point
To see this in action, imagine you won tricks containing an Ace (4 points) and a 10 (10 points). Your total for ‘Game’ is 14. Your opponent managed to capture a King (3 points) and a Queen (2 points), giving them a total of 5. Because your 14 is higher, you win the single ‘Game’ point for the round. The player with the highest total from these specific cards takes the point.
But what happens when you confidently bid ‘three’ and only end up winning two points? That’s where the game gets its famous name.
What Happens If You Don’t Make Your Bid? The ‘Setback’ Rule
This exact scenario is what gives the game its name. In Setback, bidding is a promise to the table, and if you can’t deliver, you face a penalty. Failing to win the number of points you bid is called being “set back,” and it’s the fastest way to see your score tumble. This adds a delicious layer of risk to every hand.
When you don’t make your bid, you don’t just stay put—your score goes backward. You lose the exact number of points that you bid. So, if you bid “three” but only manage to capture two points (like High and Game), you don’t gain two points. Instead, you subtract three points from your total score. A bold bid can win you the game, but a failed one can cost you dearly.
So what happens to the two points you did win? They vanish. In a hand where the bidder is set back, none of the four points are awarded to any player. They are simply discarded for that round, and the deal moves to the next person.
Let’s Play a Full Hand: A Round of Setback from Start to Finish
To see how the rules click together, let’s walk through a round. Imagine you’re at a table with three friends—Ben, Chloe, and Dave. The cards have been dealt, and the bidding starts with you.
You look at your hand: the Ace, King, Jack, and Ten of Spades, plus two low Hearts. With four of the highest Spades, you have a powerhouse hand. When the bidding comes to you, you confidently declare, “I bid three.” Your bid is the highest, so you win the right to name the trump suit. You declare Spades as trump. Your promise to the table is now set: you must win at least three of the four possible points this round.
The action starts with you. To secure an easy point, you lead with your Ace of Spades. Everyone else must follow suit if they can. Ben plays a low Spade, Chloe plays a Queen of Spades, and Dave, having no Spades, discards a Diamond. Your Ace is the highest Spade, so you win the trick easily. You’ve just guaranteed yourself the “High” point for the round.
As the hand continues, you win a few more tricks with your powerful trump cards. On the third trick, you play your Jack of Spades, capturing that point for yourself. Meanwhile, Ben played the Ten of Spades earlier, which turns out to be the lowest trump card played during the entire hand. This means he has successfully snagged the “Low” point, even though you won most of the tricks.
Once all six tricks are played, it’s time to count for the “Game” point. Everyone totals the values of the point cards they captured. Because you won tricks that included an Ace and a Ten, your total for “Game” is 14. Chloe captured a King and Jack, giving her 4, and Ben has nothing. You easily have the highest total, so you also win the “Game” point.
Now for the final score. You successfully captured High, Jack, and Game—a total of three points. Since you bid “three,” you made your bid! Your score on the scoreboard goes up by three. Ben, who sneakily won the Low point, gets to add one point to his score. Chloe and Dave get nothing this round.
How to Keep Score and Win the Game
In a standard four-player game, you aren’t playing alone. Setback is a partnership game, meaning you team up with the person sitting directly across from you. Your scores are combined, so if you win the “High” point and your partner captures the “Jack,” your team has scored two points for that round.
This team dynamic changes how you think about bidding. While anyone can win points, only the player who won the bid has to worry about hitting their target. For example, if you bid “two” and only capture one point, but your partner manages to snag the “Low” point, your team has earned two points total. You successfully made your bid together! Conversely, if your team fails to make its bid, you are “set back” by the amount of your bid, meaning you lose those points from your total score.
Tracking the score is simple. All you need is a piece of paper and a pen. Before you start, create two columns labeled “Us” and “Them.” After each hand, tally the points your team won and add them to your running total. If the bidding team gets set back, you’ll subtract that bid amount from their score instead.
The race to victory ends when one team reaches a predetermined score. Most often, the winning number is 7 or 11 points—it’s a good idea to agree on this before the first hand is dealt. The first team to hit that magic number wins the game!
Your Setback ‘Cheat Sheet’ and Common Questions
To make your first game even smoother, here is a personal “cheat sheet” to keep handy.
High, Low, Jack, Game Points Explained
- High: Awarded for capturing the highest trump card played.
- Low: Awarded for capturing the lowest trump card played.
- Jack: Awarded for capturing the Jack of the trump suit.
- Game: Awarded to the player with the highest point total from captured cards (10s, Aces, etc.).
As you play, a few questions always come up. Here are the quick answers you’ll need.
First Game FAQs
- How do you play Setback with 3 players? The rules are identical, but there are no teams. Everyone plays for themselves.
- How is this different from the Pitch vs Spades card game? In Setback/Pitch, the winning bidder chooses the trump suit for each hand. In Spades, the trump suit is always Spades. The scoring is also entirely different.
- What if there’s a tie for the ‘Game’ point? No one gets the point for that round.
You now have all the rules you need to play. Don’t worry about getting every rule perfect on the first try. The best way to learn is to simply begin. Deal the cards, make a bold bid, and enjoy the moment. Your first game isn’t about winning—it’s about starting a fun new tradition.