Pits

The Pits is a card game for 5 players using a pack of 54 cards, 4 normal suits of 13 cards each and 2 Jokers. The Jokers need to be distinguished as strong ("red") and weak ("black").

The cards are ranked from the strong Joker, weak Joker, all the twos, Aces, Kings etc down to the threes. There is no difference between cards of the same denomination. Jokers are completely wild and can replace any card in forming a meld. Twos are partly wild and can be used to represent a card of equal denomination to another. Twos can never be used in a single sequence.

The object of the game for all the players is to discard all their cards. The dealer initially leads and can play any meld. Players wishing to play must play the same number and type of meld, but higher ranking (e.g. a pair of fours above a pair of threes) or they may pass. It is not compulsory to play cards if a player can do so. Play continues until all players pass. The last person who played can then proceed again with any meld he chooses. If the player who played last goes out (and all the other players have passed) then the player to his left proceeds.

The dealer shuffles the cards and deals them to his left (any cutting of the cards is entirely optional and is left to the choice of the dealer). All the cards are dealt and there should be 11 cards for all players except for the dealer who has 10. In the first hand the dealer is chosen at random, usually the first person to turn up a Jack.

Pits is a corrupt version of the Chinese game Zhēng Shàngyóu.