How to Play Pit

Pit is an exciting game that emulates activity on the stock market, where players use cards to trade and earn. Parker Brothers created Pit in 1904, and the card game comes in a box with a bell and a specially-created deck of cards. When you master the basic game of pit, you can throw in added trick cards to make the game even more exciting.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Pit card deck
• One bull card
• One bear card
• One corner board

1. Put the corner board in the center of a table of three or more players and select the dealer. The dealer shuffles the card and deals nine cards to each player face down.

2. Pick up the cards in front of you and decide which of the following commodities you have the most of: barley, corn, oranges, sugar, wheat, coffee, oats or soy. The goal of the game is to collect all nine of one of these commodities before another player collects all nine of any of them.

3. Announce that trading begins, and each player is to offer one to four like cards for trade. These should be of a suit you aren't trying to collect. Depending on how many like cards you are trying to trade, you'll call out, "Like one!", "Like two!" or "Like three!"

4. Trade cards with any other player who is trading the exact same number of cards. If a player with whom you want to trade is calling out fewer cards than you are, you may reduce the number of cards you decide to trade.

5. Trading continues during the game until the first player accumulates nine cards of the same commodity. That player calls out, "Corner on Wheat!" (or whichever commodity he has compiled).

6. Score based on how many points you get for the specific commodity on the cards you accumulate. The scorekeeper writes down the score of the winner of each hand. The game continues until someone reaches 500 points--that player is considered the winner.

7. Use a bull and bear card to add excitement to the game. When you use these cards, two players are dealt 10 cards instead of nine at the beginning of the game. The bull card can be either a wild card or a penalty card at your discretion. The bear card is a penalty card and costs the holder of the card points if he is left with it at the end of a round. A wild card can be used in place of one of the commodity cards to help a player achieve his nine needed commodity cards.