Auction Pitch, also called Setback or High-Low-Jack: bid for the four points, pitch trump with your opening lead, and don't get set back.
Four players play in two partnerships, partners sitting opposite: you and North against West and East. Each player gets six cards, and the rest of the pack isn't used.
Starting on the dealer's left, each player bids once: pass, or bid higher than the last bid. The bids are 2, 3, 4 or smudge, which promises all six tricks. The dealer bids last and may steal the contract by matching the high bid. If everyone else passes, the dealer must bid at least 2.
The high bidder is the pitcher, and leads first. The suit of that first card becomes trump. If you hold the suit led, you must either follow suit or trump; you may trump at any time. If you don't hold the suit, you may play anything. The highest trump wins the trick, or else the highest card of the suit led.
Pitch is an American trick-taking game, equivalent to the British blind all fours, which in turn comes from the classic game of all fours. The modern game, with a bidding phase and a side's score set back when it fails its bid, appeared in the middle of the 19th century. It is known more precisely as auction pitch or setback.
All fours is much older. Its first known description is in Charles Cotton's Compleat Gamester of 1674, and the game is said to have originated in Kent. It takes its name from the four points it awards: highest, lowest, jack and game, the same four that Pitch still plays for today.
By the 1800s at the latest, all fours had been taken to America, where it was also called seven up. It became popular among African Americans on slave plantations, and it gave rise to other variants besides Pitch, among them Pedro and California jack. The rules here follow pagat.com.
Pitch is a free browser version of the classic American card game, with a CPU partner and opponents, a new daily deal every day and online leaderboards. There's nothing to download and no sign-up.