How to play

Overview

Cinch is a four player trick taking game with fixed partners sitting across from each other. The game uses a standard 52 card deck with aces high. First team to 15 points wins.

Ribbon draw (optional)

An optional way to randomly pick for partners.

• Spread the deck on the table and each player draws a card.
• The two highest cards become partners and the two lowest cards become partners.
• If the middle cards tie, only those tied players redraw.
• The highest card among the high pair is the dealer; ties redraw among those players.

Dealing

• The dealer shuffles and deals 9 cards to each player in three packets of three.
• Dealing is clockwise starting with the player left of the dealer.
• After each hand, the dealer moves clockwise.

Bidding

• Bidding goes clockwise starting with the player left of the dealer.
• Players can bid Pass, 1, 2, 3, 4, and Shoot (8).
• Players must increase the bid or pass.
• The highest bid wins.
• If a non dealer shoots, the dealer can overshoot before bidding ends.

Trump, redeal, and discards

• The winning bidder chooses trump.
• All players discard any non trump cards.
• The dealer deals clockwise from the player left of the dealer until everyone has 6 cards.
• Remaining undealt cards form the widow.
• If the deck runs out, players draw from the dead wood (the discard pile) at random.
• If a hand has more than 6 trump cards, that player must discard down to 6.
• During the first round of the game, discarded cards are shown to all players.

Play

• The winning bidder leads the first trick.
• Play proceeds clockwise from the lead.
• Players must follow suit if able. If you cannot follow, you may play any card.
• Highest trump wins the trick. If no trump is played, highest of the led suit wins.
• The trick winner leads the next trick.

Scoring

• Each hand scores High, Low, Jack of trump, and Game.
• High and Low are the highest and lowest trump captured.
• Jack is the jack of trump. If Jack is in the widow, no point is awarded.
• Game goes to the team with the most game points from all captured cards: 10=10, A=4, K=3, Q=2, J=1. Ties award no point.
• The bidding team must score at least its bid in points to make the bid. If not, they are set and lose points equal to the bid.
• A Shoot counts as 8. If the shooting team fails, they take -8.

Winning the game

First team to reach 15 points wins. If both teams cross 15 in the same hand, the bidder goes out as long as they made the bid.