Cinch (card game)
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Cinch is a card game.
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[edit] Objective
The objective of Cinch is to be the first player, or team, to get to 21 points by playing as many rounds as necessary
[edit] Supplies
Full deck of Cards minus jokers; pen or pencil; paper
[edit] How to Score
There are 4 different ways to score points per round. Those ways are High, Low, Jack, and Game. To score High, you must have obtained the highest card in the trump suit. To score Low, you must obtain the lowest card in the trump suit. To score Jack, you must obtain the Jack of the trump suit. To score Game, you must obtain the highest cumulative total of “game” points. There are five cards that can gain you “game” points: Ace – 4 points King – 3 points Queen – 2 points Jack – 1 point 10 – 10 points
[edit] Need-to-know Rules
The dealer must deal 9 cards to each player, dealing clockwise. The person to the left of the dealer is the first one to bid. The player’s bid can range from pass to cinch. It can be pass, 1 bid, 2 bid, 3 bid, 4 bid, or cinch. Each of these bids corresponds with how many points (high,low,jack,game) you think you can earn in that round with a certain suit (hearts,clubs,spades,diamonds). Passing means that you have no chance for any of the four points. Cinch and a 4 bid means that you are absolutely sure that you can get all the points. The person with the highest bid now chooses which suit they want to make their attempt in, this will be known as the trump suit. Now, everyone discards all their cards that are not in the trump suit. Next, the dealer deals out any number of cards that will give each player a total of 6 cards. This is how every round starts. Talking about anything having to do with that round is prohibited.
[edit] Game play
The player who bid the highest puts down the first card. The next person clockwise lays down a card that follows that suit. If they don’t have a card that follows that suit, he/she can play any other card. If he/she plays a card that isn’t in the suit that was led, or if he/she doesn’t play a trump card, they cannot win that trick . If the suit that was led isn’t trump, and the player has no card in that suit, then he/she can play a trump card and take that trick. You continue this until you run out of cards.
[edit] Scoring
At the end of that, you figure out how many points you’ve earned. If you have the highest card in the trump suit, then you earn the High point. If you have the lowest card in the trump suit, then you earn the Low point. If you have the Jack of the trump suit, then you earn the Jack point. And if you have the highest cumulative amount of “game” points (see chart above), then you earn the Game point. If the player that bid the highest earned as many points as he/she bid, then that team earns as many points as they won in total, and the other team gets as many points as they earned. If they didn’t earn as many points as they bid, then they go back that many points, and the other team gets as many points as they earned. If a player cinches at the beginning of the round then the points in the round at stake, for that team, is 11. This means that if they get all of the points (high,low,jack,game) then they earn 11 total points. If they don’t get all of the points, then they lose 11 total points. This adds to the risk of bidding cinch.
You write down how many points your team and the other team earned that round. Then you go to the next round and repeat the game play procedure. When you finish that round, you cross out your last round results and add your second round to your first round. If you didn’t make your bid then you subtract. You can go into the negatives.
[edit] Common House Rules
With every group, there are differences in the game. One of the more common house rules are the total of points that you have to get to. You can make the points needed to be anything, but generally it’s either 21, or 11. Another house rule is that when you’re in the negatives, no matter how far you are in the negatives if you cinch and make it you go back to zero.
[edit] Tips
When you play with four people (two on a team), the Ace will be the High 98% of the time. As so, the Deuce will be the Low 98% of the time. Based on this it is best to base your bids off of Aces, or Aces and Deuces. When you’re playing with a partner, if you have an Ace, it would be fair to assume that you’re partner will be able to help you out, so it’d be fair to bid 2 on that ace and look for help. When you have Ace, King; Ace, King, Queen; or Ace, King, Queen, Jack, those are very powerful hands to bid 2, 3, or even cinch on. 10’s are very important to having “game” points, so use them sparingly
[edit] Example
Player 1 and Player 3 are on the same team against Player 2 and Player 4. Player 1 deals clockwise to Player 2, then Player 3, then Player 4, giving them 9 cards each. Player 2 bids first. She bids 2 because she has an Ace and will assume that her partner can help her. Player 3 passes because he has no Ace. Player 4 has a more supportive hand it will not bid either. Player 1, the dealer, has an Ace, King, deuce of hearts and does not want to give away the cards so he bids 3, also assuming that Player 3 can help him.
So having one the bid, Player 1 calls Hearts as the trump suit. Everyone discards everything that isn’t a heart, and now the dealer deals everyone enough cards to get to six. Now, having the Ace of trump, Player 1 plays it. Player 2 throws away a useless card, since she doesn’t want to help her opponent. Player 3 wants to help Player 1 as much as possible, so he gives him a 10 for “game” points. Next, Player 4 has two hearts, a Jack of trump, and a 5 of trump; not wanting to help out his opponent either, he plays the 5. Now, Player 1 can confidently throw down the next highest trump card, assuring the win of the trick. Player 2 throws down another useless card, Player 3 can’t help but throw a relatively useless card down, and Player 4 is forced to give up the valuable Jack, giving Player 1 and 3 High and Jack.
Now, not wanting to give up the deuce, Player 1 throws an off-trump card. This is followed by Player 4 eventually taking the trick. Next, Player 4 leads, throwing a King of Clubs. Player 3 takes the trick with and Ace of Clubs, assuring 7 “game” points. Player 3 now has the lead. He, wanting to help out his partner who bid, will throw out the Queen of trump, the next highest card in the round. Player 1 can now confidently play his deuce, assuring Low. Having 2 cards left, Player 2 and Player 4 will take a valuable off-trump 10 and a couple more face cards. Now, the two teams must count for “game”. Player 1 and Player 3 show that they have 17. Player 2 and Player 4 show that they have 23. In this case, Player 1 and Player 3 made their bid of 3 with High, Low, and Jack. But Player 2 and Player 4 still earned one point, Game.
[edit] Terminology
Trump - pertains to the highest valued suit of the round. When a trump card is played with 3 non-trump, the trump card will win automatically. If there are two trump cards and two non-trump cards in a trick, the highest trump card wins.
Trick - a series where all players play down their cards, starting with the player who won the last trick
Round - a series that decides which team gets the four points, High, Low, Jack, and Game.
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