88 is where it's at.

Yeah, I was taught pitch by a buddy in college, and we still get together and play yearly. We play a little differently than some of your rules here, but overall it's the same idea. It's a great game.

CyanideJenkins said:

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I've been playing 42 for almost 30 years now and this is the first time I'm hearing about "7's".

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It's because 7s is a cowards game for children who should be be playing "dominoes" with those big ass cardboard Sesame Street dominoes that have characters instead of pips

AgEng06 said:

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Yeah, I was taught pitch by a buddy in college, and we still get together and play yearly. We play a little differently than some of your rules here, but overall it's the same idea. It's a great game.

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There's plenty of variations, but yeah it's a lot of fun. There's also a 3 player cutthroat variation, but I can't remember the exact rules. The dealing is different (you get s different number of cards), but everything else is the same. There's no one around where I live that plays though. It's been years since I've been able to play.

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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Goose06 said:

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7s sounds like a bad gimmick. I would still probably be ok allowing it in a forced bid situation.

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That's what nello is for.

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What is nello?

My family plays 42 with what I assumed to be standard bids (trump, no trump, doubles are trump) and call going low (1 vs 2, intentionally not taking any count) 'little Joe'.

Buy a set of dominos from the chicken and each one comes with this card.

Quote:

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What is nello?

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Its the same as going low, you try to lose every trick while your partner doesnt play.

I'm surprised several people dont know what 7s is. Dont get me wrong, its dumb and should never be allowed as an option, but almost everybody I've played with has heard of it, thankfully nobody I usually play with wants to allow it.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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Eliminatus said:

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Wait....42 is with dominos???

Interesting. Thought it was cards this whole time.

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Pitch is the cards version. It's a little different but same concept. These are the rules for the version I've always played.

Points are high, low, jit, jack, joker, and game. Jit is a marked joker that is always the lowest card in the trump suit. The joker is between the jack and ten and always trump as well. Low is the lowest trump card played in the hand. It's usually the two, but if the two "sleeps" and is not dealt out it could be the three. If the two and three are both not dealt out, it could be the four, and so on. High is the highest trump played in the hand. Same concept as low, but working your way down from the ace. Game is a count of all 10's and face cards in each caught trick, regardless of suit. A=1, K=4, Q=3, J=2, 10=10. Team with the highest at the end of the round gets the game point.

Players get an initial deal of 7 cards and bid based on their hand. Minimum bid is 3 with a max of 6. Winning bid calls trump suit for the hand. Players discard everything but trump cards and are dealt cards to get a full hand of 6. If the winning bidder has all trump cards, they must discard one to get to a have of 6.

Winning bidder leads off, but can't lead trump until it's played or they have nothing left. Highest card played in the leadoff suit or highest trump card played takes each trick. You must follow suit if able, but do not have to trump if you don't want to. Trick winner gets the next leadoff.

Once all cards are played, teams tally up points. If the bidding team made their bid, they get whatever points they made (bid 3 but got 4 awards 4 points). If they didn't make the bid, they're "set," and they lose the points bid. If a player bids 6 and any point "sleeps" (only possible for jack, joker, and jit), they're still set regardless of all points not being available. First team to 21 wins.

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Pitch is a great game.

Nello with only forced bid is always a weird one for me. I grew up playing where nello could be played at any time and was considered the same as 1 mark. But I kind of like having it only be available at forced bids.

CyanideJenkins said:

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I've been playing 42 for almost 30 years now and this is the first time I'm hearing about "7's".

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I was in the same boat as you until one day some guy at the table went a mark, nobody upped the bid, and instead of calling a trump or declaring that he was going nello he casually calls, "Sevens".

At which point I was thoroughly confused, thinking he'd called Sevens as trumps...which I'd also never heard of, for obvious reasons. So I said, "what was that...??"

"Sevens" he replied.

"Oh, yeah that's what I thought you said...what the **** is 'sevens'...??"

He explains it...

I look around to see if I'm on candid camera...

I regurgitate what he just explained to me, just to make sure I had it correct. Thinking, "...surely I'm oversimplifying this. right...?? There's no way a concept this basic has made its way into a game of 42..." Nope, apparently it's as simple as I thought.

Another glance around to see if I'm on candid camera...

Then we play out the hand and I declare that "Alright..."sevens" is ****ing stupid - and we're not going to play that anymore - Everybody understand!?"

Summary: Any variation on a game of dominoes or cards that can, according to the rules of that variation (and without affecting the outcome of the hand one iota) be played completely face-up by all participants, is ****ing stupid and should not be allowed.

Don't forget moon

ChampsAg said:

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Don't forget moon

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Moon is a fantastic game and should be treated as such!

Whitetail said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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Eliminatus said:

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Wait....42 is with dominos???

Interesting. Thought it was cards this whole time.

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Pitch is the cards version. It's a little different but same concept. These are the rules for the version I've always played.

Points are high, low, jit, jack, joker, and game. Jit is a marked joker that is always the lowest card in the trump suit. The joker is between the jack and ten and always trump as well. Low is the lowest trump card played in the hand. It's usually the two, but if the two "sleeps" and is not dealt out it could be the three. If the two and three are both not dealt out, it could be the four, and so on. High is the highest trump played in the hand. Same concept as low, but working your way down from the ace. Game is a count of all 10's and face cards in each caught trick, regardless of suit. A=1, K=4, Q=3, J=2, 10=10. Team with the highest at the end of the round gets the game point.

Players get an initial deal of 7 cards and bid based on their hand. Minimum bid is 3 with a max of 6. Winning bid calls trump suit for the hand. Players discard everything but trump cards and are dealt cards to get a full hand of 6. If the winning bidder has all trump cards, they must discard one to get to a have of 6.

Winning bidder leads off, but can't lead trump until it's played or they have nothing left. Highest card played in the leadoff suit or highest trump card played takes each trick. You must follow suit if able, but do not have to trump if you don't want to. Trick winner gets the next leadoff.

Once all cards are played, teams tally up points. If the bidding team made their bid, they get whatever points they made (bid 3 but got 4 awards 4 points). If they didn't make the bid, they're "set," and they lose the points bid. If a player bids 6 and any point "sleeps" (only possible for jack, joker, and jit), they're still set regardless of all points not being available. First team to 21 wins.

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Pitch is a great game.

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Pitching > Catching.

Lt. Joe Bookman said:

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Nello with only forced bid is always a weird one for me. I grew up playing where nello could be played at any time and was considered the same as 1 mark. But I kind of like having it only be available at forced bids.

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That's because if you don't suck, every hand is a nello hand.

Means losers buy next pitcher?

I've played 42 for over thirty years and I've never heard of Sevens. It sounds dumb.

I always played with forced Nello only.

Eliminatus said:

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Wait....42 is with dominos???

Interesting. Thought it was cards this whole time.

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Seriously? Didn't spend much time at the Bird I guess.

Im with yall on the sevens. Never heard of that or seen it, and wouldn't associate with anyone who would want to play that way.

spicyitalian said:

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88 is where it's at.

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Never played 88, but have played 84, and yes a hell of a game. Played with two sets of dominos. Much more skill involved.

Tatem said:

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Speaking of...what happened to chiken?

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I figured this thread would come around to "chicken rules" having something to do with showing your junk.....

My family is the wild west

Nello whenever you want to
Splash and Plunge as you wish
Doubles as trump
Doubles low when playing nello


Sevens can be played upon a forced bid

I allow low anytime but doubles are automatically high if you weren't stuck. If you're stuck, you get all 3 options for low.

You get to play low a bit, but not like you do when it's a free for all.

Also you can go blind 2 marks and swap a domino - mostly if you're way behind.

I don't know about Chicken rules, but at my house we play:

No Nello
No splash
No plunge
No 7s
No doubles low
Max bid is 2 marks, or can outbid by 1 mark
Doubles as trump is allowed
Follow me is allowed

superunknown said:

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CyanideJenkins said:

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I've been playing 42 for almost 30 years now and this is the first time I'm hearing about "7's".

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It's because 7s is a cowards game for children who should be be playing "dominoes" with those big ass cardboard Sesame Street dominoes that have characters instead of pips

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as is "splash" and "plunge"

Ogre09 said:

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I don't know about Chicken rules, but at my house we play:

No Nello
No splash
No plunge
No 7s
No doubles low
Max bid is 2 marks, or can outbid by 1 mark
Doubles as trump is allowed
Follow me is allowed

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No, No, No, No, No fun

Growing up 42 was the game we'd always play with my dad's family. At family gatherings like Thanksgiving card tables would be brought out, teams formed, and we'd play tournaments with the family.

Nello was allowed at any time
Forced bids to keep the game moving, but you could bid anything. It's always fun to try and squeeze 30 points out of trash.
Doubles could be high, low, or a suit of their own.
Never played splash or plunge, it seems to gimmicky. Communicating to your partner was forbidden.
I'd never heard of sevens until much later, but it sounds dumb
We'd always play for points and not marks: If you don't win the bid, then you kept the points you scored so keeping the bidder to 30 points and scoring 12 can be a big deal. If you don't win the bid, but the bidder doesn't make their bid you score your points plus their bid. Play to 210 points. Playing for points like that makes every trick worthwhile because you are trying to score your points instead of the hand being over once the bid is made. Trying to win the last 5 count after the bid has been made on the last few tricks is where the real strategy comes in.

Plunge is 4. Splash is 3

Plunge is saying "Hey partner, I have 4 doubles, see what you can do with it"

Splash is saying "Hey partner, I have 3 doubles, see what you can do with it"

I grew up watching my dad and his coonass family play 42 with low (nil), sevens, and plunge,.
Didn't hear nelo or splash until the chicken.
My dad loves to call 2 marks, run 7s, and have the double blank. Seen my uncle want to throw things at him many times.

I just got my 15 year old to learn. He likes it. We told him forced low only, no 7s, splash & plunge.

Dad-O-Lot said:

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Plunge is saying "Hey partner, I have 4 doubles, see what you can do with it"

Splash is saying "Hey partner, I have 3 doubles, see what you can do with it"

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And if you are going to risk that many marks, your partner better have bid at least 30 already and have a trump suit. Things can go wrong in a hurry with those bids.

Was on a fishing trip in Mexico last month and during lunch we played most days. My partner is first up to bid and plunges. I'm looking at my dominos with no doubles, and no more than two of the same suit. I call follow me and play the 1-0. Partner had the 1-1. Partner ended up having 5 doubles. Plays them out and is left with the 4-1 (behind the double 4 he played) and 5-3 (behind the double 5 he played). It worked out.

The Shank Ag said:

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Plunge is 4. Splash is 3

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This is correct, but I always thought you should get more marks for splash than plunge, since you have one less double.

Does everyone else stack dominos on straight up 42 or 84 bids?

The Shank Ag said:

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Does everyone else stack dominos on straight up 42 or 84 bids?

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Absolutely.

FbgTxAg said:

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The Shank Ag said:

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Plunge is 4. Splash is 3

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This is correct, but I always thought you should get more marks for splash than plunge, since you have one less double.

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True. But one might argue the more doubles you have, the less likely you will be able to help your partner if they have a weak trump suit. Have 4 doubles, you only have 3 options to maybe pair up with the trump suit and get a split from the opponents. Have 3, and you get that extra chance.

The Shank Ag said:

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Does everyone else stack dominos on straight up 42 or 84 bids?

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Mark, no. Two marks, yes.

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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The Shank Ag said:

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Does everyone else stack dominos on straight up 42 or 84 bids?

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Mark, no. Two marks, yes.

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Mark or better gets stacked.