What does PITS mean in Institutes?

Pits

Pits is a five player card game, a cross between whist and rummy, with the objective of playing all your cards first. It is played with a 54 card pack. Threes are low, Aces high, Twos even higher and Jokers highest. Once all the cards are dealt, the dealer plays a meld; one of a singleton, "n" of a kind, a run of 3 or more singletons or a run of "n" of a kind. For example a run of 4 pairs might be {5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8}. Subsequent players either pass or play a better set of the same meld, e.g. {8,8,9,9,10,10,J,J}. Twos are partly wild and Jokers fully wild. Using wild cards, it is possible to play a meld of "10 of a kind" - 4 genuine cards, 4 twos and 2 jokers. In one hand, the first player gets 2 points, the second 1 point, the third is dealer for the next hand, the fourth is slightly in the pit and the fifth totally in the pit. In the next hand, the two players in the pit discard their best card, the first players chooses one of the two, the second player gets the other one. These players then discard any card they don't want; Fourth choosing, fifth getting the remaining card. Then dealer leads in this hand.

see more »