Guest Author - Lynn Little

Pit

Ages 7 to Adult

Players 3 to 8

Playing Time 30 Minutes

Pit is a fast-paced party game that takes less than 5 minutes to learn how to play. In Pit, you try to corner the market of some commodity by getting 9 of a kind of that item.

Commodities include such items as oil, platinum, rice, and cattle. Each commodity has a different point value such as platinum is worth 85 points. If you corner the market with platinum, then you earn 85 points. The first player to score 500 points wins the game.

Besides the commodity cards, there are two specialty cards that can affect the game: the bear and the bull. Just like with the stock market, having the bull gives you and advantage while having the bear card means you can't win the game. If a person has the bull card, then that player only needs 8 of a commodity to win the game. If a player has the bear, they cannot win the game as long as they are in possession of it.

The number of cards used in Pit is relevant to the number of players. Place the oversized Corner card in the center of the playing area so that all players have equal access to it. All cards are dealt out. Once everyone has had a minute or so to look over their cards, the dealer will open trading.

Players will then call out how many cards they have to trade. To trade cards, the cards must all be of the same commodity. If you shout out "Three," then you should have three cards of the same kind. The only exception to the trading rule is the bear. The bear can be traded with any other commodity or by itself. This is where the action of the game becomes fast, much like that of Wall Street. Players will call their trade, hoping to find another person who has that number to trade. Most likely you will not have any trouble trading cards since everyone is trying to corner the market.

Once a player has 9 of the same commodity - or 8 commodities and the bull - then they slap their cards onto the corner card and yell "Corner." That player earns the point value of their cornered commodity. The next player then shuffles all the cards and deals them out to the players.

Pit makes a great party game because the more players you have, the more fun it is to corner the market. Pit is easy to teach new players. New players have just as much chance to win Pit as seasoned players. The card game Pit will add some fun and excitement to any game night.