I built a bot that plays 10-Point Pitch (the Nebraska-Iowa variant) well. Nobody wants to pull up a model at the table, so the question became: what can a person take from it and remember? This is the answer for bidding. Six one-sentence rules, each measured for what it is worth, that together bid as well as the bot does.
The rules were found by watching where simple bidding loses to the bot, and kept only when they paid for themselves over tens of thousands of dealt hands. Every number on these pages comes from a final set of deals that was run once, after the rules were fixed. How it was done explains the method and the 35 rules that were tried along the way.
The rules
Apply them in order; the first rule that fits decides. Terms are defined below.
- If nobody has bid, bid 4 when you hold the ace of your suit. worth +0.27 with basic card play, +0.67 with expert card play
- If an opponent has bid 4, bid 5 when you hold the ace of your suit. worth +0.53 with basic card play, +0.94 with expert card play
- If an opponent has bid 5, bid 6 when you hold the ace of your suit and another top card. worth +0.18 with basic card play, +0.30 with expert card play
- For average card players: do not bid when the ace is your only top card and you also hold the 3 of your suit. worth +0.05 with basic card play, −0.07 with expert card play
- If an opponent has bid 4 and you do not hold the ace of your suit, still bid 5 with three top cards. worth +0.04 with basic card play, +0.09 with expert card play
- If your table competes for the bid: unless you are the dealer, open at 5 instead of 4 when you hold the ace of your suit and another top card. worth +0.12 with basic card play, +0.29 with expert card play
In every other situation, pass. A dealer who is forced to bid bids 4.
- your suit
- The suit you would name as trump: your longest, counting the jack of the other suit of the same colour (the off-jack) and both jokers as part of it. If two suits tie, score 5 for the ace and 3 each for the jack, the off-jack and the 3, and take the higher; if they still tie, take the first of hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades.
- top cards
- In your suit: the ace, king, queen, jack, off-jack and each joker.
"Worth" is points per hand gained over the rules above it, against a team bidding like the bot. A full hand is 10 points.
What they are worth
Two things surprised me. Counting trump, the usual advice, is almost worthless for bidding: what matters is the top cards in your suit, and above all the ace. And the most expensive habit at the table is not over-bidding but letting an opponent keep the bid at 4 when you hold an ace.
Read more
The ladder
Each rule's value with basic and expert card play, and how the rules do against different kinds of opponents.
What a hand is worth
800,000 hands: why top cards beat trump count, and why the 3 can be a liability.
The game
The rules of this variant: 10 points a hand, trump-only play, one round of bidding, and the jokers.
How it was done
The bot, duplicate deals, the three deal sets, the keep rule, and every rule that was tried.
Measured against the bot at commit 87df523, study commit 013a859, 2026-10-06.