Push Out the Pig

Statistics

Rules of Push Out the Pig

Push Out the Pig is a trick-taking card game that is similar to Hearts. The game is played with the standard 52-card deck with possibly some jokers depending on the number of players. Some of the cards are scoring cards with point values (all cards of hearts, Q, J, and 10). The scoring cards may be worth positive or negative points, and the game ends when one player reaches either +1000 or -1000 points. The goal is to have the best score at the time the game ends.

Setup

The entire deck of cards is dealt to the players. Depending on the number of players, jokers are added to the deck so that every player starts with the same number of cards.

Game Play

The first player chooses one of their cards to start a trick. The suit of this card is called the leading suit. The other players then must follow suit unless they do not have cards of the same suit. The player with the highest ranked card in the leading suit wins the trick and captures every scoring card played in the trick, and this player will start the next trick in the round.

If the first card in a trick is the joker, the next player may play any card in their hand. The first non-joker card played in a trick becomes the leading card for that trick.

The ranks from high to low are A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.

The round continues until every card has been played, and scores are given to the players depending on the scoring cards they capture. The game ends if one player reaches +1000 or -1000 points, otherwise another round is started.

Scoring

The scoring cards individually have the following point values:

• A: -50
• K: -40
• Q: -30
• J: -20
• 10: -10
• 9: -9
• 8: -8
• 7: -7
• 6: -6
• 5: -5
• 4: -4
• 3: -3
• 2: -2
• Q: -100
• J: +100
• 10: +50

However, depending on the cards captured by each player, the values of each card may change:

• If a player captures 10 along with some other scoring cards, 10 has no point value but instead doubles the value of other cards captured.
• If one of the players captures all cards of hearts, every positive card becomes negative and every negative card becomes positive. The only exception is if the player who captures all hearts also captures J. In this case J remains positive.

Result

The game ends when at least one player accumulates +1000 or -1000 points. The winner is the player with the best score when the game ends.

If a player wins by accumulating more than +1000 points, they are said to win by knockout.

If a player captures all 16 scoring cards in a round, they are said to have a grand slam.

If a player captures all cards of hearts but not all 16 scoring cards, they are said to have a small slam.