Customer Reviews

Classic Pit

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This edition of the classic card game PIT is the same game as in the Deluxe edition. The only difference is in the look of the cards and the metal case containing the game: the game now looks exactly like it did when it was first released, a hundred years ago. The cards are also a bit sturdier. You might prefer the modern look of the Deluxe set, but playing this version will really take you back to the early days of the commodities market!

The game is centered on the trading of commodities. This sounds dry, but actually this is one of the most enjoyable party games ever invented. It's simple to learn, fast moving, and involves lots of screaming and yelling. (Try to imagine "Go Fish" if nobody takes turns and it was played like a furious farmer's auction). But the game also has a fascinating history and teaches something about the nature of the economy.

The commodities market developed in the 19th century as the modern agricultural economy began to grow in the U.S. When many farmers faced bankruptcy during lean times of the winter season, "forward contracts" -- an agreement between a buyer and a seller on a price, quantity, and a future delivery date of a particular commodity like wheat or beans or coffee -- started to appear. Between the time of the contract purchase and the delivery, the price of the commodity could change rapidly and violently in either direction, so to protect themselves, merchants would travel to Chicago to trade their various contracts and agree on a later delivery date. The location where they traded (originally a room above a flour store) became The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) -- also know as "THE PIT." Today we see the The Pit on television every day, where traders dash about desperately yelling and giving signals to buy or trade contracts on wheat, soybeans, Eurodollars, heating oil, gold, etc.

Thus arose this long-lived card game. By 1904, when the game was first published, the commodities market had exploded into a major economic force in the country, and one in which speculators could lose or gains millions in a short period of time. This game imitates the frenzy of traders on the floor of the Pit, selling and buying contracts on various commodities rapidly so they can "corner" a particular market, and where fortunes can be made or lost in seconds.

This may sound complicated, but PIT is an easy game to learn and addictive to play. Seven-year-olds can pick it up quickly and be trading as hard as an adult player after only one round. The play is simple. A deck of eight different "suits" of nine cards each (commodities like wheat, oats, coffee, and sugar), plus a "bear" card and "bull" card, are dealt to the players. The dealer then rings a bell (included in this set) to declare trading open. Immediately, without any semblance of taking turns or order, the players try to discard cards they don't want by trading them with other players so they can get all nine cards of one commodity in their hand and "corner" that market and win the round. You receive a particular number of points depending on what commodity you've nabbed (wheat, for example, is the most valuable at 100 points). All trading is blind: a player holds up cards of all the same suit he wishes to trade, keeping their backs to the other players, and yells out how many he wants to trade ("I'm selling three! Three! Who wants three!). Other player may ask him to trade less if he they have fewer cards available to offer ("Will you drop to two!? I'll trade two!"). Usually, three or four trades among different players are going on at any time, or players are competing to grab an offered trade first, and the game becomes a furious race to nab that nine-of-a-kind and slam your hand on the bell to announce that you've won the round.

Amongst all this looms the Bear and Bull cards. The Bull is a wild card; you can corner a market with only eight cards plus the Bull. But if the Bull is in your hand when someone else slams the bell, you lose twenty points. The Bear is always bad: you lose twenty points if it's in your hand at the end of the round, and as long as it's in your hand, you can't corner a market. You keep playing rounds until someone gets 500 points and wins the game.

New players may be a bit hesitant with the fast and furious play style, but pretty quickly everyone will be feeling like a real tradier and yelling and wheeling and dealing. I've seen ten-year-olds beat out fifty-year-olds with their enthusiasm. And no one will ever get bored playing this. (Neighbors, however, may complain about the noise.)

The only real drawback to PIT is that it isn't as fun with a small group. The more players you have, the more fun it is. A three-player game is possible, but it isn't as intense as a game of five or more. And eight players (the maximum) is an absolutely amazing thing to see or take part in. Buy this game...you'll be the hit of your next party. It has all the wheeling and dealing of Monopoly in one tenth the time!

This is a very fun game. It can get quite loud when you play. The object is to collect every card of one kind by blind trading. Everyone is trading at one time so it can be loud. O.K. it WILL be loud. Now every time people come over, they want to play Pit. I wish I got a comission for all the people who went out and bought it after they played at our house. I'm giving some as gifts for Christmas because they are hard to find in the stores.

With a ring of a bell, the trading market is open and the frenzy to collect as many matching crops begins. Pit has entertained countless families since 1904. This new deluxe version even adds an extra crop (rice) to make the game even more exciting. The Parker Brothers game inmitates the setting at an old trading market. The participants trade with one another by yelling for their desired crop. The person who collects all of their product rings the bell for points and a victory. Pit has been passed down through my family from generation to generation, and it never seems to lose its appeal.

My family has had a Pit game in the house for literally decades. I think one deck was even owned by my grandparents back in the 50s.

Pit is a high intensity game that's fun to play with a minimum of five people. For some reason the fun factor in the game gets reduced if you play with fewer people. It's also cross generational. The last game I played had a young child and a senior citizen. But truthfully, a child younger than, say, 11 or 12, can have a hard time following the flow of the game.

I can't give high marks for the education value of Pit. But that's not really what this game is about. If you want something that's a little silly, gets people to open up, that's just fun, Pit is a good choice. But if you want to "learn" something (like Scrabble), choose something else.

i can't believe they're still making this game! i used to play it with my 3 brothers when we were kids in the 70s (so that makes me how old?!) i remember playing this game again and again and we'd get hoarse from frantically shouting "two, two, two, two. one, one, one . . ." the idea is to get all of the same commodity (flax or wheat or rye) in your hand, and to get there you trade sets of commodities. a very simple game, easy to learn and fun for all ages. i just bought this game again for my brother in minneapolis (age 35) and for my nephew in chicago (age 8). both love it and i benefit by getting to play it when i go to visit each!

buying Pit! in the tin was a good choice... the bell seems to ring better when hit hard than my other version of the game (which is the newer version in the box), and of course, the tin is a bit more aesthetically pleasing. The only thing i didn't enjoy as much about the "Classic Pit Tin" were the cards weren't as easy to read as the newer version due to the fact that the newer version has pictures of the commodities as well as the commodity name. The Classic cards have the commodity names but the card faces are all the same or very similar... If you're playing with children or with visually impaired you might want to go with the newer version... otherwise i'd recommend the classic tin version - either way, the game is simple fun.

From as early as the age of 3 years, I remember my parents and their friends playing the Pit Game in the living room on a Saturday night. I was too young to join, but they seemed to be having so mch fun.

Finally, when I was 7 or 8 they decided I could join in.......and they say there is no heaven on earth! I was addicted. This is honestly one of the few games out there that people of all ages can enjoy....and enjoy together. And the funny thing is, that watching a day on wall street looks just like a game of Pit!

"Trading ONE!" "TWO, TWO, does anyone want TWO?"

"NO not that card again!"

I'm in my early twenties now and I have not found a game I love as much!

And the tin version of the game makes it even more easy to carry around from house to house and place to place.

For a long time, my family was the only one I knew with the game, we carried it to a church social and stared a following there too!

Just make sure that you play the game on durable furniture, and be prepared to play LONG into the night.

Also, be prepared for bellyful laughs, lost voices and just all in all good fun with friends you never new you had.

A sure crowd pleaser!

Don't buy just one.......BUY ONE FOR EVERYONE YOU CALL A FRIEND!

This game gets everyone yelling and laughing. Imagine a table of people yelling at each other trying to trade cards. Every time I introduced this game at a gathering of people, they started out unsure of what they were doing, but soon after they figured out what they had to do, the group would go nuts. Simple game, a ton of fun.

I have an original game from England dated 1964 and have been playing it for 20 years with my family. Now im married with my own kids I updated to save the old cards and we are loving it as a new generation.
Definitely a recommended family game for hours and hours of fun and laughter!

My mother introduced this game to me. As a kid I loved, I just had to have it again. I haven't played it for years, found it on Amazon, now the entire family is together AGAIN playing PIT!!! It's GREAT!