Progressive Setback rotation charts for 8–24 players

Progressive Setback / High-Low-Jack, quickly

How does a progressive Setback rotation chart work?

Every player gets a number. Each round, the chart shows which table each player sits at and who their partner is for that hand — partners change every round, and no two players partner twice while a repeat-free chart can be found (any repeat that can't be avoided is marked with an asterisk and counted in the summary above the chart). Between hands, everyone just checks the chart for their next seat.

What happens with 9, 10, or 21 players — counts that aren't a multiple of four?

Full tables of four always play a hand, and the remaining one, two, or three players sit out just that round. The chart rotates sit-outs so they end up spread as evenly as possible over the night: nobody sits out more than one round more than anyone else, and every sit-out is printed on the chart and on that player's tally card.

Is this a live win-based or moderator-directed system, or a fixed schedule decided in advance?

This generator builds a fixed, printed rotation: every table and partner assignment for the whole night is decided and shown on the chart before the first hand is dealt. It is not a live system where tables move based on who wins each round or on a tournament moderator's call — that is a different, outcome-dependent format some real Setback tournaments also use, and this tool doesn't attempt it, since it can't be known in advance which table anyone will move to based on results not yet played.

How do bid, trump, made/set, and score work at each table?

Each hand, players bid a number of points (2 to 4, or the all-or-nothing Smudge) that they think their side can win, and the highest bidder names the trump suit. The hand is played out for four point categories — High, Low, Jack, and Game. Making the bid scores the points actually won; falling short “sets back” the bidding side by the full bid amount instead, while the defending side always scores whatever it wins. None of this is computed for you — the winning bid, trump suit called, whether the bid was made or set, and the resulting score are a live decision at the table, so the tally card gives each a blank field to fill in by hand as the hand is scored. See the standard Auction Pitch/Setback quick reference above for the traditional/standard point values.

How many rounds should we schedule, and what's a typical target score?

Five to eight rounds fills a typical evening for most groups. This generator's reference targets a stated 11 points to win, one common partnership figure — some groups play to other targets (7, 9, 15, or 21 are all in common use), so agree yours before the first hand. If you schedule more rounds than your player count can cover without repeat partners, the generator tells you and marks the repeats.

Is this the same as regular Setback, euchre, pinochle, canasta, or 500?

This is the progressive/tournament format: a fixed chart that moves everyone to a new table and partner each round, the same style used for progressive euchre, pinochle, canasta, and 500 nights, rather than a single table playing one long game with the same partner all evening. It covers Setback's own Bid & Trump, Made/Set, and Score fields — not euchre's trump-and-tricks fields, pinochle's bid-and-meld fields, canasta's meld-and-bonus fields, or 500's bid-tricks-and-score fields, which have their own dedicated generators.

Is this Setback, Pitch, or High-Low-Jack — are those the same game?

Yes — Setback, Auction Pitch, and High-Low-Jack are names for the same traditional American card game, played here in its standard partnership form with a stated 4-point category set and an 11-point target. This tool doesn't cover the many other named point-count variants (Smear, Pedro, Cinch, Ten Point Pitch, and others) in the same broad family, which use different scoring.