Pinochle

What you need

Four players in two partnerships, partners facing each other, and a pinochle deck: 48 cards, two each of the ace, ten, king, queen, jack and nine in all four suits. With no pinochle deck in the house, take the nines through aces from two standard decks.

The ten ranks second. From high to low, every suit runs ace, ten, king, queen, jack, nine. You play hand after hand, and the game ends when a team reaches 1,500 points.

The deal

Each player gets 12 cards, dealt three at a time or one at a time, and the whole deck is dealt out. The deal passes to the left after each hand.

The auction

Players bid for the right to name trump. A bid is a number of points and nothing else: the total your team promises to score in the hand, meld and tricks together.

1. The player to the left of the dealer speaks first, and the turn passes to the left.
2. The lowest bid is 250. Each bid after that is higher by 10 or more.
3. You can pass at any turn. Once you pass, you are out of the auction for that hand.
4. The last player left takes the bid. If the first three players pass, the dealer takes it at 250.

The high bidder names the trump suit, receives cards from their partner, and leads to the first trick.

Passing cards

Once trump is named, the bidder's partner passes exactly four cards face down across the table. The bidder takes them into the hand and passes four cards back. Those four can include cards that just arrived.

Meld

Before any card is played, all four players lay their meld face up and each team adds up its points. Meld comes in three types.

Meld	What is in it	Points	Double
Run	Ace, ten, king, queen, jack of trump	150	1,500
Royal marriage	King and queen of trump	40	80
Marriage	King and queen of another suit	20	40
Nine of trump	Also called the dix or the deece	10	20
Pinochle	Jack of diamonds and queen of spades	40	300
Aces around	An ace of each suit	100	1,000
Kings around	A king of each suit	80	800
Queens around	A queen of each suit	60	600
Jacks around	A jack of each suit	40	400

The first four rows are one type, the pinochle is a second, and the arounds are a third. A card can count in melds of different types and never in two melds of the same type. A queen of spades can sit in a marriage, a pinochle and queens around at once. A king with two queens of his suit is one marriage.

A run is only a run in trump. Its king and queen do not score again as a royal marriage: for that you need the second king and queen of trump, which brings the run to 190. Tens around score nothing.

A double is both copies of every card in the meld, held in one hand.

The hand holds 250 points in tricks. If the bid is more than 250 above the bidding team's meld, the bid cannot be made, and the bidder can also give up a hand that looks lost. In either case nobody plays: the bidding team loses the bid and the other team scores its meld.

Tricks

Everyone picks their meld back up, and the bidder leads any card. Play passes to the left.

1. Follow suit if you can, and beat the card that is winning the trick if you can. This holds even when that card is your partner's.
2. With no card of the suit led, play a trump. If a trump is already in the trick, beat it if you can. If you cannot, you still play a trump.
3. With no card of the suit led and no trump, play any card.

The highest trump wins the trick. With no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led wins. When two identical cards meet, the first one played wins. The winner leads to the next trick, until all twelve are played.

Between hands: shuffling 48 cards

Card sizes and finishes are covered in what cards work with a card shuffler.

Scoring

Points in tricks

Card	Points
Ace, ten, king	10 each
Queen, jack, nine	0
Last trick	10
The whole hand	250

After the twelfth trick, each team counts the aces, tens and kings it won, and the team that took the last trick adds 10.

If the bidding team's meld and trick points together reach the bid, it scores all of them. If they fall short, the team is set: it scores nothing for the hand, meld included, and the bid is subtracted from its total.

The other team scores its meld and its trick points. It keeps its meld only if it wins at least one point in tricks. The exception is a team whose only meld is nines of trump, which it scores either way.

The first team to 1,500 wins. If both teams pass 1,500 on the same hand, the team that took the bid wins, whatever the totals.

A worked hand. North and South take the bid at 300. One of them melds a run and a pinochle, and the other melds a marriage: 150, 40 and 20, or 210. They need 90 in tricks and take 160, so they score 370. East and West meld queens around for 60 and take the other 90 in tricks, so they score 150.

Had North and South taken only 80 in tricks, their 290 would fall short of 300. They would score nothing for the hand and lose 300, and East and West would score 230.

How other tables play

Nearly every part of pinochle is played differently somewhere. Settle these before the first deal.

Rule	This page	Other tables play
Lowest bid	250	190
Passing	Four cards each way	No passing
Beating the trick	Always, when you can	Only when trump is led
One extra king or queen with a run	Nothing extra	190, and 230 with both
Double melds	Their own scores	Scored as two singles
Kings and queens in tricks	King 10, queen 0	5 each
A missed bid	The bidders lose the bid	The other team scores the bid
The numbers	As written	Divided by 10: a run is 15, a counter is 1

Double deck, three players, two players

Game	Pack and deal	What changes
Double deck	80 cards, four each of ace to jack, no nines. Four players, 20 cards each	Scores are a tenth the size: the lowest bid is 50, a hand holds 50 in tricks with 2 for the last, and game is 500. The bidder must hold a marriage in the trump suit. No passing
Three players	48 cards. 15 each and 3 face down to the kitty	Everyone plays alone. The bidder shows the kitty, takes it, and discards three cards before naming trump. Lowest bid 250, game 1,500
Two players	48 cards. 12 each, and the next card is turned up for trump	No auction. Players draw from the stock after each trick, and the winner of a trick may meld. Aces count 11, tens 10, kings 4, queens 3 and jacks 2. Game is 1,200

Rules as recorded by pagat.com, Single Deck Partnership Pinochle, with its pages on the double-deck, three-player and two-player games.

Common questions

How many cards are in a pinochle deck?

48: two each of the nine, jack, queen, king, ten and ace in four suits. The double-deck game uses 80, with four of each card and no nines.

Can you play pinochle with regular cards?

Yes. Take the nines through aces from two standard decks and you have a 48-card pinochle deck.

What is a pinochle in pinochle?

The jack of diamonds and the queen of spades in one hand. It melds for 40, and both jacks with both queens meld for 300.

Why does the ten beat the king?

That is the rank order of the game: ace, ten, king, queen, jack, nine in every suit. Aces, tens and kings are also the only cards worth points in tricks.

What happens if you do not make your bid?

Your team is set. It scores nothing for the hand, meld included, and the amount of the bid comes off its total. The other team still scores.

Score keeper

Enter the bid for the team that took it, then each team's meld and trick points. A team that misses its bid loses it. Enter no meld for a team that did not keep its meld. Add the next hand with the plus button. It keeps the game on this device.