Pinochle
You and North are partners against West and East. Win the auction, name trump, then make your bid with your side’s meld plus the aces, tens and kings you take in tricks.
Also try Euchre → Also try Spades →
How to play Pinochle
Dealing and bidding
Everyone gets 12 cards from a 48-card deck: two each of the 9, jack, queen, king, 10 and ace of every suit, ranking ace, 10, king, queen, jack, 9. Starting left of the dealer, each player bids or passes. Bids start at 200 and go up in tens, and a player who passes is out of the auction. If the other three pass, the dealer must bid. The high bidder names trump. This game plays without passing cards between partners.
Meld
Once trump is named, every hand’s melds are shown and scored: a run (ace, 10, king, queen and jack of trump) 150, a royal marriage (king and queen of trump) 40, a marriage (king and queen of another suit) 20, the dix (9 of trump) 10, a pinochle (queen of spades and jack of diamonds) 40, a double pinochle 300, aces around (one of each suit) 100, kings around 80, queens 60 and jacks 40. Double sets score 1000, 800, 600 and 400, and a double run 1500. A card can count in melds of different kinds but never twice in the same kind.
Tricks and scoring
The bidder leads. Follow suit if you can and beat the winning card if you can. With none of the suit led you must trump, beating any trump already played if you can; otherwise play any card. The highest trump wins, or else the highest card of the suit led; of two identical cards the first one played wins. Aces, tens and kings count 10 each and the last trick 10. A side keeps its meld only if it wins a trick. The bidding side scores meld plus counters if that reaches the bid; otherwise it is set and loses the bid. The other side scores what it made. The first side to 1500 after a hand wins; if both get there in the same hand, the bidding side wins.
Levels and controls
Easy, Medium and Hard set the computer players’ strength in a game to 1500. Quick 1000 is a shorter game against Medium and is the daily, with the same deal for everyone. Tap a card to lift it and tap again to play, or drag it to the middle; with a mouse, a click plays it. Cards you can’t play are dimmed. With a keyboard, play cards with the arrow keys and Enter; in the auction the arrow keys change your bid, B bids and P passes; C, D, H or S names trump and M shows the melds.
Questions
How do you play Pinochle with four players?
Four players in two partnerships get 12 cards each from a 48-card pinochle deck. After an auction the high bidder names trump, both sides show their melds, and then 12 tricks are played. The bidding side has to reach its bid with its meld plus the counters it takes; aces, tens and kings are worth 10 each.
What does each meld score in Pinochle?
In this game a run in trump scores 150, a royal marriage 40, a marriage 20, each dix 10, a pinochle 40 and a double pinochle 300. Aces around score 100, kings 80, queens 60 and jacks 40; doubled they score ten times as much, and a double run scores 1500. The table of melds is also shown in the game after trump is named.
What does it mean to be set in Pinochle?
If the side that won the auction ends the hand with less than its bid, counting its meld and the counters it took, it is set: it scores nothing for the hand and the bid is taken off its score, so a total can go below zero.
Do the computer players cheat?
No. Each computer player decides using only its own cards, the bids, the melds everyone showed and the cards already played. North, your partner, plays to help your side, and the Hard players look ahead by trying out many possible layouts of the cards they can’t see.
How long does a game of Pinochle take?
A game to 1500 usually takes seven or eight hands, roughly 10 to 15 minutes. Quick 1000 usually ends after four to six hands, in under ten minutes, and your game is saved if you leave in between.