1. Double Deck Partner Pinochle
2. Pinochle Deck Of Cards
3. Pinochle Deck
4. Pinochle
5. Pinochle Scoring
6. Pinochle Deck Playing Three Handed

Pinochle is a trick taking card game. Simillar to hearts, one person leads out a card and everyone else plays a card on top of the original. Depending on the cards played, one person takes the 'trick' and earns points based on the cards pulled. A standard deck of pinochle contains 2 of every card from 9-Aces. Oct 12, 2020 Pinochle is most often played using a deck of 48 cards. These include two of the same cards of each suit in the ranking of 'nine' to ace, which has the highest value in the game. The rules of the game will be the same whether you have 2, 3 or 4 players (though the number of decks required to accommodate each player will differ). Pinochle multiplayer game. Classic card game with bidding, melds and taking tricks to score points; four players in two teams; double deck with no nines; score 500 to win; double deck pinochle card game.

Trickster Pinochle is an implementation of single-deck partnership auction pinochle (a game option offers single round bidding). It is a trick taking and melding game where players score points by capturing cards worth points (“counters”) and by forming combinations of cards into meld. The game has three phases: bidding, melding, and trick taking.

Trickster Pinochle offers two scoring styles we call “Classic” and “Modern.” In classic scoring, bids are multiples of 10 and meld such as Aces Around are worth 100 points (often called “100 Aces”). In modern scoring, bids increment by 1 and all the classic meld values are divided by 10. (More on meld values and card point values below.)

The Deck

Pinochle is played with a 48-card deck consisting of 2 cards per rank of ranks 9 through Ace. The order of ranks from top to bottom are A, 10, K, Q, J, and 9. Note that the 10 is elevated to a position just below the Ace.

Double deck Pinochle uses an 80-card deck consisting of 4 cards per rank of rank 10 through Ace.

The Deal

When playing without a kitty, all 48 cards are dealt: 12 cards to each of 4 players (or 16 cards to each of 3 players in the 3-player game). In the 4-player double deck game, 20 cards are dealt to each player.

Trickster Pinochle offers an option to play with a kitty (single deck only). If playing with this option, 11 cards are dealt to each player and 4 cards are placed in the kitty (15 cards dealt and a 3-card kitty in the 3-player game). The kitty is added to the high bidder’s hand before he or she declares trump. The high bidder (“declarer”) must discard an equal number of cards before trick taking starts so all players have the same number.

Bidding

Following the deal, starting with the player left of the dealer, players bid to become the player who declares trump (the “declarer”). Player must bid higher than the previous bidder or Pass. Once a player has passed, he or she is out of the bidding. When all but one player has passed, the remaining high bidder becomes the declarer.

At this point, the declarer chooses the trump suit. If playing with a kitty, the kitty is revealed to all players and then added to the declarer’s hand prior to choosing trump.

As an aid to bidding, Trickster Pinochle displays a meld summary bar over the player’s hand. This bar shows meld points by suit. By clicking on a suit/number pair, we display the meld if that suit was trump.

Meld if diamonds were trump shown by clicking “110♦” in the meld summary bar.

Passing

Trickster Pinochle offers an option offers an option for the declaring team to pass cards. If playing with this option, following the choice of trump, the declarer’s partner passes 2, 3, or 4 cards to the declarer (the number of cards passed is a game option). The declarer then passes the same number of cards back to their partner.

The purpose the pass is to improve the declarer’s hand – either their meld or their trick-taking ability.

Passing is not available in the 3-player game.

Melding

After the bid is set and the declarers have passed (if enabled), players reveal their meld. Trickster Pinochle does this automatically starting with the declarer and going around the table clockwise.

Trump in Double Deck

In double deck, the suit chosen as trump must contain a marriage or better. If not, your team will automatically fail the bid at the first card play. Because of passing, you may choose a suit without a marriage or better but unless you end up with a marriage or better, you will fail the bid.

This rule can be turned off by setting “Marriage+ in trump” to “No” (see Pinochle House Rules Options, below).

Trick Taking

After meld are revealed, trick taking starts with the declarer. Play continues clockwise following the led suit, if possible, or playing another legal card if not. Play continues until all cards have been played.

Note that cards are not all the same point value. Some cards are “counters” and other are not. Depending on the game options, even counters may have different values. This can be important when sloughing cards on a trick being taken by your partner or the other team.

Pinochle has specific rules regarding when a player must “head” a trick, that is, when a player must play a card better than the others already in the trick. Trickster Pinochle offers two popular versions of this rule: “must head trick always” or “must head trick if trump led.” These options result in the following behavior:

Must Head Trick Always

This rule requires a player to always beat the winning card in the trick, if possible. If the winning card in the trick is non-trump and the player has higher cards of that suit, they must play a higher card. If they have no cards of the led suit but have trump, they must trump in. If a trump card is currently winning the suit, they must beat that card, if possible.

Must Head Trick If Trump Led

This rule requires that you to beat the high trump card in the suit only if trump was led. You do not have to beat non-trump cards and you don’t have to beat trump cards played when the led suit was non-trump.

Scoring

Following trick play, the points of the teams’ meld and taken cards are added. If the declaring team’s points exceeded their bid and they captured at least one counter, they score all their meld and taken points. If they fail to make the bid or capture no counters, the value of their bid is subtracted from their game score.

The defending team is credited with all their meld and taken points regardless.

Trickster Pinochle does all this computation for you and displays the results in a summary on the scorecard. You can view each teams’ score details by clicking on the “Details” link next to their score summary.

An end-of-hand scorecard showing the score details of the declaring team.

Meld Values

The following table shows Trickster Pinochle’s meld and their point values in the two scoring styles.

Meld may share cards between them except for a Run or Double Run and a Royal Marriage.

Double deck play adds triple and quadruple runs, aces, kings, queens, jacks, and pinochle.

Optional Meld Values

Four additional meld types are available as options (see Pinochle House Rules Options, below):

If both options “Double royal marriage” and “Run with extra K/Q/KQ” are enabled, Double Royal Marriage beats Run with extra Marriage because of its higher point value.

Card Values

Trickster Pinochle supports three ways of scoring counters in the Classic scoring style. We identify these by the cards which count. In the Modern scoring style, only A, 10, and K count and they count 1 point each. The following table shows the point values per card rank for each set of counters.

Regardless of which cards are counters, there are 30 points per rank. With 8 cards of each rank in the deck, that’s 240 points. An additional 10 points are credited for taking the last trick resulting in 250 capturable points per hand (25 for modern scoring).

Pinochle House Rules Options

When:

“Now” creates a new game that starts immediately. Other options schedule a game for a time in the next 24 hours. Compete and Join games only.

Winnings:

Three levels of winnings based on the buy-in level—30, 110, 275 or 550 Trickster Chips. Compete games only.

Variant:

“Single Deck” is played with a 48-card deck. “Double Deck” is played with an 80-card deck.

Scoring style:

“Classic” uses bids and point values which are multiples of 10. “Modern” uses 1-point increments.

Play to:

“1000”, “1200” or “1500” ends the game when a team reaches that number of points (“100”, “120” and “150” for Modern scoring). Single deck only; double deck is played to 5000.

Players:

“3” for a 3-player individual game or “4” for a 4-player partnership game. Single deck only; double deck is always 4 players in partnership.

Bidding

Minimum bid:

Sets the minimum opening bid to “150”, “200” or “250” (“15”, “20” or “25” for Modern scoring). Single deck only; double deck is always minimum bid 500.

Bid style:

“Auction” for multiple round bidding. Bidding continues until only one has not passed. “Single” offers only single round of bidding. Single deck only; double deck is always auction style bidding.

Declarers pass:

“2,”“3,” or “4” indicates that the declarer and his or her partner exchange that number of cards after trump is declared. “None” means there is no passing of cards. 4-player games only.

Kitty:

“Yes” places the number of cards equal to the number of players in a kitty which is added to the high bidder’s hand. “No” deals all 48 cards to the players. Single deck only.

Stick the dealer:

“Yes” means the dealer must bid if the other three players passed during the first round of bidding. “No” allows the dealer to pass; cards are redealt if all players pass during the first round of bidding.

Marriage+ in trump:

“Yes” means the declarer must have a marriage or better in trump or they automatically fold following melding. “No” removes this requirement. Double deck only.

Minimum 20/200 in meld:

“Yes” means the declaring team must have at least 20 points (200 in classic scoring) in meld or they automatically fold following melding. It also requires that the defenders have 200 in meld or their meld is not scored. “No” imposes no such restrictions. Double deck only.

Allow misdeal

“Yes” means a player with 5 or more 9s can call a misdeal as their first bid. Single deck only.

Meld Options

No double pinochle:

Two pinochles score 80 points (8 for modern scoring) instead of 300 (30 for modern) for a double pinochle. Single deck only.

Double royal marriage:

Adds a 300-point (30 for modern scoring) meld for having 2 kings and 2 queens of trump but not having a double run. In double deck, this also enables Triple Royal Marriage for 600/60 and Quadruple for 900/90.

Run with extra K/Q/KQ:

Add three more meld types: a 190-point “Run With Extra King,” a 190-point “Run With Extra Queen,” and a 230-point “Run With Extra Marriage.” If you have one of these, you do not get credit for a simple run. Also, if both this option and “Double Royal Marriage” is on, “Double Royal Marriage” beats “Run With Extra Marriage.”Single deck only.

Play

Must head trick:

“Always” means a player who can follow suit must play higher than the currently winning card (if possible) or trump in if they are out of the led suit but still have trump. “Trump Led” means a player must play higher trump (if possible) on a trick where trump was led. “Never” means heading the trick is not required.

Must trump if void:

“Yes” means that a player void in the led non-trump suit, must play trump if they have any. “No” means a player may slough even when holding trump. Applies to “Must head trick” options “Trump Led” and “Never.”

Counters:

“A 10 K” means that the Ace, 10, and King are each worth 10 points. “A 10 K Q” means the Ace and 10 are each worth 10 and the King and Queen are worth 5 each. “A 10 K Q J” means the Ace is worth 11, 10 worth 10, King worth 4, Queen worth 3, and Jack worth 2. In Modern scoring, only “A 10 K” is allowed and each is worth 1 point.

Minimum 20/200 in tricks:

“Yes” means a team must take at least 20 points (200 in classic scoring) during trick-taking or they score zero. “No” imposes no such requirement. Double deck only.

Must bid/set to win:

“Yes” requires the winner(s) to be either the bidder(s) who made their bid or the opponents who set the bidder(s). “No” means the player(s) with the highest score over the play to score wins.

Review last deal:

“Yes” displays the cards and bids of all players after each deal. All players must explicitly continue to the next deal. “No” means the game progresses to the next deal immediately. Join and Practice games only.

Limits

Must be invited:

“Yes” hides this game from other players until they’ve been explicitly invited using the “Invite Friends” form. “No” allows all friends of players in this game to see it. Join games only.

Allow suggestions:

“Yes” to allow players to see bid and card play suggestions, depending on their personal setting. “No” prevents all players from seeing suggestions. Always “Yes” in Play games; “No” in Compete games.

Allow watching:

“Yes” allows up to 10 additional players to watch the game. They do not see anyone’s cards. “No” prevents anyone from watching. Join games only.

Chat during game:

“None” disables all chat during the game. “Preset” allows only the built-in chat messages to be used. “Text” allows full chat. Full chat is also always available before and after games. Always “Preset” in Play games; “None” in Practice games.

Time to bid:

Specifies an optional time limit for a player to bid. “Off” means there are no time limits on bidding. “7s,”“15s,”, “30s” & “60s” sets a limit to bid of 7, 15, 30 or 60 seconds, respectively. Automatically set in Play games.

Time to play:

Specifies an optional time limit for a player to play a card. “Off” means there are no time limits on card play. “7s,”“15s,”, “30s” & “60s” sets a limit to play a card of 7, 15, 30 or 60 seconds, respectively. Automatically set in Play games.

OBJECTIVE OF PINOCHLE: Win tricks and collect the most points.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2-4 Players (4 players play with partners)

NUMBER OF CARDS: 48 card deck

RANK OF CARDS: A (high), 10, K, Q, J, 9

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking

AUDIENCE: Adult

INTRODUCTION TO PINOCHLE

Pinochle is a trick-taking and melding card game with components similar to Bridge, Euchre, Spades, and Hearts. Unexpectedly, it also has similarities to the popular kid’s game War. The game’s origin is from the French game Bezique. Non-French speakers adopted the name ‘Binocle’ for the game, which means eyeglasses in French. German immigrants who adopted the game mispronounced it as “pinochle” and brought that name with them to America where the game subsequently spread.

THE DECK

The Pinochle deck has 48 cards. In each of the four suits, the deck has two of each: A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9. These cards, however, do not follow the traditional ranking. Ace is high, followed by 10, and K, and are often referred to as counters. Meaning these cards are always worth points. There are several methods of scoring which will be outlined below in the scoring section, some of which include Q, J, 9 as both being worth points and as NOT being worth points. When these cards are valued at 0 points, they are referred to as noncounters. The mechanism of scoring must be mutually agreed upon before the deal and the play.

THE DEAL

A dealer may be chosen by whatever method players wish. They then will shuffle the cards thoroughly and distribute 12 cards to each player, 3 or 4 cards at a time. The deal starts to the left of the dealer and moves clockwise, ending with their own set of cards.

Once each player has their hand, they examine their cards and prepare for the auction or bidding phase.

*If playing without bidding, after the deal, the dealer flips over the top card of the deck and places it face-up on the table. The suit of this card is the trump suit and all cards of that suit beat cards of all other suits. High ranking trump cards beat other trump cards. The remainder of the deck is placed face-down on the table and is the stockpile.

THE AUCTION/THE BID

A bid is a prediction of the number of points your hand might earn. The player who bids the highest, or the winner of the bid, has the following perks:

• declare trump suit
• receive cards from their partner
• lead the first trick

The minimum bid players must make is 250 points. Bids increase by factors of 10 and consist only of a number. The bid goes around the table until each player passes and a winner is declared. Starting to the left of the dealer, and moving clockwise, player’s have the following options during bidding:

• bidnormally, by bidding 10 points higher than the previous bid
• give a jump bid, and bid 20 points higher than the previous bid
• pass and leave the bidding
• OR pass with help, which means you pass but you are giving extra information to your partner.

After the winner emerges, they announce the trump suit.

Passing Cards

The winner of the bid and their partner have the right to exchange cards. The winner’s partner selects exactly four cards to pass to their partner. The declarer (winner of the bid) adds those four cards to hand and examines them. After, they send back four cards to their partner, which can include sending back some cards they just received.

MELDING

After the passing of cards, all four players can place their melds on the table. Melds are made of particular card combinations, each combination having its own point value. There are various types of melds which players can create including arounds, flushes, marriages, and pinochle.

“Arounds”

Aces around (100 Aces) – four Aces, different suits – 10 or 100 points

Kings around (80 Kings) – four Kings, different suits – 8 or 80 points

Queens around (60 Queens) – four Queens, different suits – 6 or 60 points

Jacks around (40 Jacks) – four Jacks, different suits – 4 or 40 points

Aces abound (1000 Aces) – eight Aces – 100 or 1000 points

Kings abound (800 Kings) – eight Kings – 80 or 800 points

Queens abound (600 Queens) – eight Queens – 60 or 600 points

Jacks abound (400 Jacks) – eight Jacks – 40 or 400 points

“Marriages & Flushes”

Marriages and Flushes are the sequence combinations.

Trump Marriage – K and Q of Trump suit – 4 or 40 points, 8 or 80 points if double

Marriage – K and Q of any suit – 2 or 20 points, 4 or 40 points if double

Marriages around – K and Q in each suit – 24 or 240 points

Flush (run) – A, 10, K, Q in trump suit – 15 or 150 points, 150 or 1500 if double

“Pinochle”

Double Deck Partner Pinochle

Pinochle – J of diamonds and Q of spades – 4 or 40 points

Double Pinochle – both J of diamonds and Q of spades – 30 or 300 points

Dix – 9 in trump suit – 1 or 10 points

Once each player sets their melds out they are scored and recorded on the scoring pad.

Since there are a maximum of 250 points available in the trick-taking phase of the game, if the declarer is 250+ points under their bid after melding they may throw in their cards and not participate in the trick-taking whatsoever.

Pinochle Deck Of Cards

If their bid is within 250 points after melding they may play their hand in the trick-taking.

Trick-Taking

After the melds have been scored players pick up their hands and prepare for the trick-taking portion of the game. The declarer leads the initial trick by playing any card they wish. A trick is won by playing either the highest ranking trump card or, if there are no trumps, the highest ranking card that follows the suit led with. During a trick, each player plays exactly one card. This continues until all 12 tricks have been played. Each trick after the first trick is led by the winner of the previous trick. Trick-taking follows the rules below:

• When you can follow suit you must. If you have a card in hand the matches the suit lead with you must play it. Play a higher ranking card than the lead if possible.
• If you are unable to follow suit, but a have a card in hand from the trump suit, you must play that card. This is called trumping the trick. If the suit led with was a trump play a higher ranking trump card if possible.
• In the event you can neither follow suit or play a trump, you may slough. This means playing any card at all.

Each team should designate a puller. This player will collect the cards from tricks won in a face-down pile in front of them for scoring later in the game.

SCORING

After all twelve tricks are played players score the cards collected. Aces, 10s, and Kings are worth 10 points each. Winning the final trick is also worth 10 points. This gives a total of 250 points players can collect during trick taking.

If the declarer matches or exceeds their bid, their total score (melds + tricks) is added to their running total. If they are unable to match their bid, the amount of the bid is subtracted from their running total.

When declarers ‘throw in’ their opponents score their melds. Tricks are not scored as no tricks are played. The declarer loses the amount they bid.

The game continues until a team scores 1500+ points. If both teams hit 1500 points in the same round the declarer’s team automatically wins.

Pinochle Deck

REFERENCES:

Pinochle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezique

Pinochle Scoring

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle

Pinochle Deck Playing Three Handed

https://www.fgbradleys.com/rules/rules4/Pinochle%20-%20rules.pdf

https://www.pagat.com/marriage/pinmain.html