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Welcome to our beginner’s guide to the family-fun card game “Pinochle” (Fletcher style). This version of Pinochle described is a nearly traditional form of four-handed Pinochle. I wanted to create a simple beginner’s guide to help first-timers learn to play.

• Pinochle is a trick-taking game played with a 48 card deck. Pinochle players score points by forming combinations of cards into melds and also by traditional trick-taking. Thus, each pinochle hand.
• The classic combination of bidding, melding, and trick-taking!

Pinochle is a card game of bidding and playing for tricks, with team members. Points are awarded for melds and wining point-cards. It’s a race between teams to a point count of 250.

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A Pinochle deck can be built from two sets of standard poker decks, only using cards of 9, J, Q, K, 10, and Aces. This means there are two of each card, for example, you’ll find two 9♥, two A♠, etc. Another quick note about this 48-card deck – the order of power goes (lowest to highest) 9, J, Q, K, 10, A. I know you’ll be saying “why is the 10 out of place?” Not sure where that comes from, it’s just the way it is – something to make life interesting I guess. Pinochle consists of three major phases:

Bidding -> Melding -> Trick Play

When you want to bid – There are general guidelines when you would/or would not bid. Generally, you count (estimate) the meld points in your hand, add that to the potential trick points you think you could pull and that is the maximum bid you should go to. There is a nice feature that the bid-winning team gets to pass 4 cards from supporting member to the bid-winner, then the bid winner passes four back. This can dramatically help develop power in your trump and additional meld points. Certainly, there is strategy but much in chance.

Bidding –A very important phase allowing each team the opportunity to wager on the Trump suit, gaining a significant advantage in getting more points in melds and trick play. Starting with the person to the left of the dealer, each player can Pass, Bid-or-Bunch, or Open (opening starts the bid at 25). If no player opens, then the cards are re-delt. If at least one player opens, the opposing team is allowed to counter by sequentially increasing the bid until one team gives in a Passes. The winner of the bid get the honor of choosing the Trump suit.

Melding –Meld are points you acquire before the trick play begins. Meld and trick play points are added together. If that sum is greater than or equal to your bid, your team wins that hand and the points are added to your total. Same goes for the non-bid-winning team, albeit the numbers are generally much smaller. During the meld phase, all players lay down their melds for review and counting. Below are the meld combinations to look for during the bidding and melding phase.

Meld Point Combinations

Trick Play – After all melds are displayed, counted, and picked up, the bid-winner leads the first card. Each team is fighting for the most tricks/point cards. A trick consists of one round of each player playing a card, clockwise from the player that starts the trick. General notes:

• point cards are K, 10, and Ace (1 point each). These are totaled at the end of trick play.
• Total points available are 25. There are 24 point cards and last trick gets 1 point
• Trump suit always beats non-trump cards, regardless of card value
• each player must follow suit from the first card led
• if no cards left in led suit, you must play a trump
• if neither above, then you can play any remaining card
• a team partner wants to pass point cards to their partner’s winning card
• if you have a card that can win the hand, you must play it

Additional Notes – there are many subtleties around this fun game, most can be learned from more experienced players (or in more detailed instructions online) 🙂

Shooting the Moon = if you’ve bid up, but failed to get meld points you expected, you can say “I’m gonna shoot-the-moon!” This implies you (bid winner) will take every trick. You do not show any melds, opposing team does. If you shoot the moon, you can earn 50 points!!!

Bid-or-bunch = this is a bidding option that says, “I don’t really like my cards and want a re-deal, but if someone else bids, I’ll bid.” If all players say either pass or bid-or-bunch, then the cards will be re-dealt. This is a pass-cheat… 🙂

Card Passing = after your bid winner chooses trump, you can be thoughtful of your passing cards. If trump is spades, you might assume they have queens and might want to pass any Q♠ and J♦ (you just might make a double Pinochle for 30 points), otherwise pass the obvious trump cards and Aces 🙂

5/6 Nines = if you are dealt five nines (and no meld points) or six nines, you are able to toss in your cards and force a re-deal 🙂

Have fun and good luck!

Written by Bryan Fletcher

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”

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.

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

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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.

REFERENCES:

Playok Pinochle Sign In

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

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

Pinochle Ok Pinochle

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

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