1. Pinochle Card Game Points
2. Pinochle Card Game Scoring

This page describes the rules of Pinochle. For information on how to play JoeDog’s pinochle game, see this page: Pinochle: How To Play

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. Summary Double deck Pinochle is a 4 player card game. There are two teams of two players, with partners sitting across from each other. Points are scored in two ways: via 'melding' and 'trick taking'. Join Pinochle groups Related topics: Card Games; Double Deck Partnership Pinochle; Pinochle: Friendly Players Only; Playing Cards; Cards; More Pinochle; pinochole; Game Night; Learning to play Pinochle; Spades.

Pinochle is a classic trick-taking card game for two to five players. JoeDog’s Pinochle currently plays a four-person variation in which teams of two are pitted against one another.

The Deck

A pinochle deck consists of 48 cards. It contains two copies of 9, 10, J, Q, K and A in each of all four suits. Twelve cards per suit times four suits equals 48 cards.

The cards are ranked in a non-standard order. The ten is actually the second highest card. The rank from highest to lowest looks like this: A, 10, K, Q, J, 9

The Deal

The deal is rotated to the left among all players. The player to the dealer’s left becomes the dealer for the next hand.

The dealer shuffles the deck, then deals the cards clockwise until all the cards are distributed evenly between all players. (Except in a three hand option where a kitty of three cards is set aside for the bid winner).

The Auction

After the cards are dealt, each player evaluates their hand and predicts how many points it will earn. In turn each player enters a bid. The highest bidder names trump.

The bid begins with a minimum bid. Each ensuing bid must be higher than the previous bid. If the first bid tops the minimum by one, the next player must top that bid or pass. The auction is complete when all but one player has passed. The highest bidder then names trump which is generally that player’s
strongest suit.

Passing Cards

In some variations, the winning team is allowed to pass cards to strengthen its hand. Generally, a partner will pass trump and aces to the bid winner. The bid winner will attempt to short suit himself or pass melding cards back.

After trump has been declared by the bid-winner, that person’s partner passes three cards from their hand to them. At this point, the bid-winner has three more cards then everyone else and their partner has three less. At that point, the bid winner must pass three cards back. The pass stage is complete when every player at the table has the same number of cards.

Melding

After the pass phase, players display specific combinations of cards which are worth various point totals. All players meld placing cards face up on the table. When meld is complete, the point values are added to the team score for the hand. The hand total will be the number of meld points plus the number of take points (more on the take below).

The meld groups are as follows:

Rounds
Aces ’round – Two aces in each suit: 100; One ace in each suit: 10
Kings ’round – Two aces in each suit: 80; One king in each suit: 8
Queens ’round – Two aces in each suit: 60; one queen in each suit: 6
Jacks ’round – Two jacks in each suit: 40; one jack in each suit: 4

Pinochle Card Game Points

Marriages and Runs
Trump marriage – King & Queen in trump: 4 points each
Regular marriage – King & Queen in the same suit: 2 points each
Pinochle – Jack of Diamonds and Queen of Spades: 4 points
Double Pinochle – Two Jack of Diamonds and Two Queen of Spades: 30 points
Run (must be in trump) – A, 10, K, Q, J: 15 points
Double run (must be in trump) – A,A,10,10,K,K,Q,Q,J,J: 150 points
Dix in trump – 9 of trump: 1 point for each

Here’s a helpful melding cheat sheet that I stole from Wikipedia:

Playing Tricks

When players play for tricks, there are strict rules which dictate what cards can be played. Computerized versions enforce these rules programmatically. Carbon-based players must police themselves.

Every player must follow suit if possible. If an Ace of Hearts is led, you must play a heart if you have one in your hand. If you do not have a heart, then you must trump the trick, that is, you must play a card in the suit that was named trump by the bid-winner. If you don’t have a card that was led and you don’t have trump left in your hand, then you may play any card.

If trump is led, each ensuing player must play a higher card unless they are unable to beat the highest card on the table. If a queen of trump is led and an ensuing player beats it with a ten, you must play an ace. If you can’t beat the ten, then you may play any card in trump (or any card in your hand if you have no trump)

If two identical cards are played, the first one wins.

Scoring Tricks

In pinochle, points are won based on counters with in the trick. The highest card on the table wins the trick. However, that trick is worth points only if it contains “counters.” A counter is a card higher than queen. Each ace, then and king within the trick counts one point. Everything else is worth zero. We tend to call that garbage.

There is, however, one exception. The last trick is worth one point (or two points in double-deck variations). It doesn’t matter if the last trick contains no counters, points are awarded simply for taking the final trick in the hand.

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.

Pinochle Card Game Scoring

*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

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:

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

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

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

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