Introduction

The following description was rescued from John Hay's Rule Book, formerly at Geocities. An archive copy of the original page is also available at reocities.com. I have unfortunately lost touch with John Hay. If anyone knows how to contact him, or what became of his rule book, please let me know.

PINOCHLE RULES Name Points Frequency 1 each of A-10-K-Q-J in trump run 150 pts 1 hand in 2 Extra King or Queen in trump (only for players with single run) extra King/Queen 20 pts 1 hand in 3 2 each of A-10-K-Q-J in trump suit double run 1500 pts 1 hand in 100 1 Ace in all four suits, ♠♦♣♥ 100 aces 100 pts 1 hand in 4. The players play and win tricks (sets of four cards) The teams score points based on the cards in the tricks that they won. Setup Pinochle is a card game played with four people on two teams. Players should be seated across from their partners. Designate one team as “A” and the other team as team “B”.

John Hay wrote: I put the rules in the form below from information provided by George Klemic and Andrew Lipscomb, to whom I owe a huge thank you.

Players, cards and deal

Number of Players: 2

Deck: Standard Pinochle deck of 48 cards consisting of 2 each of all cards 9 and above (including aces).

Deal: Each player is dealt 12 cards, the next card is turned up to determine trump for the hand and the remainder of the deck (the stock) is placed crosswise on this upturned card. Deal alternates between players.

Bidding: There is no bidding in this game.

The game is played in two phases, described separately below.

Play

Phase 1: As long as cards remain in the stock, thegame is in Phase 1. The non-dealer leads to the first trick, the dealerthen plays any card from their hand to the trick (not required tofollow suit or trump). The winner of the trick takes the top card ofthe stock and puts it in their hand, the loser of the trick then takesthe next card from the stock and places it in their hand. The winner ofthe trick is now allowed to meld if they wish. (See section on meldingbelow.) The winner of the trick then leads a card to the next trick(the card led can be in their hand or on the table as part of a meld).Play continues as above until their are no cards left in the stock.When the stock is down to one face down card and the remaining trumpcard, the winner of the trick may choose which card to take. Afterpicking up these last two cards the winner of that trick may still meld.

Phase 2: Once there are no cards left in the stock,the rules change. There is no longer any melding. Each player picks upany meld they have and place it in their hand. The winner of the lasttrick from Phase 1 leads to the next trick. The second player mustfollow suit if able. If not, they must trump if possible. The secondplayer must win the trick if they are able to. The winner of the trickleads to the next trick. Play continues in this manner until all cardshave been played.

Melding

In Phase 1, when a player wins a trick theymay place any meld they have face up in front of them and receivepoints for it. The various combinations that may be melded and thepoints they receive are listed below. When a player melds, it iswritten down on the scoresheet immediately.

Run - A 10 K Q J in trumps - 150 points

Marriage - K Q in same suit - 20 points

Royal Marriage - K Q in trumps - 40 points

Aces around - A in each suit - 100 points

Kings around - K in each suit - 80 points

Queens around - Q in each suit - 60 points

Jacks around - J in each suit - 40 points

Pinochle - J of Diamonds and Q of Spades, - 40 points

Double Pinochle - 2 pinochles - 300 points (Note: A Double Pinochle isthe only meld which gives a bonus for having more than one, all othermelds simply count twice. e.g. Double aces around count 200 points.)

9 of Trumps (Dix) - 10 points

Special rule concerning Dix: The first Dix to be melded is done so byexchanging it for the face-up trump card at the bottom of the stock(even if it is the other Dix). The card taken from the bottom may beused immediately in meld if desired.

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Special notes concerning melding:

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A player mayuse a card in more than one meld provided it is used to make adifferent type of meld. (e.g. A player melds a marriage in spades. Ifboth cards are still on the table on a later turn, the player may addthe other 3 kings for kings around, the other 3 queens for queensaround, or the Jack of Diamonds for a Pinochle. They may not addanother single King of Spades for a second marriage.)

If aplayer has melded a Royal Marriage and they later add the A, 10, and Jor trumps for a run, they only score an additional 110 points insteadof 150.

If a player has melded a Pinochle and they later addanother Pinocle for a Double Pinochle (while the original Pinochle isstill down), they only score an additional 260 points instead of 300.(If the first Pinochle had already been broken up, they would onlyscore 40 points for the second one.)

Scoring

In addition to any meld a player scoredduring the hand they also receive 11 points for each ace, 10 points foreach ten, 4 points for each king, 3 points for each queen, and 2 pointsfor each jack they captured in play. The player who captures the lasttrick also gets ten points. (Total of 250 points to be taken in play.)The first player to get a total of 1200 points wins the game.

Variations

Game may be played to 1500 or 1000 points instead of 1200.

An optional scoring method for cards taken in play is to count each Aceand ten 10 points, and count each king and queen 5 points.

Another scoring method is to simply count each ace, ten, and king 10points. If this scoring method is used, then all scores in the gamewill end in a zero. Since this is the case, the zeroes can be droppedoff the end of the score, effectively dividing all possible scores by10.

In phase 2 the second player is only required to take the trick if possible if trumps were led.

Any of the 'Special notes concerning melding' could be ignored, exceptfor the rule that a player can use a card that has already been meldedin additional meld.

'Mouse' has contributed rules for an interesting variant played by his family which features larger hands, more melds, and 'glups' which are scored for losing several consecutive tricks by following suit.

Software

A shareware 2-player Pinochle program which supports network and offline play is available from Meggiesoft Games.

Another shareware 2-player Pinochle program for Windows is available from Card Games Galore.

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The collection HOYLE Card Games for Windows or Mac OS X includes a Two-Player Pinochle program, along with many other popular card games.