How to Play Pinochle

Objective

The most widely played Pinochle in the United States is the four-handed partnership game described here. Each hand, the team that wins the bidding must score at least as many points as it bid, from meld and from tricks combined. The other team scores whatever it can. Points carry over from hand to hand until a team reaches 1,500.

Setup

Partners sit across from each other. Deal all 48 cards, three or four at a time, so each player has 12.

Within each suit the cards rank, from high to low: ace, ten, king, queen, jack, nine. There are two of every card, so when two identical cards fall in the same trick, the one played first beats the other.

How to play

Bidding starts with the player to the dealer’s left and goes around the table. Bid at least 250, raising in steps of 10, or pass. Once you pass, you are out of the bidding for that hand. In most home games, if the first three players pass, the dealer must take it at 250. The high bidder names the trump suit.

Next comes the pass. The bidder’s partner hands the bidder four cards, and the bidder passes four back. Then all four players lay their melds face up, the scores are written down, and everyone picks their cards back up.

The bidder leads the first trick. You must follow suit if you can, and you must play a card that beats the best card in the trick so far if you can. If you can’t follow suit, you must play a trump if you have one, and beat any trump already played if possible. The highest trump wins, or the highest card of the suit led. The winner leads the next trick.

After all 12 tricks, each team counts its counters: every ace, ten and king it took is worth 10, and the last trick earns 10 more. That makes 250 points in tricks each hand.

1. 1Bid for trump, 250 or more
2. 2Partner passes four cards, bidder passes four back
3. 3Lay down melds and score them
4. 4Play 12 tricks: follow suit, beat if you can, trump if void

Scoring

One card can be used in two melds of different kinds: the queen of spades can sit in a marriage and a pinochle at the same time. It can’t be used twice in the same kind of meld. A run already includes the royal marriage, so you only score a separate royal marriage if you hold an extra king or queen of trumps.

A double run scores 1,500, and a double set of aces, kings, queens or jacks around scores ten times the single value. If the bidding team’s meld and counters reach its bid, both teams add what they made. If not, the bidders are set: they score nothing for the hand and the bid is subtracted from their total. In most games, a team’s meld only counts if it wins at least one trick.

Variations

Ones scoring: many tables drop the final zero, so counters are worth 1, a run is 15, the minimum bid is 25 and the game is 150. The play is identical.

Old-style counting: aces 11, tens 10, kings 4, queens 3 and jacks 2, with 10 for the last trick. Totals are larger, but the strategy is the same.

Two-handed Pinochle: the original game. Each player gets 12 cards, the rest form a stock, and you meld one combination after each trick you win.

Three-handed (Cutthroat): each player plays alone with 15 cards, and the high bidder takes a three-card widow.

Tips from the table

Bid on what you hold plus what your partner will probably add. A partner who stayed silent likely has little meld, and you need tricks to make up the gap.

When your partner wins the bid, pass trumps and aces. Bidders usually pass back cards that help their partner win tricks, or counters that are safer in the partner’s hand.

Count trumps. There are 12 in the deck. Once you know how many are out, you know when your side suit aces are safe to lead.

Frequently asked