Pinochle

Overview

Pinochle is a 4-player partnership trick-taking game using a special 48-card deck. It features three phases — bidding, meld declaration, and trick play — combining hand evaluation, partnership coordination, and strategic card play.

Players & Teams

• 4 players in fixed partnerships
• Team 1: Players 1 & 3 (sitting across from each other)
• Team 2: Players 2 & 4

Deck

A 48-card Pinochle deck: ranks 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace in each of the four suits, with two copies of every card.

Card rank order (highest to lowest): A > 10 > K > Q > J > 9

Note: the 10 ranks higher than the King — this is unique to Pinochle.

Card point values (for counting tricks):

Card	Points
Ace	11
Ten	10
King	4
Queen	3
Jack	2
Nine	0

Total card points in the deck: 240. The team that wins the last trick earns a +10 bonus, making the total available 250 points.

Bidding

1. The player to the dealer's left opens the bidding.
2. The minimum opening bid is 250. Bids must be in increments of 10.
3. Each player in turn either raises the bid or passes. Once you pass, you cannot bid again.
4. Bidding continues until only one bidder remains.
5. Stuck dealer: If all three other players pass, the dealer is forced to take the bid at 250.

The bid winner declares the trump suit before play begins.

Melds

After trump is declared, each player reveals their melds (scoring card combinations). Melds are organized into three classes. The same card may be used in melds of different classes, but not in two melds of the same class.

Class A — Sequences & Marriages

Meld	Cards	Points
Run (Flush)	A-10-K-Q-J of trump	150
Royal Marriage	K-Q of trump	40
Marriage	K-Q of a non-trump suit	20
Dix	9 of trump	10

Special rule: When a Run is declared, an extra King or Queen of trump can form an additional Royal Marriage by pairing with the Queen or King already used in the Run. For example: Run (150) + extra King = 190 points total.

Class B — Arounds (one of each suit)

Meld	Cards	Points
Aces Around	A of each suit	100
Kings Around	K of each suit	80
Queens Around	Q of each suit	60
Jacks Around	J of each suit	40

With the duplicate deck, having all 8 cards (both copies of each suit) scores double the Around value.

Class C — Special

Meld	Cards	Points
Pinochle	Q of spades + J of diamonds	40
Double Pinochle	Both Q of spades + both J of diamonds	300

Trick Play

The bid winner leads the first trick. Play proceeds clockwise with these rules:

1. Must follow suit: If you have a card of the led suit, you must play it.
2. Must head: If following suit, you must play a card that beats the current highest card of that suit if possible. If you cannot beat it, you may play any card of that suit.
3. Must trump: If you have no cards of the led suit but have trump cards, you must play trump.
4. Must overtrump: If trumping, you must beat any trump already played in the trick if possible.
5. No options: If you have neither the led suit nor trump, you may play any card.

The highest card of the led suit wins the trick, unless trump was played — then the highest trump wins. If two identical cards tie, the first one played wins.

The trick winner leads the next trick.

Scoring

After all 12 tricks are played:

Bid Team

• Count meld points + trick card points (including last trick bonus).
• If the total meets or exceeds the bid: score the full total.
• If the total is less than the bid: go set — score negative the bid amount (e.g., bid 300 and fail = −300).

Non-Bid Team

• If they won at least one trick: score their meld points + trick card points.
• If they won zero tricks: score nothing (meld points are lost).

Winning

• The first team to reach 1,500 points wins the game.
• If both teams reach 1,500 in the same round, the bid team wins (their score is counted first).
• If neither team reaches 1,500 after 8 rounds, the team with the higher score wins. If tied, it is a draw.