Players are divided into two competing partnerships, and partners sit across from one another. The deck consists of 80 cards -- four copies each of the Ace, Ten, King, Queen, and Jack of each of the four standard suits. Cards are shuffled and the entire deck is dealt out, giving each player a hand of 20 cards. The object of the game is to be the first partnership to score 500 or more points. If both sides reach 500 on the same hand, the side that made the highest bid on that hand wins the game. Beginning with the player to the left of the dealer and proceeding clockwise, each player either bids or passes. A bid consists of a number representing points; it is an undertaking to score at least that many points on that deal. The opening bid must be at least 50, and every bid must be at least 1 point higher than the previous bid. If the bidding reaches 60, each bid must exceed the previous bid by 5. A player who passes may not reenter the bidding. The bidding ends when all players pass in succession. If the first three players pass, the dealer is required to bid. The highest bidder chooses one suit to be trump. It must be a suit in which the player has a both the king and queen, which is known as a "marriage"; If the bidder has no suit with a marriage, the bidder's side loses the value of the bid and players go on to the next hand. After the trump suit is named, players reveal any melds they have by playing them faceup (see melding). The highest bidder leads the first trick, and may choose to play any card from their hand, including cards previously melded. Each player in turn, moving clockwise around the table, also plays a card. After each player has played a card, the four cards constitute a trick, which is won by one of the players, as explained below, and placed facedown to be scored after the hand. A player must follow suit if possible, and must "head" the trick (also known as "crawl") -- that is, beat the highest card played so far on the trick, if possible. A player who cannot follow suit must play a trump if able, and must play a higher trump than anyone else has played so far, if able. A player who cannot beat the card played must still follow suit (any card in the suit may be played), and a player who is out of the suit led must still play a trump even if unable to beat the highest trump played so far. If a suit other than trump is led and someone plays a trump, players who have cards in the original suit may play any card of that suit (they are no longer required to play higher cards in the suit because they cannot beat the trump). Players with neither the suit led nor trump may play any card in their hands. A trick is won by the highest trump played on it or, if no trumps are played, by the highest ranking card of the suit led. From high to low, cards rank as follows: Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Jack. If two or more identical cards are played on a trick, the first one played outranks the others. The winner of a trick leads to the next trick, and is always free to choose any card in their hand. After all the cards (20 tricks) have been played, each side counts the total number of Aces, Tens, and Kings in the tricks they have taken. One point is earned for each of these cards. In addition, the side that takes the last trick earns 2 points. Points for melds are added to the trick points to determine each side's score. If the side that won the bid scores at least as many points as it bid, both sides add their scores to their running point totals. If the bidding side fails to make its bid, they score nothing, and the amount of their bid is subtracted from their running score. The opponents keep their score for the hand and add it to their running total. In creating a Pinochle table at Yahoo, a player may choose whether there is an extra score for duplicate sequences and decide whether or not at least 20 points are needed to score (in which case scores less than 20 on a hand are adjusted to 0). |
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