One Pinochle deck consists of 48 cards, (52 card decks with cards 8 thru 2 taken out), 12 cards in each of the four suits. The cards rank A, 10, K, Q, J, and 9. Using the table options you can choose to use one or two decks.
In the trick - taking phase of the game the Aces, Tens, and Kings are worth points and are called Counters. Queens, Jacks and Nines are Non Counters; they are not worth any points but they can win tricks.
Object of the Game
The object of Pinochle is to beat the bid winner by taking as many tricks as possible in each hand. The team that reaches that score of 1000 points first wins the game.
The Bid
The minimum opening bid is 100. (500 in double deck games). The winner of the bid has the right to name trump suit and play the first trick. Then the player to the dealer's left starts the bidding.
Bids are made in multiples of 10 points. Each player must either at least 10 points higher than the previous bid or pass. A player wins the bid when the remaining three players pass.
The Meld
Melding occurs after bidding and before you play your hand. There are three types of melds. A card may belong to different melds as long as they are of different types.
Sequences
A, 10, K, Q, J - Flush (150 pts)
K and Q in trump - Royal Marriage (40pts)
Kand Q of any other suit - Common Marriage (20 pts)
Special Sequences
One Jack of diamonds and one Queen of spades - Pinochle (40 pts)
Both Jack of diamonds and both Queens of spades - Double Pinochle (300 pts)
Groups:
One Ace in each suit - Hundred Aces (100 pts)
One King in each suit - Eighty Kings (80 pts)
One Queen in each suit - Sixty Queens (60 pts)
One Jack in each suit - Forty Jacks (40 pts)
The partner's separate melds are added into one total. However, teams do not receive meld points
until they have won at least one trick.
Game Play:
After the melding round, the bidding plays the opening lead. Play proceeds clockwise.
Players must follow the lead suit. If possible, the player must play a card with a higher rank than the card that currently controls the trick.
If a player has no cards in the lead suit then they must play a trump suit. If the trick alreadys contains trump, the player must beat it with a higher trump, if possible.
If a player cannot follow suit, they must play any other card.
The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump is played, the highest-ranking card of the suit led wins the trick.
If there is a tie for the highest-ranking card, the trick is won by the card of equal rank that was played first. Each Counter card won is worth 10 points.
The trick winner leads the next trick, and so on until all twelve tricks have been played. The team that wins the final trick gets an additional 10 points.
Scoring:
Each side adds up the points it won in tricks and adds the points from its melds ( if it has won at least one trick). The bidder's opponents then add their total to the accumulated score.
If the bidder's team wins at least the amount of bid, they add the amount won to the accumulated score. If they don't make the bid, they subtract the bid from their accumulated score.
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