Category: Pinochle

Pinochle Glossary

Aces Around
A meld combination consisting of one ace from each of the four suits; worth 10 points. Also called Aces.

Arounds
Refers to having a card rank in every suit. Aces around, Kings around, Queens around, and Jacks around are worth points. Tens around are worth nothing, and seem to occur infuriatingly often. Sometimes called Rounds.

Bare Run
When all you have in a suit is the 5 cards necessary to make it a run.

Bid
To offer a point value as the target to be reached, combining points from melding and pulling in counters in tricks; also, the amoun offered.

Bid Up (or “Run Up the Bid”)
To continue bidding against an opponent even though your hand is not worth the amount you are bidding, generally for the sole purpose of inflating the bid in an effort to better the chance of setting the other team. Caution: use of this tactic can result in the bid being dumped on you.

By
A By-Me bid that indicates Aces around in the player’s hand.

By-Me
A Pass bid that indicates a small, but potentially useful (8 to 14 points) of meld in the passer’s hand. A player with less meld should say pass instead.

Counters
The cards which score points when pulled during the trick taking phase of the round (Aces, Tens, and Kings).

Deal
The process by which the 80 cards are evenly distributed to the four players. Often done five cards at a time, or alternatively, four cards at a a time. Deal passes clockwise with subsequent rounds.

Double Run
A meld combination consisting of two Aces, two Tens, Two Kings, Two Queens, and two Jacks of trump; worth 150 points (very rare).

Dump
To force the winning bid onto the dealer because all other players passed in the first round of bidding. Sometimes also used when a player offers a meld bid and then all remaining players pass. Can also happen if one player is running up the bid, and the person they are running it up against backs out. In all cases, an unwilling player is forced to win the bid, and may not be in a position to make a good hand of it.

Follow Suit
To play a card of the suit led to the trick. Each player is required to do this if able. If unable, they must play trump. Only when out of the suit led and trump may a player play anything they choose.

Get Set
The team that won the bid failed to earn enough points to make the bid. Getting set results in a loss of points equal to the bid, and should be avoided.

Hand
The twenty cards dealt to an individual player. Sometimes used to mean a round of play (You play out the hand; all twenty cards).

Jacks Around
A meld combination consisting of one Jack from each of the four suits; worth 4 points. Also called Jacks.

Kings Around
A meld combination consisting of one King from each of the four suits; worth 8 points. Also called Kings.

Lead
To play the first card to a trick. Also, the first card played to a trick, or the right to play the first card to a trick (as in “Whose lead is it?”).

Lone Ace
An Ace in a hand which contains no other cards of the same suit; such a card is liable to be pulled if another Ace of that suit is led.

Loser
A card which is not likely to win a trick. Generally, a non-Ace outside of trump is considered likely to be a loser.

Make the Bid
To earn enough combined points from meld and counters to meet or exceed the amount of the winning bid. The team that wins the bid is required to make the bid.

Marriage
A King and Queen of the same suit. Usually refers to a pairing not in trump. Worth 2 points. Also called a Common Marriage.

Marriage in Trump
A King and Queen of the same suit, when that suit has been named trump. Worth 4 points. Also called a Royal Marriage.

Meld
Combinations of cards which score points after the Bidding and before the trick taking portion of play (the Meld phase). Also a verb, meaning “to display and disclose meld”. Sometimes used in ‘Meld Bid’ in reference to a bid that communicates information about the bidders meld.

Pass
Said when the right to bid comes to a player to indicate that the player forfeits the right to bid on this and all subsequant rounds of bidding for the hand.

Pinochle
A Queen of Spades and a Jack of Diamonds (:Qs :Jd). The only unintuitive meld combination, it is the source of the game’s name. Worth 4 points. Double (two pinochles) is worth 30 points.

Queens Around
A meld combination consisting of one Queen from each of the four suits; worth 8 points. Also called Queens.

Roundhouse
Shorthand to refer to the meld combination of having a king and a queen in every suit. Worth 24 points (Kings Around + Queen’s Around + One Marriage in Trump + Three Marriages).

Run
A meld combination made up of one card of each rank in the same suit (Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Jack). Sometimes called a Run in Trump, because it has no value if it is not in the suit called as trump. When in trump, it is worth 16 points. A Run contains a marriage, so the marriage is not scored outside of the run.

Run and a Roundhouse
A meld combination of a Run and a Roundhouse. Worth 36 points (Run + Kings Around + Queens Around + Three Marriages).

Save
Indicates a conditional pass. This is exactly the same as a pass, unless the player’s partner has the bid dumped on them, in which case the partner can hand it back to the passer. An emergency case only, and the bid taker should only hand it back to the passer if they have no marriages. Save also increases the bid to the next increment.

Trick
A single turn of play where each player plays one card into the center, clockwise from the person who starts the trick. In almost all trick-taking games, the highest card played wins the trick (the player takes the cards and puts them into a scoring pile), and the player of that card then leads the next trick. In games with Trump, cards in the trump suit supercede all other suits, even if they are of a lower rank than the highest card played.

Trump
A suit chosen by the player that wins the bid. In normal legal play, it can only be played as the lead to a trick, or when someone cannot follow suit.

Twenty-Pounder
A meld combination consisting of a Run, with a King and Queen in the same suit, not already part of the Run. Worth 20 points. A 10 K K Q Q J is a Twenty-Pounder.

Win the Bid
Term used to indicate making the successful bid in the bidding auction phase. The person who wins the bid has the right to declare the trump suit for that hand, and the right to lead the first trick.

Please see the Rules page and the Advanced Strategy page for more information.

Advanced Double Deck Pinochle Bidding and Gameplay

Fundamentals

The key to successful pinochle can be broken down into distinct areas.

• Meld bidding and signal bidding as pre-arranged with your partner.
• Taking note of what’s melded and remembering what has been melded by whom, especially your partner’s meld and how they bid.
• Watching partner’s play for leadbacks, or indicators, and supplying your partner with leadback/indicator card plays.
• Watching the play of the opponents.

Bid Strategies

The taking of the bid will allow the player to control the hand by letting him or her call a trump suit. The team that effectively communicates will most likely win the majority of time (there is some accounting for luck in pinochle, but overall, the most effective partnerships usually prevail).

The most important idea is to talk over bidding strategy with your partner, agree on a bidding method, and stick to that method once it is agreed upon. The following bid meanings are typical, but a partnership may choose to modify any or all of them to try to get an edge over their opponents.

• A bid one over the previous bid means that you want the bid, and are looking for your partner to supply a meld bid if possible.
• A 50 bid usually means I want the bid, but I’m looking for meld. This bid asks the partner to supply a meld bid if possible. The 50 bid may also be a save bid if the bidder’s partner is bidding last.
• 2 over the previous bid or a 52 first bid means approximately 20 meld.
• 3 over the previous bid or 53 first bid means approximately 30 meld; this pattern continues until 59.
• A single digit bid of N (i.e., ‘three’) is a bid of fifty-N (‘three’ in this example) means you have aces around. This can be in conjunction with the above skip bids (‘three’ following a 51 bid would be approximately 20 meld with aces around).
• A By-Me bid is a pass bid meaning you have 8-14 meld. A By bid means the same thing, with aces around as part of the 10-14.
• Meld bids stop at 59; a bid of 60 or over is an “I want it” bid.

The Lockout Bid

Early in the bidding, if a player is strong enough to take the bid alone, he/she may opt to bid a “lockout bid” of 60 or higher. This method of bidding prevents the opponents from communicating.

Covering partner’s meld bid

If possible, you should always try to cover your partner’s meld bid. If the player that bids between you and your partner passes, either meld bid back, or go one over if you have a marriage and a decent suit. If your partner can take it, then he/she should bid back.

Playing Strategies

The Meld

Taking note of what is melded is crucial to successful play. The following items should be noted and kept in mind during the play of the hand.

1. The trump that’s been melded and by whom.
2. Aces that are melded and by whom.
3. Marriages by the players who wanted to take the bid.

The first two items have obvious reasons, but the third is important in trying to “read” the hand and figuring out how to pass the lead to your partner.

The Play – General Guidelines

Giving your partner counters (Aces, Tens, Kings) on his/her trick, and giving the opponents non-counters (Queens, Jacks) is a basic tactic that everyone learns when first starting to play. The use of a leadback or indicator play is the next step in communicating better with your partner.

The leadback can take a various number of forms, the most predominent are:

1. An ace played on partner’s ace. This can have two meanings. a) You have the remaining aces in the suit or it’s safe to pass to me in this suit. b) You are short in this suit, and don’t want the opponents to capture your ace. The second case usually won’t come up until later in the hand.
2. A Jack played on partner’s second ace play in a suit. Usually done when the player is only holding 4 cards in the suit (or 5 in the case of A-A-10), and this signals to the partner that the player holds the other two aces. In the event the player has more than 5 cards in the suit, the preferable play is the ace leadback, because the suit will be trumped prior to a 4th ” go-round “. This rule of thumb does not apply to the trump suit.

Team play is extremely important, whether you are trying to stop your opponents from saving, or whether your team is trying to save. The more effective partnerships play as a team, and read each other’s plays to capture the maximum number of tricks.

Counting trump and aces played will result in better play regardless of who calls trump. Remembering the counters played in trump helps even more.

The Play – Bid Winner

The bid winner has the advantage of calling the trump suit. Most of the time it will be the player’s longest suit. The bid winner also has the advantage of playing first.

1. The play of all short suit aces should be done first to prevent the other team from capturing an ace.
2. If a suit is known to be safe to pass to get to partner, then a pass should be attempted then to partner so he/she can play their aces.
3. Getting trump out of the opponents hands is always a good idea if you have length in trump. Saving the bid is about control of the hand. Getting the trump out also ensures that the high cards that you have left at the end of the hand will not be trumped, and that the opponents do not have a chance to make their lower trump cards good. This strategy is also good for eliminating the cross-trump situation.

The Cross Trump

When both players meld length in trump, then the play that helps the team the most is that both players will try to get out of their short suits, and try to develop a cross-trump situation. This allows the team to maintain control of the hand, and make the majority of their trump good. One item that needs to be kept in mind. If the ace of trump is in jeopardy of being taken, it’s best to play it to save it.

Passing the lead

Successful passing of the lead to your partner depends on your ability to “read” the hand, plus remembering what has been melded.

• If your partner was bidding to take the bid also, then their meld should be watched for marriages. By deduction, you should be able to figure out what your partner’s strong suit is, and try to pass in that suit.
• If the player to your left melds aces around, and your trump is of medium power (7 to 8 cards), it’s usually best to pass with the queen of trump to get the opponents ace out, plus his/her other aces.
• General rule of thumb is when in doubt, try passing in trump.

The Play – Bid Winner’s Partner

The main job of the bid winner’s partner is to help the bid winner make the bid.

Holding onto non-trump aces is not usually beneficial to the team, unless you have the lead late in the hand and your aces might be trumped by the opponents.

Stopping the Bid Winners.

Trying to set the bid requires strong teamwork usually. Maintaining control of the hand between your partner and yourself is the key to success.

If your partner is seated in the 4th seat it is extremely important to pass the lead to him/her as soon as possible, even if this means holding back your aces. This strategy also allows you to intercept a pass attempt from the bid declarer to his/her partner. As always, your short suit aces should be played before you pass the lead.

If you know that you and you partner have all the aces in a suit, you should pass to your partner with a counter in that suit. When the partner has run out his/her power cards, then they can pass back to you in that suit.

Trump should be held for as long as possible, unless a cross-trump situation develops, then it is best to exploit the cross-trump for as long as possible. Leading trump should not be discouraged, however, depending on the situation. Many times, it’s the only way to get the lead to your partner, or if you know the player to your left has an ace of trump, it may be best to force the ace out by playing a ten in the hopes of making your partner’s high trump cards “boss”. Determining when trump should be played improves as you play more, and your ability to read the hand improves.

Conclusions

Teamwork is the key to success in Double Deck Pinochle. The more you play with one partner and learn their bidding and playing style, the better the team will be. Discussion of how each player is expected to react or bid in different situations will make the partnership stronger, and much better.

Passing the lead to your partner is extremely important, and the better players will be able to pass more often by deducing where their partner is strong by looking at the meld, the aces played, and their hand. For instance, if you have no aces in a suit of 4-6 card length, most likely the player to your left will hold an ace in that suit. If the opponents have both played their aces, then you know that you can pass to partner in any suit you don’t have power in. Care has to be taken though, as you do not want your partner’s aces to be trumped if you can avoid it.

Please see the Rules and the Glossary for more information.

These are the Rules to Double Deck Pinochle, as played by my family. These are a very minor variation of commonly accepted rules, although there are dozens of variations out there. I will try to note our variations in italics.  It is very nearly the same game described as “Double-Deck Pinochle” on Wikipedia, with some adjustments to scoring and strategy.

Players and Cards

There are four players; partners sit across from each other.

The deck consists of 80 cards, containing A T K Q J (T=10, yes, it is ranked higher than a King in Pinochle) in each of the four suits, and with four identical copies of each card. This deck can be formed by mixing together two normal Pinochle decks, having thrown out the nines, or from four regular 52 card decks from which you throw out all the numerals 2 to 9.  Almost every other Pinochle variation uses 9’s as well; others play a double-deck partnership game, but it is almost guaranteed to use 96 cards.

Idea of the Game

After the deal there is an auction in which players bid the number of points their team will try to win. Whoever bids highest has the privilege of choosing trumps and leading to the first trick. The object of the high bidder’s team is to win at least as many points as the amount they bid. Points can be scored in two ways:

1. by declaring and showing (melding) combinations of cards held in a players hand;
2. by winning aces, tens and kings in tricks

The game is won by the first partnership to achieve a score of 500 or more. If both sides reach 500 on the same hand, the bidding side wins. If both teams have a score over 400, a bid-to-win situation is in effect. A partnership can only win if they won the bidding auction.  In some circles this is known as ‘cutthroat pinochle’, but we only engage this rule if both teams have reached 400 or more, as opposed to it being a constant rule.

Deal

Deal and play are clockwise. All the cards are dealt to the players, so that everyone has 20. Dealing practice varies; common methods are 4 cards at a time, 5 cards at a time, or 2 cards to each player, and the remainder 3 at a time.

Rank and Value of Cards

In each suit the cards rank, from highest to lowest, Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Jack. At the end of the play, each side counts the points they have taken in tricks. Each Ace, Ten and King is worth one point, and the team who win the last trick get an extra 2 points. Hence there are a total of 50 points available for tricks.

Meld

Points can be scored for certain combinations of cards in the hand of one player. These combinations are called meld; they are displayed to the other players before the start of the trick play. Any meld can be single (just one of each card), double (two identical copies of each card), triple (three of each card) or quadruple (all four of each card).

There are three types of meld. Any particular card can only belong to one meld of each type. The point scores for meld are given in the following table:

Type	Combination	Single	Double	Triple	Quad
Type I Runs and Marriages	Run – Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Jack of trumps	16	150	225	300
	Royal Marriage – King and Queen of trumps	4	8	12	16
	Marriage – Kings and Queen of the same suit, not trumps	2	4	6	8
	Note: A run in a suit other than trumps is not worth anything more than the marriage score for the king and queen.
Type II – Pinochles	Pinochle – Qs and Jd	4	30	60	90
Type III Arounds	Aces around – An Ace in each suit	10	100	150	200
	Kings around – A King in each suit	8	80	120	160
	Queens around – A Queen in each suit	6	60	90	120
	Jacks around – A Jack in each suit	4	40	60	80
	Note: A set of tens is not worth anything in meld.

Example: with hearts as trump, the following hand:

AhThKhKhKhQhQhJh
QdQdJd
QcQc
AsKsKsQsQsJsJs

scores 88 for meld: a run (16), a royal marriage (4), a double marriage in spades (4), a pinochle (4) and double queens around (60). There is only one royal marriage as one king and one queen of hearts are already used for the run, and the remaining queen can only marry one of the remaining kings. Notice, however, that one of the queens of spades is simultaneously used in the spade marriage, the pinochle and the around – this is allowed because these melds are all of different types.

During the Meld Phase, any player with Aces Around must declare this fact, even if they do not meld it (See Minimum 20 to Score, below). This is a formality and a courtesy to the other players.

The Bidding

The person to the left of the dealer bids first. The opening bid must be at least 50, but may be higher. You may bid by ones until you reach 60; bids above 60 must be multiples of 5 (65, 70, 75 etc.). Turn to bid proceeds clockwise. Each bid must be higher than the previous one, but a player who does not wish to bid can pass. If the first three players all pass, the dealer is forced to bid 50. Once you passed you cannot re-enter the bidding on a later turn. The bidding continues for as many rounds as necessary until three players have passed. Whoever wins the bid (bids highest) has the right to call trump and lead.

Calling Trump and Melding

The bidder now chooses the trump suit and announces what it is. It must be a suit in which the bidder holds at least a marriage. If the bidder does not have a marriage, the hand is not played; in this case the bidding side automatically lose the amount of their bid and neither side counts anything for meld.

Once trump is called all of the players lay their meld face up on the table. A combination must be entirely within one player’s hand to count. Note also that you can count the same card in melds of different types (for example a queen of spades could be part of a marriage, a pinochle and a set of queens), but not in more than one meld of the same type (so a king and two queens does not count as two marriages). Partners add together the scores for their meld and this is written down on the score sheet.

Minimum 20 to score

Meld can only be scored by a side whose meld is worth at least 20 points. Before laying down their meld each player announces its value, and if the total for a team is less than 20, they cannot lay down or score any meld for that hand, but must declare if either partner has Aces Around. Furthermore, a team that does not take at least 20 points in the play cannot score anything for the hand – their meld is disregarded.
If the bidding side fails to reach 20 in meld they automatically lose the bid without playing, but the bidder must still name a trump suit and in this case the opposing team score their meld provided that it is worth at least 20, without the requirement to take at least 20 in tricks. If the bidding team takes less than 20 points in tricks, the bid automatically fails (however much meld they had) and their bid is subtracted from their score.

The Play

The person who won the bid begins the play by leading the first trick, and the others play in turn, clockwise. A trick consists of one card from each player and if it contains no trumps it is won by the highest card played of the suit led. If any trumps are played to the trick, then the highest trump wins, irrespective of any other cards in the trick. If there are two or more identical cards in a trick, the first of these cards which was played beats the others. The winner of a trick leads the next.

When leading a trick any card may be played. Each subsequent players must follow suit if they can and must crawl (this means that each player must play a card which is higher in rank than the winning card that has been played to the trick so far). A player who cannot crawl (i.e. does not have a high enough card of the suit led to beat the highest so far played to the trick) must follow suit in any case, with a card that will not win the trick.

Any player who does not have any cards of the suit that was led must trump. If someone has already trumped then later players who can follow suit may play any card of the suit led (no card of the led suit can beat a trump). If a trick has been trumped, subsequent players who do not have the led suit either must crawl in trump (that is, beat the highest trump so far played). A player who cannot follow suit and cannot beat the highest trump so far played must still play a trump, even though this trump will not be high enough to win the trick.

A player who has no card of the suit led and no trumps may play any card.

(Nota Bene – these are the rules of trick play sometimes described as ‘Pre-1945’ rules.  It seems about half the players follow these rules, the other half play ‘Post 1945’ rules wherein playing to win the trick is only required when trump is led.  How bizzare.  The strategies for that are sufficiently different to almost be a different game.)

Scoring

When all the cards have been played, each team counts the points in the tricks they have won. If the bidding side took in meld and tricks at least as many points as they bid, then both teams add the points they made to their cumulative score.

If the bidding partnership does not “make” the bid (i.e. their meld and trick points do not equal or surpass their bid), they have been “set”. In this case they score nothing for their meld and tricks, and instead the amount of their bid is subtracted from their score. The non-bidding partners get to keep their meld and trick points.

If the bidding partners know that they cannot make the bid before play begins, they may call trump and throw in their hand. In this case they score nothing for their meld and their bid is subtracted from their score. The non-bidding partners add their meld points to their score. This allows the bidding partners to avoid losing the trick points to their opponents.

Bidding Systems

It is sensible to use the bids to convey information about what melds are held. Details of bidding systems vary greatly, and there is no standard.

A common system, at least for bids up to 60, is to use skip bids to indicate meld and encourage your partner to take the bid. An opening bid of 50 shows a desire to take the bid. Opening 52 or more shows meld: 10 points for each point over 50 – so 52 shows 20 meld, 53 shows 30 meld, etc. Subsequent bidders can show meld by the number of points they skip. Bidding just 1 more than the previous bidder indicates that you want to take the bid. Increasing the bid by 2 or more shows 10 meld for each point of increase. So if a player opens 52 (indicating 20 meld), the next player might bid 55 – 3 more than 52 showing 30 meld – and so on.

For more, see the Advanced Strategy page and the Glossary page.

Many thanks to pagat.com for the structure and basic rules that this page was based on. Thanks also to Wikipedia for a nice writeup on the different variations.