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There are many versions to the game of Pinochle. The following is a basic four player game. For this version, take the Nines, Tens, Queens, Kings and Aces from two decks of cards to create a new deck of 48 cards. Partners are across the table from one another. After the dealer shuffles, the player on his right cuts the cards, and the deck is dealt out in its entirety until each person has twelve cards. Now, how to play Pinochle: each player considers his deck and the best combinations: this is called melding. There are five melding possibilities: the first is called an Around, which refers to 4 cards of the same value, each belonging to a different suit. Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces all lend themselves to constructing a valuable Around, while a Nine Around and Ten Around have no value whatsoever. If you have all eight of the valuable cards, you have a Double Around. Next in melding comes a Marriage: a King and Queen of the same suit. Third is a Run, a run of cards in ranking order, all of the same suit. Next is a Dix (pronounced Deese.) This is a nine of Trump, on its own, and like the number would indicate in French, it’s worth ten points (more about trumping soon!) The final meld is a Pinochle, which is the Queen of Spades coupled with the Jack of Diamonds. And of course one would love a Double Pinochle, which means having the Queen of Spades and Jack of Diamonds from both decks. All of these various combinations are worth specific points, ranging from 10 points to a whopping 1,500! (In Pinochle, cards are valued a bit differently than in most games: Nine is the least powerful, followed by Jack, Queen, King, and Ten, with Ace (as usual) at the top.)

Once everybody checks out their melds, the bidding begins. This starts with the player on the dealer’s left. Each player must be able to make a bid of at least 250 points or else pass. Bids are like the metric system: they are made in multiples of ten. If the first three players have passed, then the fourth player, like it or not, must make the bid at 250 points. After considering the potential points that his melds would be worth, a player makes a bid based on an educated guess. If he wins the bid (i.e. presents the highest amount of points) he can declare the trump: i.e. which suit rules over all of the others. A card in the declared trump suit will always be worth more than cards in the other three suits, so that a nine-trump will be worth more than an Ace in the other three suits. Obviously, the chosen trump will be based on the suit most numerous in the highest bidder’s high cards. If a player wins the bid, he has the option of swapping four cards with his partner: a conservative bidder will assume that he is not necessarily going to luck out from those cards, but a player who loves to live on the edge will give a bid based on an optimistic assumption of what his partner is going to hand over to him. He also will be positive about the amount of points he will be scoring during the trick-taking phase of the game (yet to be discussed,) since that number is added to the score from the melds.

Now the melds are revealed to all of the other players. One card can be used for two different purposes (i.e. a King can be used for both a Marriage and a Kings Around, but not two Marriages.) Partners combine their cards to come up with the highest-scoring melds, after which points are added up. Did the highest bidding team “make” its bid? If not, the hand is forfeited, and the team goes set: i.e. the value of the bid is subtracted from that team’s total points. Disheartening as this is, it’s still better than continuing the play and having to fork over yet more points to the opposing team later on.

Once the meld points are added up, it’s time for trick-taking. Cards are played: the highest bidder leads. The game moves clock-wise. If the player does not have a card of the same suit, then trump cards are played, followed by any other card. After everyone has played, the high card takes the trick (keeping in mind that cards from the trump suit are worth more than all others.) The player of the high card gets to lead the next trick. When all of the tricks have run their course, then this particular Pinochle round is over. The team to win the final trick gets an extra ten points thrown into their score. Points scored in trick-taking are added to the points from melding. There is a high price to be paid for a team not making its bid: they are given no points for melding AND trick-taking, and the amount that they bid is subtracted from their total score. OUCH! The team that didn’t win the bid is not penalized: instead their points from this round are merely added to their total. Next round! The team to get to 1,500 points first wins the game.