What Is Pinochle?
Pinochle is a unique trick-taking game because you score points in two completely different ways in every hand. First you show combinations of cards from your hand — called melds — and score points for them. Then you play tricks and score points for capturing certain high-value cards. The team that combines both scores to meet or beat their bid wins the hand. The deck is also special — it uses two copies of every card from 9 through Ace in all four suits, giving you 48 cards total.
What You Need
- A 48-card Pinochle deck — two copies of 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace in all four suits. Pinochle decks are sold in most game stores, or you can make one by combining two standard decks and removing 2s through 8s.
- Four players in two partnerships — partners sit across from each other
- Paper for scoring
Card Rankings in Pinochle
From highest to lowest within each suit: Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack, 9. Notice that the 10 ranks second — higher than the King. This is different from almost every other card game and is important to remember.
Setting Up the Game
- Deal 12 cards to each player, one at a time.
- Bidding begins with the player to the left of the dealer.
Phase 1 — Bidding
Players bid the total number of points they think their team can score from melds plus tricks combined. The minimum opening bid is typically 250. Going clockwise, each player either bids higher than the previous bid or passes. Once three players pass, the highest bidder wins the auction.
The winning bidder names the trump suit. Trump cards beat all non-trump cards, and the Ace of trump is the highest card in the game.
Phase 2 — Melding
Before tricks are played, all four players lay their meld combinations face-up on the table and score them immediately. After scoring, everyone picks their cards back up — melds are scored but then played with during the trick phase.
Meld Values
- Run — Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack of trump suit: 150 points
- Pinochle — Jack of Diamonds plus Queen of Spades: 40 points
- Double Pinochle — both Jacks of Diamonds and both Queens of Spades: 300 points
- Aces Around — one Ace of each suit: 100 points
- Kings Around — one King of each suit: 80 points
- Queens Around — one Queen of each suit: 60 points
- Jacks Around — one Jack of each suit: 40 points
- Royal Marriage — King and Queen of trump suit: 40 points
- Common Marriage — King and Queen of any non-trump suit: 20 points
- Nine of Trump (Dix): 10 points
Phase 3 — Trick Play
After melding, the winning bidder leads the first card. Play proceeds clockwise.
- You must follow suit if you have a card of the led suit.
- If you cannot follow suit but have trump, you must play trump.
- If you have neither the led suit nor trump, play any card.
- The highest card of the led suit wins — unless trump was played, in which case the highest trump wins.
- Since there are two copies of each card, if identical cards are played, the one played first wins.
- The winner of each trick leads the next one.
Points Available in Tricks
- Each Ace captured: 11 points
- Each 10 captured: 10 points
- Each King captured: 4 points
- Each Queen captured: 3 points
- Each Jack captured: 2 points
- Each 9 captured: 0 points
- Last trick bonus: 10 points
Scoring the Hand
After all 12 tricks are played, the bidding team adds their meld points to their trick points. If the total meets or exceeds their bid, they score the full amount. If they fall short of their bid, they lose the bid amount — subtracted from their score. The non-bidding team always keeps whatever meld and trick points they earned.
Winning
First team to reach 1,500 points wins.
Tips for New Players
- A Run (150 points) in the trump suit is game-changing — if you hold Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack of the same suit, bid aggressively and name that suit trump.
- Don’t overbid — falling short of your bid loses you those points, a potentially devastating swing.
- Lead trump early to pull opponents’ trump cards out of their hands so your side-suit Aces are safe later.