Ok Pinochle
Pinochle Rules
Pinochle is a trick-taking and melding game popular in the United States. The game is derived from a variation of Bezaique and was brought to America by German immigrants. The name 'Pinochle' is a misspelling of the french word 'binochle' which means 'eyeglasses' or 'Two-eyes', referring to the meld 'Pinochle' which consists of a queen and a jack. Allegedly this refers to the fact that the game was originally played with a deck of cards where the queen of spades and jack of diamonds were depicted in profile, together showing two eyes. There are multiple variations of Pinochle in existence, each with differing rules and traditions, but the one on this site is a single-deck four handed partnership Pinochle. Pinochle is played with 4 players and a deck of 48 cards. The cards have two copies of each card rank and suit of ace (high), tens, king, queen, jack, and nines (low). note that unlike standard card games in Pinochle the tens are a high card, and will outrank the kings, queens, and jacks in trick taking. A single round in Pinochle consists of 6 phases.
- Dealing
- Bidding
- Exchanging
- Melding
- Trick-taking
- Scoring
- The classic combination of bidding, melding, and trick-taking!
- Pinochle is a trick-taking game, like Euchre, Bridge, Hearts, Spades, and even the children's game War. Under Taking Tricks, I'll cover how you decide who leads each trick, how you decide who wins each trick, and what that all means.
Dealing
Pinochle is played in partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other at the table. The first dealer is chosen at random, but then dealership passes clockwise around the table. At the start of each round every player is dealt 12 cards. The player to the left of the dealer has first bid (see below).
Bidding
Once every player has been dealt 12 cards the auction begins. Here players bid the minimum number of points they believe their team can get during that round. The minimum bid is 250 points, and starts with the player to the left of the dealer. A player can either bid 10 or 20 points over the current bid, or pass. Once a player either passses or raises the bid the player on his left bids. A player that has passed on a bid is skipped and the player on his left bids instead. The last player not to pass wins the bid with the amount he last bid. If all players pass without bidding then the dealer makes the default bid of 250 points, and automatically wins the contract.
40 reviews for PlayOK, 1.8 stars: “The interface is basic but functional for playing Go, which is the only game I play on this site. A fair number of Go players use this site a few quite strong some even from Korea, where Go is immensely popular. Explore the basic rule variations of pinochle, or create a professional looking set of custom rules for your next gathering. Oct 12, 2020 Pinochle is a card game designed to be played by two to four players. It involves exchanging and putting together different combinations of cards, or “melds,” in order to score points. Learning the basic rules of pinochle only takes a few minutes, but the fast-paced excitement of the game can provide countless hours of fun.
The winner of the bid has now won the right to:
- Declare the trump of the round
- Exchange 4 cards with his partner
- Lead the first trick
Winning the auction
The player who won the auction must declare the trump for that round.
Next, the partner of the winning player must select and pass over exactly 4 cards from his hand to the winning player. The winner must then pass 4 cards back to his partner. There is no restriction on which cards are passed, but partners cannot communicate or consult with each other when selecting cards to pass. Passing cards is not optional, and each player must pass 4 cards. However the winning player can give back the cards his partner passed to him if he so chooses. The team that lost the auction cannot exchange any cards that round.
Melding
All players will form melds from their hand for points. There are three classes of melds. A single card can be part of multiple melds in different classes, but can only be a member of a single meld in a given class. For example a queen of hearts can be a member of a 'Hearts marriage' (Class 1 meld), and a member of 'Queens around' (Class 3 meld), but cannot also be a member of 'Run' (Class 1 meld) since it already appears in the hearts marriage. The points for the melds presented are tallied up and added to the score of that team for the round. The game will automatically form the highest scoring combination of melds from your hand and present those.
Valid Melds
The following are valid melds in Pinochle, and their respective point values:
Class 1 melds:- Run: Ten to Ace, all 5 cards in the current trump suit (H11 H12 H13 H10 H14). Worth 150 points.
- Run + King: A run with an extra king in the trump suit. (H11 H12 H13 H13 H10 H14). Worth 190 points.
- Run + Queen: A run with an extra queen in the trump suit. (H11 H12 H12 H13 H10 H14). Worth 190 points.
- Run + Marriage: A run with an extra royal marriage. (H11 H12 H12 H13 H13 H10 H14). Worth 230 points.
- Double run: Two runs in the trump suit. (H11 H11 H12 H12 H13 H13 H10 H10 H14 H14). Worth 1500 points.
- Dix: The nine of a trump. (H9). Worth 10 points.
- Royal marriage: King and queen of the trump suit. (H12 H13). Worth 40 points.
- Common marriage (or [suit] marriage): King and queen out of trump. (S12 S13). Worth 20 points.
- Pinochle: Jack of diamonds and queen of spades. (D11 S12). Worth 40 points.
- Double pinochle: Both jacks of diamonds and both queens of spades. (D11 D11 S12 S12). Worth 300 points.
- Aces around: One ace of each suit. (H14 S14 D14 C14). Worth 100 points.
- Aces abound: All 8 aces. (H14 H14 S14 S14 D14 D14 C14 C14). Worth 1000 points.
- Kings around: One king of each suit. (H13 S13 D13 C13). Worth 80 points.
- Kings abound: All 8 kings. (H13 H13 S13 S13 D13 D13 C13 C13). Worth 800 points.
- Queens around: One queen of each suit. (H12 S12 D12 C12). Worth 60 points.
- Queens abound: All 8 queens. (H12 H12 S12 S12 D12 D12 C12 C12). Worth 600 points.
- Jacks around: One jack of each suit. (H11 S11 D11 C11). Worth 40 points.
- Jacks abound: All 8 jacks. (H11 H11 S11 S11 D11 D11 C11 C11). Worth 400 points.
Trick taking
Once melding concludes trick taking starts. The player who won the auction leads the first trick, and then the winner of each trick leads the next one. The player leading the trick can play any card they wish, but other players must follow the restrictions below:
- You must play a card in the same suit as the lead card.
- If you cannot play a card in suit, you must play a trump.
- If you can neither follow suit or play a trump then you can play any card you wish
- You must take the trick if doing so does not violate the above rules.
H9 H10 H14. You must play either the Ten of hearts or the ace of hearts as they are both in suit and can beat the queen of hearts. Note that you must take the trick if you can even if your partner is currently winning the trick. Mike has no hearts but has a queen of spades S12. He must trump if able and thus takes the trick with his queen. The round ends when all 12 tricks have been taken.
Scoring
At the end of the round the players tally up their scores. Every ten (10), king, and ace collected as part of tricks is worth 10 points, as well as the last trick of the round. Thus a team can get a maximum of 250 points in the trick taking phase by getting all 8 tens, all 8 kings, all 8 aces, and the last trick of the round.
If a team is unable to get any points during the trick taking phase then they get no points that round, regardless of how many points they earned during melding. If the non bidding team gets at least 10 points (any ten, ace, king, or the last trick) during trick taking then their meld points and trick points are addded to their total score from previous rounds.
If the bidding team earns enough points from their melds and trick taking to match or exceed their bid then all their points are added to the total score. If they fail to meet their bid then they have 'gone set' and earn no points that round. In addition their bid is subtracted from their total score.
Voluntarily going set
If, after melding, the bidding team's bid is more than 250 points higher than their combined score they have gone set. The player who won the bid can at this moment throw in the hand. Doing this will cause them to go set, have their bid subtracted from their total score, the opposing team gets their melds added to their score, and the next round begins. The bidding team however can also choose to play the hand in the hopes of getting all 250 points avalible and causing their opponents to get 0 points for the round, somewhat lessening the damage. Teams can not throw in the hand under other conditions, if their bid is 250 points higher than their score or less they must play the hand.
Example:Bill won the bid at 330 points. After melding it is revealed that you and Bill only managed to get a combined 60 points. Since you can only get 250 points from the trick taking phase your team can never meet the 330 point bid, falling just short at 310 even if you get all the tricks. Bill decides that you cannot get all possible 250 points and throws in the hand. Your team loses 330 points and Mike and Lisa get whatever their melds are worth added to their total. The next round then begins. If Bill had so preferred he could have led the first trick and the round would have continued as normal.
Winning the game
The game is won when either team has a total score of 1500 or greater at the end of a round. If both teams cross the finish line in the same round then the team who currently holds the bid wins regardless of the actual point values.
Example 1: You and Bill end the round with 1500 points, while Mike and Lisa only have 1200 points. You and Bill win the game.
Example 2: You and Bill end the round with 1700 points, while Mike and Lisa have 1600 points. Mike is the bidding player this round. Mike and Lisa thus win the game.
- Cut Throat Pinochle v.4.143 hand, Gambling version of Pinochle. Scored with chips, Played with a widow, Sound on/off, Save game for play later, name players, game limit by time or hands played, Hints, Won/lost record for two different users, Review of deal and widow.
- Pinochle and Bezique by MeggieSoft Gam v.2006.2A comprehensive implementation of the original Pinochle and Bezique card games (the two-player versions). Play online or against your computer. Pinochle and Bezique has a rich user interface with many customizable visual, audio, and game options.
- Double Deck Pinochle v.4.144 hand,double deck, No pass game. Review of deal, Sound on/off, Save game for play later, name players, game to 350 or 500 points, Review on/off, Supports Meld Bids, Hints, Won/lost record, Very competitive play. Shareware version has 25 game limit.
- Pinochle for Windows v.4.044 hand, single deck, pass between partners game. Review of deal and pass, Sound on/off, Save game for play later, name players, game to 250 or 500 points, Review on/off, Supports Meld Bids, Hints, Won/lost record, Very competitive play. Shareware ...
- RUMMY Card Game From Special K v.3.19Play Gin Rummy, 500 Rummy, Oklahoma Rummy, Michigan Rummy, Boat House Rummy, Pinochle Rummy, Kaluki, Round the Corner Rummy, One Meld Rummy, Wild Card Rummy, Indian Rummy.
- CardGameCentral Games - Canasis v.2.6.6FREE card games, board games, and dominoes including canasta, spades, hearts, euchre, pinochle, checkers, and more. Play online against people or robots. Famous for having thousands of types of each game. Tournament competitions and friendly chat.
- CardCounterPRO v.2.8CardCounter PRO is an automatic card counter for use on Yahoo and MSN Zone card games like Spades, Hearts, Pinochle and ...
- Rummy Collection of Card Games v.3.8RUMMY contains all the classic Rummy games.
Hawaii Athletics
- Double Deck Pinochle 4 hand,double deck, No pass game. Review of deal, Sound
- RUMMY Card Game From Special K Play Gin Rummy, 500 Rummy, Oklahoma Rummy, Michigan Rummy,
- Pinochle for Windows 4 hand, single deck, pass between partners game. Review of
- Cut Throat Pinochle 3 hand, Gambling version of Pinochle . Scored with chips,
- CardCounterPRO CardCounter PRO is an automatic card counter for use on
- CardGameCentral Games - Canasis FREE card games, board games, and dominoes including
- Rummy Collection of Card Games RUMMY contains all the classic Rummy games.
- Pinochle and Bezique by MeggieSoft Gam A comprehensive implementation of the original Pinochle