Since Marriages are all shown, you really only need to keep an eye out for Runs, and those become fairly obvious after practice.Īt this point, you may be wondering what to bid for the above hand of cards. It is left to you to look for the melds that do require a trump suit: 'Runs' (A-10-K-Q-J of the trump suit) and 'Royal Marriages' (K-Q of the trump suit). Using the 'Show Meld' button picks out all the cards involved in melds that do not require a trump suit. Here's an example of cards belonging to more than one meld: When I first began playing Pinochle, I was overwhelmed by all the different types of meld, and the rules for when my cards could 'overlap' to belong to several different melds, and when they could not. So your team would get your bid subtracted from your score, an unpleasant penalty. The rule is that you can only choose trump from a suit in which you have Marriage melds. In that case, if you win the bid, you will be unable to choose a trump. Also, if you have no Marriage melds, it is probably unwise to bid at all. Your partner may have no meld points at all, or just a few points. You are on your own in figuring out what to bid. If your partner has already passed (declined to bid), then there is no point in sharing any information about your meld points with the table. Think before providing a 'meld bid', however. It is relatively simple, and follows the example give above. I recommend the bidding system described at Pagat's Double Deck Pinochle page for you to start with. Pinochle experts will have worked out a very precise bidding system with their partners over the course of time. In this case, you will want to bid 3 extra points over the previous player's bid - the 3 extra points means 'I have 30 meld points'. You cannot tell your partner verbally how many meld points you have, but you can signal it by choosing your bid carefully. They could make a bid of 60 and feel comfortable knowing that between the two of you, you have enough meld to fulfill your bid. Two Pinochle melds are worth 30 points, not bad! Wouldn't it be nice if you could just tell your partner 'I've got 2 Pinochles'? Suppose they had 30 meld points in their hand too. A Pinochle is a 'meld' made up of a Queen of Spades and Jack of Diamonds.

The more information you have about your partner's hand, the better prepared you are to make your own bid.Īs a very simple example, suppose you have two Pinochles in your hand. However, in Pinochle, it is perfectly acceptable to use your bid to signal information about the 'meld' in your hand to your partner. ' Table talk' is considered questionable in most other games. Just remember that everyone is equally affected by the rules, though. Therefore, he must play a Diamond (trump) card.įor someone used to Spades, being more restricted in your choice of cards can be frustrating. He has no Clubs cards, so he cannot follow the trick suit. The player on the right is playing Pinochle. Since he has no Hearts cards, he can follow with any other card. In the screenshots above, the player on the left is playing a game of Spades. And if you cannot do that, you must play a trump suit card, if you have one. In Pinochle, the rules are more rigid: you must always play a higher card of the suit that led the trick. In Spades, you must follow the lead card suit when playing a card, but only if you have a card of that suit. My initial impression of Pinochle was heavily colored by playing a lot of Spades, a game which has only a few restrictions on what cards can be played when 'following' a lead card. In contrast, with Spades, your bid is a guess at the number of tricks you will take, and does not affect the trump suit, which is always Spades. This is very similar to the bidding in 29. The player who bids highest gets to choose trump, but at a cost: they oblige their team to score the number of points bid, during that hand. In Pinochle, there's an auction phase in which players 'bid' for the privilege of choosing the trump suit.In Euchre and 29, the trump suit is chosen by a player after the cards are dealt. There's a 'trump suit', and a trick-taking phase, just like in Spades.This is very similar to a Gin Rummy meld, although in Gin Rummy, a meld may contain just three Aces. There's nothing like that in Gin Rummy! You also have melds such as 'Aces around' - an Ace in every suit. For example, a 'pinochle' meld, worth 4 points, is composed of the Jack of Diamonds and the Queen of Spades. It has the concept of 'melds', special combinations of cards, as in Gin Rummy.

Pinochle contains some elements from several other card games at World of Card Games. I first started playing Double Deck Pinochle when I began implementing it for World of Card Games, about 6 months ago. Card Game Double Deck Pinochle Strategy - by Example by Holger World of Card Gamesĭouble Deck Pinochle Card Game - Strategy and Tips August 1 2015

Homemade pinochle deck