Pinochle

They say that everything old becomes new again. I'm not sure about that, but one thing that should be new again is the card game pinochle. The oldest predecessor of pinochle, bezique, originated in France. In Germany, the game modified to binokel, which was taken across the Atlantic by German immigrants to the United States during the wave of German immigration in the mid-1800s, where it morphed into its current form. Pinochle was enormously popular in the United States for decades, especially among German, Irish, and Jewish communities. During World War I, pinochle playing was briefly outlawed in many parts of the United States as an anti-German gesture. However, pinochle retained its popularity for many more years, only beginning to decline after the second World War with the newfound popularity of contract bridge.

Setup

Growing up, we had one deck of pinochle cards in the drawer with the other playing cards. As I was first learning to deal myself a game of solitaire, I would often use the pinochle deck by accident, and only realize my mistake after many frustrating losses. While pinochle does use a special deck, it can easily be created from two standard decks of cards. The pinochle deck consists of two of every card of the ranks 9,10,J,Q,K,and A, 48 cards in total. A game of pinochle requires such a deck, as well as four players. Pencil and paper for scoring should also be handy

Players are partners with the person sitting across the table from them. The first dealer deals out all the cards -so that each player has a hand of twelve cards.

Bidding

Once all players have received their hands, the auction begins with the player to the left of the dealer. The minimum bid is 25. Once a player passes (chooses not to bid) they cannot reenter the auction. The player with the highest bid wins. That player, the declarer, then does these things in order:

1. Names the trump suit for the round
2. Receives four cards from their partner, of their partner's choice. The declarer adds these cards to their hand, then passes four cards back to their partner.

Melding

Players then go around the table, scoring each of the meld combinations present in their hand. A single card cannot be part of more than one meld of the same class (so a J of diamonds could be part of a run and a pinochle, but not part of a run and a double run). Write these points down for each partnership.

Class 1 Melds

Class 2 Melds

Class 3 Melds

If, after melding, if the bidding team’s bid is more than 25 points higher than their meld points, that team can choose to throw in the round because it is impossible for them to make their bid (only 25 more points are available during the round). They “go set,” and subtract their bid from their total score. Their opponents add their meld points to their total score, and a new round begins.

Trick-Taking

When players are done melding, they pick their cards back up and begin taking tricks. The player who won the auction leads the first trick with any card they choose. Each trick consists of all players putting a card into the middle of the table in clockwise order. Each player must play a card in the leading suit if they are able, otherwise they can play a card of any suit. If you can, you must play a card that would win the trick, even if it means taking the trick from your partner. The winner of the trick is the highest-ranking trump card. If there are no trumps, then the winner of the trick is the highest-ranking card in the leading suit. If there is a tie, the player that played the winning card first takes the trick. The winner of the trick puts the cards in a pile next to them and leads the next trick. After all tricks have been taken, each team tallies up the score from each card in the tricks they have taken (see below), and the team that won the last trick gets a one point bonus.

Scoring

Add up each team’s meld score plus their trick score. If the non-bidding team collected at least 1 point while taking tricks, then they collect their meld and trick points. If the bidding team’s score is greater than or equal to their bid, then they collect their points. If the bidding team’s score is less than their bid, they have “gone set” - they receive no positive points for this round and their bid is subtracted from their score. If the bidding team took no tricks, then they also cannot receive any positive points (though it is extremely unlikely for the bidding team to make their bid without taking any tricks).

The first team to reach 150 points wins. If, at the end of a round, both teams are tied with a value of 150 or more, the winner of the next round wins the game.