How to Play Pinochle
Description
An American classic played with a 48-card double deck. Bid for the right to name trump, meld your combinations, then take enough tricks to make your contract.
Also known as: Pinocle
Objective
Team up with the player across from you and be first to reach 150 points, earned through card combinations and winning tricks.
Setup
Four players in fixed partnerships, using a 48-card Pinochle deck — two copies each of 9 through Ace in every suit.
Everyone gets twelve cards.
Rules
Starting bidding goes around the table — each player either raises the bid or passes, based on how many points they think their side can score. Whoever bids highest chooses trump.
Before tricks are played, everyone lays down melds — scoring combinations like a marriage (King and Queen of the same suit), a run (Ace-10-King-Queen-Jack of trump), or the Pinochle itself (Queen of Spades and Jack of Diamonds) — for points.
Trick-taking follows: follow suit if you can, and you must try to beat the highest card played if you're able to, using a trump if you can't follow suit.
Aces, Tens, and Kings each score a point when captured in a trick; taking the last trick scores an extra point.
Winning
If the bidding side's melds and trick points together meet or beat their bid, they score everything they earned.
Fall short, and their bid is subtracted from their score instead — the other side still keeps whatever they scored.
First side to 150 points wins the match.