The game is played with one Pinochle decks of 48 cards and 4 players. A Pinochle deck consists of two copies of each of the 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace cards of all four suits(hearts, Clubs, Spades & diamonds), for 48 cards per deck. Aces are always considered high. Pinochle follows the standard card ordering with the exception of the 10 being second highest. The complete ordering from highest to lowest is A, 10, K, Q, J, 9.

One player is the dealer. All the cards are dealt to the four players. The deal is done clockwise, dealing a packet of three or four cards at a time, starting with the player to the left and ending with the dealer. The deal rotates clockwise, so the dealer's left-hand opponent will deal next.

The auction/bid

The players bid for the points they predict their hand could earn. The highest bidder earns the right to declare the trump suit. One of the players, usually the player to the left of the dealer, or the dealer themselves, is obligated to open with a first bid. A minimum opening bid is 15: If no one bids the dealer gets the contract at 15. The next player can either:

1. Make a new bid, or

2. Pass.

Each bid must be greater than the previous one. When a player passes, they can no longer bid. The auction ends when all subsequent players in rotation have passed after the last bid. The last bid becomes the contract. The player that made this final bid will then declare trump in the suit that is desired.

In order for the winning bidder to win the hand, the combined total of melding and trick points must be equal to or greater than the winning bid. Thus bidding involves anticipating the points that will be accumulated from melds and from the points acumulated from winning tricks. If the combined score is lower than the bid, then the bidding team or player has been set. This means that the total bid amount is subtracted from the total game score, accompanied by losing the points scored in meld for that hand as well. This can result in a negative score.

Melding

Melding consists of displaying specific combinations of cards to all players. Typically this is done by placing the combination of cards face up on the playing surface until all players have had the opportunity to examine them. All players meld after the bid winner shows meld first. The types of melds include arounds, marriages, flushes and pinochles. The rank melds containing four of the same face cards – ace, king, queen or jack – must include one card from each of the different suits. They are scored as follows:

* "100 Aces" or "Aces around" - 4 aces of different suits - 10 points

* "80 Kings" or "Kings around" - 4 kings of different suits - 8 points

* "60 Queens" or "Queens around" - 4 queens of different suits - 6 points

* "40 Jacks" or "Jacks around" - 4 jacks of different suits - 4 points

A player holding all eight aces, kings, queens or jacks is called a double around (or double aces, double kings, etc). This hand is worth 10 times the value of a single around. For instance, a kings double around is worth 80 points. The marriages, flush and dix are the suit melds.

* "Trump Marriage" - king and queen of trump suit - 4 points

* "Marriage" - king and queen of a suit other than trump - 2 points

* "Flush", "Family", "Rope" or "Run" - A 10 K Q J of trump suit only - 15 points. Similar to what is done with Aces, Kings Around, etc. A double run, or two runs in trump in the same hand, is worth 150 points.

* "Dix" (pronounced 'deece') - nine of trump - 1 points

A marriage in each suit is worth 24 total points, which is nothing more than the sum of the marriages, plus kings around and queens around. As a shortcut, this is called a "roundtable", "marriages around", "Round House", or a "Round Robin". The pinochle is the unique combination that shares the name of the game and this website.

* "Pinochle" - jack of diamonds and queen of spades - 4 points.

* "Double pinochle" - both jacks of diamonds and both queens of spades - 30 points.

Any one card may be used in only one meld of each type. Thus, a queen card can be used in one marriage with one king, regardless if the player has the other king of the same suit. However, a queen can be used to score a marriage and a pinochle if the player also has the correct jack.After the melds are displayed, the points are counted and the teams total their individual meld scores to form a team score.

Playing tricks

In playing cards for tricks, there are strict rules of forced play, which limit a player's ability to strategically retain high cards: The high bidder leads the play with the first card, which can be any card in the contract winner's hand. Every player must follow the lead suit if possible. Each player must play a winning card against those played so far, if it is possible to do so, even when the current player expects a later player to win the hand with a better card. The only exception is if a player played a trump card when trump was not the suit led. In that case, those following that player may play any card of the lead suit, since they must follow the lead suit but are already losing to the player who played trump. So if a player can play a card in suit, higher than any played so far, the player must do so, even if the player expects to lose to a later played card. Likewise, if a player cannot follow suit, but has trump, they must play trump. Again, if a player does not have any cards of the lead suit and can play a trump card higher than any other trump played so far, the player must do so, even if the player expects that a later player will beat the card. If another trump has already been played that a player cannot beat, then they can play any trump in their hand, but they still must play a trump card if they can. Only when a player has no cards in suit, and has no trump, can the player choose to play any card in their hand. If two identical cards are played, the first one outranks the second. After the first trick, the winner of each trick leads the first card for the next trick, until all the cards are played.

Scoring tricks

Points are scored based on the tricks won in the hand. There are 25 points available. The last trick is always worth 1 points. The following cards count as points.

Aces (A) 1 (8)

Tens (10) 1 (8)

Kings (K) 1 (8)

Queens (Q) 0

Jacks (J) 0

Nines (9) 0

Last Trick 1

Total 25