Printable Pinochle rules

Pinochle in one page

4 players in 2 teams · 48-card pinochle deck · pencil and paper

This page covers the common American partnership game: four players in two teams use a 48-card pinochle deck, and each gets 12 cards. Players bid for the right to name trump (minimum 250), and partners pass four cards each way. Everyone scores meld for combinations like runs, marriages and pinochles. Then the teams play 12 tricks, where aces, 10s and kings are worth 10 points each. The bidding team must reach its bid with meld plus trick points or lose the bid amount, and the first team to 1,500 wins.

In brief

• Rank: A, 10, K, Q, J, 9. Deal 12 each
• Bid from dealer's left: 250 minimum, raise by 10; dealer stuck at 250
• Declarer names trump; partner passes 4, declarer passes 4 back
• Run 150 · royal marriage 40 · marriage 20 · dix 10
• Pinochle (Q♠ J♦) 40 · double pinochle 300
• Around: aces 100, kings 80, queens 60, jacks 40 (doubles ×10)
• Follow suit, beat the winning card, trump if void
• Identical cards: first one played wins
• A, 10, K = 10 each; last trick 10; 250 per hand
• Make bid: score all. Miss: minus the bid
• Defenders keep meld only if they take a counter
• Game 1,500; both over? declarer's team wins

Setup

1. Use a pinochle deck of 48 cards: two copies each of A, 10, K, Q, J and 9 in all four suits. Partners sit across from each other.
2. Cards rank, from high to low: A, 10, K, Q, J, 9. Note that the 10 ranks above the king.
3. The dealer deals all 48 cards, 12 to each player, usually in packets of three or four, starting with the player on the dealer's left.
4. Bidding starts with the player to the dealer's left. The opening bid is at least 250, and each higher bid goes up by at least 10. Once you pass, you are out of the bidding for that hand. If the other three players all pass, the dealer is stuck with the bid at 250.
5. The winner of the bid (the declarer) names trump. The declarer's partner then passes four cards face down across the table, and the declarer passes four cards back.

On your turn

1. All four players lay their meld face up. Each team adds up its meld and writes it down, then everyone picks their cards back up. A card can count in more than one meld only if the melds are of different types, like the Q♠ in both a marriage and a pinochle.
2. The declarer leads to the first trick. Play goes clockwise, and each player plays one card.
3. You must follow suit if you can. You must also try to beat the card currently winning the trick, even when that card is your partner's.
4. If you can't follow suit, you must play a trump if you have one (and beat any trump already played if you can). If you have neither the suit led nor a trump, play any card.
5. The highest trump wins the trick; if no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. If two identical cards tie for highest, the one played first wins. The winner of each trick leads the next.

Scoring

Winning

The game goes to 1,500 points. The first team to reach it at the end of a hand wins. If both teams pass 1,500 on the same hand, the declaring team wins, whatever the exact scores. Because going set subtracts the full bid, a team can drop below zero, which is sometimes called being in the hole.