Lesson plan for Double Deck Pinochle

Welcome to Pinochle Training Class!!
 
First the Cards are different and we play with a partner.

Pinochle is a team game!!

There are four players; partners sit across from each other.

Partners in a pinochle tournament are picked at random.

The deck consists of 80 cards, containing A 10 K Q J in each of the four suits, and
with four identical copies of each card. This deck was formed by mixing together two
normal Pinochle decks, having thrown out the nines, or from four regular 52 card
decks from which you throw out all the numerals 2 to 9. 

Idea of the Game;
after the deal there is an auction in which players bid the number of points their team will try to win. Whoever bids highest has the privilege of choosing trumps and leading to the first trick. The object of the high bidder's team is to win at least as many points as the amount they bid. Points can be scored in two ways:  by declaring and showing (melding) combi nat ions of cards held in a players hand;  by winning aces, tens and kings in tricks.

The game is won by the first partnership to achieve a score of 500 or more.
If both sides reach 500 on the same hand, the bidding side wins. 

Deal;
The click determines the dealer; all the cards are dealt to the players, so that everyone has 20.  Rank and Value of Cards; In each suit the cards rank, from highest to lowest, Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Jack. At the end of the play, each side counts the points they have taken in tricks. Each Ace, Ten and King is worth one point, and the team who win the last trick get an extra 2 points. Hence there are a total of 50 points available for tricks. Yahoo counts them for you!!

Meld;
Points can be scored for certain combi nat ions of cards in hand of one player.
These combinations are called meld; they are displayed to the other players
before the start of the trick play.

Any meld can be single (just one of each card), double (two identical copies of each card),
triple (three of each card) or quadruple (all four of each card).  There are three types of meld.
Any particular card can only belong to one meld of each type. The point scores for meld are
given in the following table: 

Type 1 

Run - Ace, Ten, King, Queen, Jack of trumps 15, 


double 150, triple 225, quadruple 300 Points 


Royal Marriage - King and Queen of trumps 4, double 8, triple 12, quadruple 16 Points 


Marriage - Kings and Queen of the same suit, not trumps 2, double 4, triple 6, quadruple 8 Points 


Round House- Kings and Queen of all four suits, 24 double 240 Points
Note: A run in a suit other than trumps is not worth anything
more than the marriage score for the king and queen. 

Type II
Pinochles;
 

Pinochle - Jack of diamonds & Queen of spades 4, 


double 30, triple 45, quadruple 300 Points

Type III Arounds
 
Aces around – Spade, Heart, Club & Diamonds Ace in each suit 10, 


double 100, triple 150, quadruple 200 Points


Kings around - A King in each suit 8, 


double 80, triple 120, quadruple 160 Points


Queens around - A Queen in each suit 6, 


double 60, triple 90, quadruple 120 Points


Jacks around - A Jack in each suit 4, 


double 40, triple 60, quadruple 80 Points

Tricks
Pinochle is played in tricks, just like Spades, Hearts, and Bridge.
A trick consists of one card from each player, played in a clockwise turn. One player leads by playing first. Then the person to his or her left plays, and so on until all four people have played. The highest card played wins the trick, and its player removes all four cards to be counted later.  

The Bidding;
The person to the left of the dealer bids first. The opening bid must be at
least 50, but may be higher. You may bid by ones until you reach 60; bids above
60 must be multiples of 5 (65, 70, 75 etc.).

If you have Aces Around (an Ace in every suit), it is customary for you to bid 51 instead of 50, if you make the first bid. This lets your partner know that you have several Aces. 

If you have 20 meld or more, then you should increase the bid by a factor of 1/10 of
your meld. For example, if you bid first, and you have a total of 30 meld, then you
should bid 53. If someone has already bid 54, for example, then you should bid 57.
You only do this the very first time you bid.

In addition to the meld bids already described, many players use "jump bids" and various "strength bids". These work as follows. A "jump bid" is used to force your partner to bid back after the first round of bidding. For example, suppose that you signaled Aces by opening at 51 in the first round of bidding, but you also have 30 meld and little strength. During the second round of bidding, you may wish to increase the bid by +2 or +3 to signal this to your partner, who should then bid back if possible.  Turn to bid proceeds clockwise. Each bid must be higher than the previous one, but a player who does not wish to bid can pass. If the first three players all pass, the dealer is forced to bid 50. Once you pass you cannot re-enter the bidding on a later turn. The bidding continues for as many rounds as necessary until three players have passed. Whoever wins the bid (bids highest) has the right to call trump and lead. 

Calling Trump and MeldingThe bidder now chooses the trump suit and announces what it is.
It must be a suit in which the bidder holds at least a marriage. If the bidder does not have a marriage, the hand is not played; in this case the bidding side automatically lose the amount
of their bid and neither side counts anything for meld.  Once trump is called Yahoo will lay the meld face up on the table. Look at the meld it will help you play that hand.Note also that
you can count the same card in melds of different types (for example a queen of spades could be part of a marriage, a pinochle and a set of queens), but not in more than one meld of the same type (so a king and two queens does not count as two marriages).

Partners add together the scores for their meld.  The PlayThe person who won the bid
begins the play by leading to the first trick, and the others play in turn, clockwise.
A trick consists of one card from each player and if it contains no trumps it is won by the
highest card played of the suit led. If any trumps are played to the trick, then the highest trump wins, irrespective of any other cards in the trick. If there are two or more identical cards in a trick, the first of these cards which was played beats the others. The winner of a trick leads to the next.  When leading to a trick any card may be played. Each subsequent players must follow suit if they can and must crawl (this means that each player must play a card which is higher in rank than the winning card that has been played to the trick so far).

A player who cannot crawl (i.e. does not have a high enough card of the suit led to beat the highest so far played to the trick) must follow suit in any case, with a card that will not win the trick.  Any player who does not have any cards of the suit that was led must trump. If someone has already trumped then later players who can follow suit may play any card of the suit led (no card of the led suit can beat a trump). If a trick has been trumped, subsequent players who do not have the led suit either must crawl in trump, that is beat the highest trump so far played. A player who cannot follow suit and cannot beat the highest trump so far played must still play a trump, even though this trump will not be high enough to win the trick.  A player who has no card of the suit led and no trumps may play any card.  If you win the bid, play your Aces first. Play out all of your aces (except in Trumps) as soon as you can. Your partner will put counters on them, and they are unlikely to be trumped early in the hand. An optional strategy could also be not to play all of your Aces, but to hold some in reserve for later use, if you believe they might win later.  Once you have played your Aces, lead with the Queen of Trumps. The idea here is that you probably have more trumps than your opponents (otherwise you would not have picked that suit). If you can fish out one or more of the high trumps, then you will be ahead later in the hand. This is not an absolute rule, but it often works.

Following Suit
The person who leads in each suit determines what card suit the other players must follow. For instance, if the person leads with a Spade, then each player must play a Spade, if possible. If you do not have a Spade, then you must play a Trump or card from another suit. Finally, you must always play to win the trick, if possible.

First Essential Rule of Trumping
The first rule is: You may only trump if you cannot play in the lead suit.

Second Essential Rule of Trumping
The second rule is: You must trump if you can legally do so.   

Scoring
When all the cards have been played, Yahoo will count points in the tricks they have won. If the bidding side took in meld and tricks at least as many points as they bid, then both teams add the points they made to their cumulative score.  If the bidding partnership does not "make" the bid (i.e. their meld and trick points do not equal or surpass their bid), they have been "set". In this case they score nothing for their meld and tricks, and instead the amount of their bid is subtracted from their score. The non-bidding partners get to keep their meld and trick points. 

End of Hand -- Scoring
You begin scoring after all cards have been played (after the 20th Trick). The rules for scoring are as follows: 1. Whoever wins the last trick (20th) gets 2 extra points for counters. 2. If the bidders do not get at least 20 counters, they are set. The final bid amount is deducted from their score. 3. If the bidders are set, their opponents still get their meld and counters as usual.  

Boston:
If you pull all 50 counters (generally speaking, if you win all 20 tricks), then you will score 500 points and win the game. That in a live game on Yahoo or in a tournament plays its 50 points!!!