Now bidding continues between P3 and P4 until one of them also passes). When a player bids an amount, they are betting that their team will score at least that amount by the end of the round based on the cards in hand (EXAMPLE: P2 starts the bid with 20, P3 bids 21, P4 bids 23, P1 passes, P2 passes. The first bid of the Auction phase must be a minimum of 20 points and each subsequent bid must be higher.Once a player passes, they are no longer able to bid. The player left of the dealer has the opportunity to start the bidding or they may pass.As with other trick-taking games, any card of the current trump suit will always beat any cards in other suits (EXAMPLE: K of Hearts would normally beat a 9 of Spades, but because Spades is the current trump suit, the 9 of Spades is higher).Įach round of the game is divided into 3 distinct phases: Auction, Meld and Playing. If a player has five or more 9's in hand and no melds (explained below), the hand can be thrown back in with all other hands and cards re-dealt.Ĭards in Pinochle are ranked from high to low as follows: A > 10 > K > Q > J > 9.The deck is shuffled and each player is dealt 12 cards in sets of 3 cards at a time. Players divide themselves into two teams and sit so that they are opposite of their teammate (EXAMPLE: Team 1 - Player 1, Team 2 - Player 2, Team 1 - Player 3, Team 2 - Player 4).This means there are no 2-8 cards and that there are two copies of 9-A in the deck for each suit. Pinochle uses a unique 48 card deck that consists of 2 sets of 9, 10, J, Q, K, A in each suit.In Pinochle, the goal is to be the first team to score 150 points via the meld and playing phases of the game.