Each ace, 10, and king a player wins in a trick is worth 1 point. However, if any players play a card in the trump suit, the highest card in that suit wins.

The player who played the highest card in the initial suit that was played wins the trick and collects the cards. Play continues around the table until each player has played a card. If they don’t, they can play any card in their hand. Then, the player to their left must play a card in that suit if they have one. After players score their melds, the winner of the bid plays one card from their hand in the middle of the playing area. Two runs are worth 150 points, 8 aces are worth 100 points, 8 Kings are worth 80 points, 8 queens are worth 60 points, 8 jacks are worth 40 points, and 2 Pinochles are worth 30 points. If players have 2 of any meld, the point values for those melds increase. A 9 in the trump suit scores 1 point, an ace in each suit is worth 10 points, a king in each suit is worth 8 points, a queen in each suit is worth 6 points, and a jack in each suit is worth 4 points, and a queen of spades paired with a jack of diamonds is a Pinochle and worth 4 points. A king and queen of the same suit is called a marriage and is worth 2 points, unless the king and queen are in the trump suit, in which case the marriage is worth 4 points. An ace, 10, king, queen, and jack in the trump suit is a run and scores 15 points. Points are scored by forming melds with the cards, and different melds are worth different point values. Now players score the cards in their hands. Then, that player’s teammate passes them three cards from their hand, and they pass three cards back to their teammate. Whoever made the highest bid gets to choose which suit is trump for that round. This continues around the table until every player except for one passes. Then, the player to their left can either bid higher or pass. If they decide to bid, they must bid at least 20 points. Then, the player to the left of the dealer can bid by saying how many points they think they can win based on their hand, or they can pass to the next player.

The dealer deals each player 12 cards in sets of 3. Teammates sit across from one another, and one player deals first, with the deal moving clockwise each round. Alternatively, you can make your own by combining all of the 9s through aces cards from two standard decks of cards. To play Pinochle, you’ll need a special Pinochle card deck. The goal of the game is to be the first team to score 150 points. Pinochle is a fun card game played with two teams of two.

Pinochle cards rules