Pinochle Help

Pinochle Rules

These are the standard NeuralPlay Single Deck Pinochle rules. You may customize the rules to your liking as described here.

Pinochle is a 4-player partnership game. You form a team with the player sitting across from you. The game uses a 48-card deck containing 2 copies of the 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A of each suit. Teams earn points as hands are played. The game ends when a team reaches 150 points or falls to −150 points, and the team with the higher score wins.

Each hand consists of 6 stages: dealing, bidding, passing, melding, play, and scoring.

Dealing

At the start of the game, the dealer is chosen randomly. The deal then rotates clockwise after each hand. Each player is dealt 12 cards.

Bidding

Bidding determines which player chooses trump and how many points the declaring team must score. A bid represents the team's expected meld points plus trick points. Bidding begins with the player to the dealer's left and proceeds clockwise.

The minimum opening bid is 25. Each bid through 59 must be at least 1 point higher than the previous bid. Beginning at 60, bids increase in steps of 5. A player may bid or pass; after passing, they may not bid again during that hand. Bidding ends when the highest bid is followed by 3 passes. If the first 3 players pass, the dealer must bid.

The highest bidder becomes the declarer and chooses the trump suit.

Passing

The declarer's partner passes 4 cards face down to the declarer. After adding those cards to their hand, the declarer passes 4 cards face down to their partner.

Melding

After the exchange, all players show the scoring combinations, or melds, in their hands. The meld combinations and their point values are shown below.

Melds belong to 3 classes: runs and marriages, pinochles, and arounds. The point value of each meld is shown in the following tables.

Runs and Marriages

Pinochles

Arounds

A card may be used once in each class, but not twice within the same class. For example, the Q♠ in a run may also be used in a pinochle and in queens around. The K and Q already used in a run do not also score a royal marriage.

A double, triple, or quadruple meld requires 2, 3, or 4 copies of every card in the combination. Triple and quadruple melds are possible in Double Deck Pinochle, which contains 4 copies of each card. For example, double aces requires 2 aces in each suit and is worth 100 points.

Play

A hand consists of 12 tricks. Every trick has a leader, a suit led, and a winner. The declarer leads the first trick, and play proceeds clockwise. Each player plays one card.

Players must follow the suit led when able and must beat the card currently winning the trick when possible. A player who cannot follow suit must play trump when able. If a trump is already winning, they must play a higher trump when possible. A player who has neither the suit led nor trump may play any card.

The highest card in the suit led wins unless a trump is played, in which case the highest trump wins. Cards rank from low to high as follows.

9, J, Q, K, 10, and A.

When cards of the same rank and suit are played to a trick, the first one played ranks higher. The player who wins the trick gathers the cards and plays the first card of the next trick.

Scoring

Each A, 10, and K captured in tricks is worth 1 point. The team that takes the last trick scores 1 additional point, making 25 trick points available in each hand.

A team must take at least 1 trick point to save its meld. A team that takes no trick points loses its meld and scores no points for the hand.

The declaring team makes the contract when its saved meld points plus trick points are at least the bid. When they make the contract, they score that total. When they fail, they are set and lose points equal to the bid. The defenders score their saved meld points plus trick points.

For example, if the declaring team bids 30 and scores 12 meld points and 20 trick points, they make the contract and score 32. If they score only 17 trick points, their total is 29, so they are set and score −30.

Before play, the declarer may choose to surrender the hand. By default, NeuralPlay shows this choice only when the declaring team needs many trick points to make the contract, including when making the contract is impossible. This avoids prompting the declarer too often and is configurable in Settings. If the declarer surrenders, their team loses points equal to the bid and the defenders score their eligible meld points.

The hand scores are added to the game scores. If neither team has reached 150 points or fallen to −150 points, the deal rotates and another hand begins.

Pinochle Terminology

• Declarer. The player who made the winning bid.
• Declaring team. The declarer and the declarer's partner.
• Defenders. The team that did not win the bidding.
• Meld. A scoring combination held in a player's hand.
• Trick. One card played by each player, won by the highest applicable card.
• Set. The declaring team failed to score the number of points they bid.
• Dix. The 9 of trump.
• Around. One card of the same rank in each suit.

Web Links

Many websites discuss Pinochle and its variations. Here are a few we found helpful.

• Wikipedia
• Pagat.com

Preset Game Rules

Pinochle is played with many different rule options. NeuralPlay includes the following ready-to-play presets. See Rule Options to customize the rules.

• Single Deck. Play with the 48-card deck. Bidding begins at 25, and the declarer and partner exchange 4 cards. The game is played to 150 points. These are the standard rules described above.
• Single Deck - Kitty. Play with the 48-card deck and a 4-card kitty. Each player is dealt 11 cards. Bidding begins at 20. The declarer takes the kitty and then discards 4 cards face down; no cards are exchanged with the declarer's partner. Any card points among the cards discarded to the kitty count for the declaring team. The game is played to 150 points.
• Single Deck - No Pass. Play with the 48-card deck, with no kitty and no card exchange. Bidding begins at 15, and the game is played to 150 points.
• Single Deck - No Nines. Play with a 40-card deck containing the 10 through A of each suit and a 4-card kitty. Each player is dealt 9 cards. Bidding begins at 25. The declarer takes the kitty and discards 4 cards; no cards are exchanged with the declarer's partner. The game is played to 150 points.
• Double Deck. Play with an 80-card deck containing 4 copies of the 10 through A of each suit. Each player is dealt 20 cards. There is no kitty or card exchange. Bidding begins at 50, increases in steps of 5 beginning at 60, and uses meld bidding. A marriage in trump is required, and each team needs at least 20 meld points to show meld and at least 20 trick points to save it. The game is played to 500 points.
• Double Deck II. Play with the Double Deck rules above, with bids increasing in steps of 10 beginning at 100. Surrender is disabled. Taking every trick awards the game-point value without a declaration. If both teams reach 500 points on the same hand, the declaring team wins. This preset uses the meld table below.

A roundhouse consists of kings around, queens around, and a marriage in each suit.

Meld Bidding (Double Deck)

Meld bidding is enabled by default for Double Deck play.

Meld bidding applies only to each player's first bid when their partner has not passed. A non-jump bid is a normal bid to play. A jump bid shows meld points, which the bidder's partner can use to determine the final bid level. Meld bidding applies through bids of 59. Bids of 60 or higher are bids to play.

The number of steps in a jump bid determines how much meld is shown. Each step shows 10 meld points. For example, when the current bid is 51, a bid of 52 is to play and does not show meld; 53 shows about 20 meld points, 54 shows about 30, and so on.

The opening bid is special. An opening bid of 50 is to play, 51 shows aces around, 52 shows about 20 meld points, 53 shows about 30, and so on.

The 59 meld bid is used to show more meld than a bid of 58 can show. For example, suppose the bidding is 53, 54, Pass and you have 80 meld points to show. A bid of 58 would show 40 meld points, so 59 means 50 or more. In this situation, 59 is the best available bid for showing your meld.

You may disable meld bidding or use 59 as a special bid to show double aces around. When 59 is used for double aces, 58 becomes the catch-all bid that shows more meld than 57. See Settings to make adjustments.

Mandatory meld bids are supported by the computer players when enabled but are disabled by default. You may enable them for double aces and double runs, or for double aces, double runs, and triple pinochles. When enabled, the computer players bid the meld value. For example, when a computer player has double aces worth 100 points, the AI makes a bid of 100.

Learning Features

NeuralPlay Pinochle offers many features to help you learn and improve your play. These features may be enabled, disabled, or adjusted in Settings.

• Hints. Show a hint when asked, whenever the AI's choice differs from yours, or always.
• Meld points. Show the meld points in your hand automatically, hide them, or reveal them when you tap the meld-points button.
• Meld details. Show the individual combinations that make up your meld.
• Card counter. Show which cards have been played.
• Analyze bid. Show an "Analyze" button during bidding. Enter a proposed bid to estimate its chance of making.
• AI points scored estimate. Show the estimated points for each legal play with a hint. The estimate is an average across many simulations. The AI-suggested play may differ from the play with the highest estimate because of strategy or simulation noise.
• Competitive mode. Play without assistance. Hints, undo, viewing all hands, analyze bid, and other learning aids are disabled.

Rule Options

NeuralPlay Pinochle offers many popular rule options so you can customize the game to your liking. The current custom rule settings and choices are described below. The rules and point values in this help use the default modern scoring style.

Scoring Style

• Scoring style. Choose modern or classic. Modern scoring shows values such as 2 for a marriage and 4 for a pinochle. Classic scoring displays every bid and point value at 10 times the modern value, such as 20 for a marriage and 40 for a pinochle.

Dealing

• Deck size. Choose single deck - 48 cards, double deck - 80 cards, or single deck - 40 cards. The 48-card deck has 2 copies of the 9 through A. The 80-card deck has 4 copies of the 10 through A. The 40-card deck has 2 copies of the 10 through A.
• Kitty size. Choose no kitty or 4 cards. With a kitty, the declarer takes its cards and discards the same number before choosing trump. Any card points among the cards discarded to the kitty count for the declaring team.

Bidding

• Minimum opening bid. Choose the lowest bid that may open the bidding.
• Bid increment after 60. Increase bids by 1; by 5; or by 5 beginning at 60 and by 10 beginning at 100.
• Require marriage in trump. Require the declarer to hold a royal marriage or run in the chosen trump suit. If the requirement is not met after passing, the declaring team must surrender.
• Surrender. Choose whether to always ask, ask when lots of points are needed, or never ask.
• Meld bidding. Disable meld bidding, enable it, or enable it with a bid of 59 for double aces. See Meld Bidding.
• Initial bidder must bid minimum bid. Assign the minimum opening bid to the first bidder before bidding continues.
• Bidding rounds. With single-round bidding, each player has one opportunity to bid or pass. With multiple-round bidding, bidding continues until the high bid is followed by three passes. A player who passes in multiple-round bidding may not reenter.
• Mandatory bids. Disable mandatory bids, require bids for double runs and double aces, or also require bids for triple pinochles. An included meld must be bid at its meld value.
• Misdeal. Disable misdeals, allow a misdeal with 5 or more 9s, or allow one with 5 or more 9s and no meld, or 6 or more 9s with meld. A player must declare a misdeal on their first bidding turn. Misdeals are available with the 48-card single deck.

Passing

• Pass. Exchange no cards or 1 through 5 cards. The partner passes first, and the declarer returns the same number.

Playing

• Initial lead. Allow any suit or require the trump suit for the declarer's first lead.
• Must play higher. Choose when a player must beat the winning card if possible: always, only when trump is on the trick, only when trump is led, or never.
• Must trump when void. When enabled, a player who cannot follow suit must play trump when able. When disabled, they may play any card.

Scoring

• Extra K or Q with run. Award no points, 2 points, or 4 points for each extra K or Q of trump held with a run.
• Minimum meld to show. Choose whether a team needs a minimum amount of meld to show and score it. The same threshold may apply to both teams, or the declaring team may have a higher threshold.
• Minimum trick points to save meld. Choose how many trick points a team must take to save its meld. The same threshold may apply to both teams, or the declaring team may have a higher threshold.
• On failure to save meld. Choose whether a team receives no points or receives its trick points when it does not reach the selected trick-point minimum.
• On surrender opponents score. Award the defenders no points, their meld points, or their meld points plus a selected bonus. Only meld that met the minimum-to-show requirement is awarded.
• Card points. Choose the point values for A-10-K-Q-J-9: 1-1-1-0-0-0, 1-1-0.5-0.5-0-0, or 1.1-1-0.4-0.3-0.2-0. The last trick scores 1 point in a single-deck game and 2 points in a double-deck game.
• Shoot the moon. Choose disabled, always allowed, allowed when guaranteed set, or always enabled, no declare. A declared moon requires the declaring team to take every trick. With no declaration, the moon award applies automatically when the declaring team takes every trick.
• Shoot the moon value. Use the selected game-point target or choose a fixed point value.
• Shoot the moon score. Use the moon value as the declaring team's hand score, or add it to the team's meld and trick score.
• Shoot the moon failure. Choose whether a failed declared moon loses the game or subtracts the bid and the moon value.
• Custom meld values. Set separate single, double, triple, and quadruple values for runs, royal marriages, marriages, pinochles, aces, kings, queens, and jacks; and single and double values for dix. For a double roundhouse, either add up the individual melds or score ten times the value of a single roundhouse.

Game Over

• Game over at. End the game at a selected number of points or after a selected number of hands.
• Points to game over. Choose the point target. A point game also ends if a team falls to the negative of the selected target.
• On reaching game over. Choose one of the following.
  • Highest score wins. End the game when either point threshold is reached and use the scores to determine the winner.
  • Declarers win when both teams over. If both teams reach the positive target on the same hand, the declaring team wins.
  • Must bid to win. A team at or above the positive target must bid and make the contract to win.
  • Must bid or set to win. A team at or above the positive target must make a contract or set the opponents to win.
• Set limit to game over. Choose no set limit or end the game when a team is set 2, 3, or 4 times; that team loses.
• Hands to game over. Choose the number of hands to play. The team with the higher score after the final hand wins.

Computer Players

NeuralPlay computer players offer 6 levels of play. Level 1 is reasonably easy and good for beginners. Level 3 should be fun for most players. Level 6 is the most challenging.

The computer players employ different AI methods depending on the level. Levels 1 and 2 use smaller Monte Carlo simulations to provide an introduction for beginners.

Level 3 uses rule-based card play. The AI follows rules such as: "In 3rd seat, do not trump partner's high card" and "In 4th seat, play just high enough to take the trick when an opponent is winning." We find the rules work quite well and provide good play. Level 3 uses simulation-based bidding.

Levels 4 through 6 use Monte Carlo simulation to determine the best play. The AI deals out the unknown cards randomly. It then tries each legal play and plays the deal to the end to get a result. This is repeated for many deals of the unknown cards. The average result for each legal play is computed, and the play with the best average result is chosen.

Levels 4 through 6 differ in how many times the unknown cards are dealt out. In general, the more deals considered, the more accurate the simulation and the better the quality of play. The trade-off is that more deals take more time, so level 6 may play more slowly than level 4 depending on the device.

Since levels 4 through 6 do not use rules for card play, you may observe surprisingly good plays or odd mistakes that do not seem to follow a logical rule. Overall, our tests show that these levels play better than the rule-based level 3. We also find that the randomness makes the computer feel more human-like and fun.

If you prefer a more consistent, logical, and predictable partner or opponent, level 3 may be best.

In addition to the computer level, you may adjust the AI bidding aggressiveness and how the AI prioritizes cards when passing to the declarer. The following passing choices are available.

• Prefer to keep runs, aces, and kings.
• Prefer to keep runs and aces.
• Prefer to keep runs.
• Prefer to keep aces.
• Prioritize unique trump, then aces.
• Pass trump, then aces.
• Pass trump, pinochle, then aces.

The Custom level provides separate settings for North, East, South, and West. For each seat, you may adjust play thinking, bid thinking, and bidding aggressiveness. South's settings control the strength of the hints you receive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are some point values 10 times the values shown in this help?

You selected Classic scoring style. Classic scoring displays every bid and point value at 10 times the modern value used in this help. The underlying rules are the same.

Why was my meld not scored?

A team may need a minimum amount of meld to show it and a minimum number of trick points to save it. Check Minimum meld to show, Minimum trick points to save meld, and On failure to save meld in Rule Options.

Why did the first copy of an equal card win the trick?

Pinochle decks contain duplicate cards. When identical cards are played to the same trick, the first copy played ranks higher.

How do I change the hand sorting?

In Settings, choose Hand Sorting. You can change the rank order and suit order and choose whether to alternate red and black suits.

How do I reset the game settings?

On the main screen, open the menu and choose Reset.

What are North, South, East, and West?

You are always South, and your partner is North. East and West are the opposing team. The letters N, S, E, and W are abbreviations for these seats.

What does claim mean?

A claim means the player expects to take all the remaining tricks. The app checks the claim before ending the hand. If the claim succeeds, the claiming team receives those tricks and the hand is scored.

How do I contact NeuralPlay with suggestions and feedback?

Please email support@neuralplay.com.