Editing Pinochle (section)

==Partnership auction pinochle==
===Dealing===
The game is played with a deck of 48 cards and four players; one player is the dealer.

After the [[shuffle]], the dealer will offer a cut to the player on their right, then distribute the cards. All the cards are dealt in partnership pinochle. In variations for odd numbers of players like three, a "widow's hand" (also called a [[Talon (playing cards)|"kitty", "talon", or "stock"]]) of cards remains. Traditionally, the deal is done clockwise, dealing a packet of three or four cards at a time, starting with the player to the left (the [[eldest hand]]) and ending with the dealer. The deal rotates clockwise, so the dealer's left-hand opponent will deal next.

Some versions include a rule that a player being dealt five nines constitutes a misdeal, and the cards must be redealt. A variation of this stipulates that if someone is dealt five nines, they must also have no aces to constitute a misdeal, or if one has six nines and up to one ace.

===Auction pinochle===
In auction pinochle, players bid for the points they predict their hand could earn. The highest bidder earns the right to declare the [[trump (card games)|trump]] suit. One of the players, usually the player to the left of the dealer, or the dealer themselves, is obligated to open with a first bid. The size of bids is based on the point scale and number of decks used; traditionally, points are in multiples of 10, thus a minimum opening bid might be agreed to be 100<ref name="bicycle2004">Joli Kansil.  ''Bicycle Official Rules of Card Games''. 90th Edition. Cincinnati: US Playing Card Company. 2004. Page 208.</ref> or 250.{{r|Scarne1965|p=344}} However, many alternate scoring rules drop the unnecessary trailing zero; in that case, bids of 10 and 25, respectively, have the same values. When a player has the turn to bid, the player may either bid or pass.

A popular variation for four (or three) player pinochle involves dealing a 4 card kitty (3 or 6 cards for three players), with the bid winner taking the kitty and discarding 4 (3 or 6) cards from his hand. The point value of the discards can sometimes be added to the bid winner's total trick count or not, depending on the pre-established rules. In three player games the 6 card kitty can often lead to very competitive and extravagant bidding.

Each bid must be greater than the previous one, and be a multiple of 10 or 25 (if playing without trailing zeroes, the bid must be one or two greater respectively). When a player passes, they can no longer bid. The auction ends when all subsequent players in rotation have passed after the last bid. The last bid becomes the "contract". The player that made this final bid will then declare trump in the suit that is desired. In some house rules, trump cannot be declared in any suit not containing a [[Run (cards)|"run"]], "marriage" or "dix" meld.

In order for the winning bidder to win the hand, the combined total of melding and trick points must be equal to or greater than the winning bid. Thus bidding involves anticipating the points that will be accumulated from melds and from the points accumulated from winning tricks. If the combined score is lower than the bid, then the bidding team or player has been "set". This means that the total bid amount is subtracted from the total game score, often accompanied by losing the points scored in meld for that hand as well. This can result in a negative score.<ref name="bicycle2004" />

A related though different style of bidding is for the players to bid individually, and partners' bids are then summed. The winning bid only decides trump; both (or all) teams' bids become their contract, meaning any team can score or be set. This creates a more balanced game.

===Passing cards===
In some versions of pinochle, after the bid has been taken and trump declared in a partnership game, the bid winning team exchanges cards. It may be two, three, or four cards, depending on the version of the game. The partner of the bid winner passes first. The objective of the partner is either to add to the total points in meld or to pass trick-winning cards. After receiving the cards, the bid winner examines what will create the strongest hand and then discards an equal number of cards back to their partner. Variations are for the bid winner and partner to exchange the designated number of cards simultaneously, or for no passing to occur.

===Melding===
Melding consists of displaying specific combinations of cards to all players. Typically this is done by placing the combination of cards face up on the playing surface until all players have had the opportunity to examine them. All players meld after the bid winner shows meld first. The types of melds include "arounds", "marriages", "flushes" and "pinochles". These melds are placed under "headings"  where a card which is melded under a particular heading can be used again under another heading, but cannot be melded again under the same heading.

The group melds containing four of the same face cards&nbsp;– ace, king, queen or jack&nbsp;– must include one card from each of the different suits. They are scored as follows:

* "100 aces" or "aces around" – four aces of different suits – 100 or 10 points
* "80 kings" or "kings around" – four kings of different suits – 80 or 8 points
* "60 queens" or "queens around" – four queens of different suits – 60 or 6 points
* "40 jacks" or "jacks around" – four jacks of different suits – 40 or 4 points
* "1000 aces" or "aces abound" – all eight aces – 1000 or 100 points
* "800 kings" or "kings abound" – all eight kings – 800 or 80 points
* "600 queens" or "queens abound" – all eight queens – 600 or 60 points
* "400 jacks" or "jacks abound" – all eight jacks – 400 or 40 points

The marriages and flush are the "sequence melds":

* "Trump marriage" – king and queen of trump suit – 40 or 4 points, 80 or 8 for double. In some variations, a double marriage in trump is worth 400 or 40 points.
* "Marriage" – king and queen of a (same) suit other than trump – 20 or 2 points, 40 or 4 for double
* "Flush", "family", "rope", "book", "straight", or "run" – A, 10, K, Q, and J of trump suit only – 150 or 15 points. Similar to the arounds, a double run&nbsp;– or two runs in trump in the same hand&nbsp;– is worth 1500 points or 150 points.

A marriage in each suit is worth 240 or 24 total points, which is nothing more than the sum of the marriages, plus kings around and queens around.  As a shortcut, this is called a "roundtable", "marriages around", "round house", or a "round robin".

The pinochle and dix are the "special melds".
* "Pinochle" – jack of diamonds and queen of spades – 40 or 4 points
* "Double pinochle" – both jacks of diamonds and both queens of spades – 300 or 30 points
* "Dix" – (pronounced "deece" {{IPAc-en|d|iː|s}}) nine of trumps – 10 or 1 points each

In the most common form of the game (see variations below), any one card may be used in only one meld of each type. Thus, a queen can be used in one marriage with one king, regardless whether the player has the other king of the same suit. However, a queen can be used to score a marriage and a pinochle if the player also has the correct jack.

After the melds are displayed, the points are counted and each player totals their individual meld scores.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Meld name
! Example
! Point value
! Simplified
|-
| Run in trump
| ('''A 10 K Q J''')
| 150
| 15
|-
| Double run in trump
| ('''A A 10 10 K K Q Q J J''')
| 1500
| 150
|-
| Marriage in trump
| ('''K Q''')
| 40
| 4
|-
| Dix in trump
| ('''9''')
| 10
| 1
|-
|
|
|
|-
| Hundred aces
| ('''A♠ <span style="color:#ff0000">A♥ A♦</span> A♣''')
| 100
| 10
|-
| Thousand aces
| ('''A♠ A♠ <span style="color:#ff0000">A♥ A♥ A♦ A♦</span> A♣ A♣''')
| 1000
| 100
|-
| Eighty kings
| ('''K♠ <span style="color:#ff0000">K♥ K♦</span> K♣''')
| 80
| 8
|-
| Eight hundred kings
| ('''K♠ K♠ <span style="color:#ff0000">K♥ K♥ K♦ K♦</span> K♣ K♣''')
| 800
| 80
|-
| Sixty queens
| ('''Q♠ <span style="color:#ff0000">Q♥ Q♦</span> Q♣''')
| 60
| 6
|-
| Six hundred queens
| ('''Q♠ Q♠ <span style="color:#ff0000">Q♥ Q♥ Q♦ Q♦</span> Q♣ Q♣''')
| 600
| 60
|-
| Forty jacks
| ('''J♠ <span style="color:#ff0000">J♥ J♦</span> J♣''')
| 40
| 4
|-
| Four hundred jacks
| ('''J♠ J♠ <span style="color:#ff0000">J♥ J♥ J♦ J♦</span> J♣ J♣''')
| 400
| 40
|-
|
|
|
|-
| Marriage in non-trump
| ('''K Q''')
| 20
| 2
|-
| Pinochle
| ('''<span style="color:#ff0000">J♦</span> Q♠''')
| 40
| 4
|-
| Double pinochle
| ('''<span style="color:#ff0000">J♦ J♦</span> Q♠ Q♠''')
| 300
| 30
|}

Because all of these values are multiples of ten, one can arrive at simplified values by removing the trailing zero from each point total.  For instance, a pinochle has a simplified score of 4, a double Pinochle would score 30.

===Playing tricks===
In playing cards for tricks, there are strict rules of forced play, which limit a player's ability to strategically retain high cards. The high bidder leads the play with the first card, which can be any card in the contract winner's hand just like basic [[Whist]],<ref>"Pinochle" in {{cite book|date=2018|title=50 Card Games: 50 Popular Card Games for Hours of Fun|publisher=Igloo Books|page=56|isbn=9781784409852}}</ref> although some rules require the first card led to be a [[Trump (card game)|trump card]]. Then there are two variations of following suit depending if you are playing post-1945 or pre-1945 rules.

According to the pre-1945 rules, every player must follow the lead suit if possible. Usually every player must play a winning card against those played so far, if it is possible to do so, even when the current player expects a later player to win the hand with a better card. The only exception is if a player played a trump card when trump was not the suit led. In that case, those following that player may play any card of the lead suit, since they must follow the lead suit but are already losing to the player who played trump. Likewise, if a player cannot follow suit, but has trump, they must play trump. Again, if a player does not have any cards of the lead suit and can play a trump card higher than any other trump played so far, the player must do so, even if the player expects that a later player will beat the card. If another trump has already been played that a player cannot beat, then they can play any trump in their hand, but they still must play a trump card if they can. Only when a player has no cards in suit, and has no trump, can the player choose to play any card in their hand.

Most books of post-1945 rules say that unless trump is led, there is no requirement to try to win the trick. It is only when trump is led that "heading" the trick is mandatory. In pinochle circles and tournaments the post-1945 rules are played about half of the time according to Pagat and Hoyle.<ref name="pagat.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.pagat.com|title=Card Games|first=John|last=McLeod|website=www.pagat.com}}</ref>

If two identical cards are played, the first one outranks the second.

After the first trick, the winner of each trick leads the first card for the next trick, until all the cards are played.

===Scoring tricks===
Points are scored based on the tricks won in the hand. There are several ways to count up the points for play, but they always add up to 250 points. The last trick is always worth an additional 10 points added to any existing points in the actual trick cards. The classic counting system of pinochle is where aces are worth 11, tens are worth 10, kings are worth four, queens are worth three, jacks are worth two, and nines are worth zero. This method takes longer to count the score at the end of each hand.

A simpler method is to count aces and tens for 10 points, kings and queens for five points, and jacks and nines are worth zero.

An even simpler method has aces, tens, and kings worth 10 (and known as  "counters"), and everything else zero ("garbage"). Since all points are multiples of ten in the third method, most players drop the redundant zero. Aces, tens, and kings won in tricks are worth one point. The meld scoring can also avoid the zero in the tenth place. Melds like 1,000 aces are thus worth 100. The terms "1,000 aces", "800 kings" and so on are often used, even though the point values are one-tenth.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
! Method 1
! Method 2
! Method 3
! Method 4
|-
| Aces 
| 11
| 10
| 10
| 1
|-
| Tens 
| 10
| 10
| 10
| 1
|-
| Kings 
| 4
| 5
| 10
| 1
|-
| Queens 
| 3
| 5
| 0
| 0
|-
| Jacks 
| 2
| 0
| 0
| 0
|-
| Nines 
| 0
| 0
| 0
| 0
|-
| Last trick
| 10
| 10
| 10
| 1
|}