Ultimate Book of Card Games: The Comprehensive Guide to More Than 350 Games (62 page)

RUN (15 POINTS)
A-10-K-Q-J, the jack must be trump

DOUBLE RUN (150 POINTS)
A-A-10-10-K-K-Q-Q-J-J, both jacks must be trump

PINOCHLE (4 POINTS)
Q of spades-J of diamonds

DOUBLE PINOCHLE (30 POINTS)
Q of spades-Q of spades-J of diamonds-J of diamonds

ACES AROUND (10 POINTS)
Four aces, one from each suit

DOUBLE ACES AROUND (100 POINTS)
All eight aces

KINGS AROUND (8 POINTS)
Four kings, one from each suit

DOUBLE KINGS AROUND (80 POINTS)
All eight kings

QUEENS AROUND (6 POINTS)
Four queens, one from each suit

DOUBLE QUEENS AROUND (60 POINTS)
All eight queens

JACKS AROUND (4 POINTS)
Four jacks, one from each suit

DOUBLE JACKS AROUND (40 POINTS)
All eight jacks

MARRIAGE (2 POINTS)
K-Q of same suit (not trump)

TRUMP MARRIAGE (4 POINTS)
K-Q of trump suit

ROUND ROBIN (24 POINTS)
A marriage in every suit

9 OF TRUMP (1 POINT)
Each 9 of trumps scores 1 point

Partners may not pool cards together or meld on each other’s cards. However, within their own hands, players may meld the same card more than once, as long as the melds are of different types. For example, the jack of diamonds may be used in a run, a Pinochle, and Jacks Around; however, a king and two suited queens do not count as two marriages.

HAND PLAY
After all melds are scored and returned to the hands, the bid winner leads the first trick with any card. Subsequent players must play a higher card in the same suit. If they cannot, their options are (in order of priority):

Play any lower card in the same suit

Play trump and beat any trumps already played

Play any lower trump

Play any other card

Shooting the moon
is a good way to increase the value of your Pinochle hand. Once all melds are scored but before hand play starts, the bid winner may declare “shoot the moon,” and thus commit the bidding team to win each and every trick in hand play. They score 25 bonus points if successful. If they fail, it’s equivalent to a set: the value of their bid is deducted from their game score, along with a -25 point penalty, and their melds and counter points are discarded.

Tricks are won by the highest trump or, if trumps were not played, by the highest card in the leading suit. If duplicate cards are played, the trick is won by whichever card was played first. When a trick is won, remove it from the table and place the cards face down in front of the trick winner. Trick winners lead the following trick. Scores are tallied once all cards are played. The deal rotates clockwise.

IRREGULARITIES & DISPUTES
If any player bids out of turn, the bid is void and his team may not bid again in the round. Any time a card is accidentally exposed during play, it is left face up on the table and
must be played
at the first possible opportunity. In hand play, if any player fails to follow suit, play a higher trump, etc., there is no penalty if the error is detected and corrected prior to the start of the next trick. In all other cases, the offending team stops earning counter points the moment the error is detected. The offending team keeps any counters already scored, but does not receive credit for any new counters earned, even if that means forfeiting their meld points.

VARIATION 1: FOUR-HAND PINOCHLE (DOUBLE DECK)

Some Pinochle players prefer double-deck games because of the increased melding possibilities. This game is played exactly like the single-deck version above, with just a few key differences. The first is the deck. You need either two standard Pinochle decks with all 9s removed, or four standard fifty-two-card decks with all 2s through 9s removed, shuffled together. Either way, the final deck should contain eighty cards, have only cards ranking A, 10, K, Q, J, and have four identical copies of each card. All players are then dealt twenty cards.

There are no changes to the bidding rules, except that the opening bid must be at least 50, you bid by 1s until you reach 60, and bids above 60 are in multiples of five. The bid winner must hold at least a marriage in his nominated trump suit; otherwise he is set.

Games are typically played to 500 points. Valid melds in double-deck Pinochle are:

Runs
(A-10-K-Q-J of same suit) earn 15 points. Score 150 points for two runs, 225 points for three runs, 300 points for four runs.

Aces
(one each of different suits) earn 10 points. Score 100 points for having two each of different suits, 150 points for having three each of different suits, 200 points for having all 20 aces.

Kings
(one each of different suits) earn 8 points. Score 80 points for having two each of different suits, 120 points for having three each of different suits, 160 points for having all 20 kings.

Queens
(one each of different suits) earn 6 points. Score 60 points for having two each of different suits, 90 points for having three each of different suits, 120 points for having all 20 queens.

Jacks
(one each of different suits) earn 4 points. Score 40 points for having two each of different suits, 60 points for having three each of different suits, 80 points for having all 20 jacks.

Pinochles
(Q of spades-J of diamonds) earn 4 points. Score 30 points for two Pinochles, 60 points for three Pinochles, 90 points for four Pinochles.

Marriages
(K-Q of same suit) earn 2 points each in non-trump suits, 4 points each in the trump suit.

VARIATION 2: THREE-HAND PINOCHLE

This game is much more than simply “Plan B” whenever three Pinochle players can’t find a fourth player. In fact, if ever a vote were held for Best Three-Hand Card Game Ever Invented, Three-Hand Pinochle (sometimes called Auction Pinochle or Cutthroat Pinochle) just might win. Follow the rules for the standard game, with the following modifications.

A forty-eight-card Pinochle deck is used (A-10-K-Q-J-9). Players are dealt fifteen cards each, and three cards are dealt on the table, face down, to a
widow
hand. Three-Hand Pinochle is typically played for money. All players start with an equal number of chips, typically along the lines of: 20 white chips (worth 1 unit each), 18 red chips (worth 5 units each), 5 blue chips (worth 10 units each). It’s up to the players to decide how much a “unit” is worth (5 or 10 cents per unit is fairly common). Before cards are dealt, all players typically ante 5 or 10 units.

Bidding starts at 20. The bid winner exchanges three cards with the widow hand. The bid winner is allowed to forfeit the game
before
picking up the widow, but must pay a penalty to the pot of the bid value (
see below
; if the base unit = 10 cents, a bid value of 1 = 10 cents). The bid winner may also forfeit
after
looking at the widow; in this case he payed the pot and each player the bid value.

Only the bid winner melds in Three-Hand Pinochle. If the bid winner meets or beats his bid, the other players each pay him the bid value. If the bid value is 35 or greater, the bid winner is also paid the bid value from the pot. All bid values are doubled when spades are trump.

The bid winner must win at least one counter in hand play, otherwise he is set. In some cases, the bid winner must also earn counters in order to make his bid. Either way, the opponents’ goal is to prevent the bid winner from making the bid. Hand play stops the moment the bid winner makes his bid or is set. At
that point, scores are tallied and all payoffs made. The deal rotates to the left, and the game continues until one player is out of chips (at which point the earning are divided between the other two players, depending on how many chips each is holding), or until a time limit passes (say, 30 or 45 minutes).

1. DIFFICULTY
   :
   low
   
2. TIME LENGTH
   :
   medium
   
3. DECKS
   : 1
   

Besides being the national card game of Turkey, Pisti (pronounced pishti) is one of the few partnership games where both the suits themselves and the hierarchy of cards within each suit are irrelevant. If anything, Pisti resembles a game such as Snap, but with room for a lot more strategy.

HOW TO DEAL
It’s traditional to deal (and play) in a counterclockwise direction. Start with a fifty-two-card deck, and deal four cards face down to the kitty, plus a batch of four cards to each player. Turn up the bottom card of the deck for all players to see. The remaining cards are the stock.

SCORING
The goal is to be the first team to score 151 points. Points are awarded for the following cards captured during play:

In addition, the team capturing a majority of cards (twenty-seven or more) scores 3 points. If both teams capture twenty-six cards, no points are awarded.