How to Play Pinochle: A Beginner’s Guide to Learning the Rules & Strategies of 2 - 4 Person Pinochle

By Tim Ander

Enjoy Pinochle Night with Your Friends and Family!
Inside How to Play Pinochle, you’ll find everything you need to master this fun and social game:

• The Basics of Pinochle Game Play
• Pinochle Rules for 2- and 3-Player Games
• Cunning and Tricky Pinochle Strategies
• The Secrets of Advanced Pinochle Play
• and much more!

Though Pinochle traditionally involves two or four players, you can discover variations for three, six, and eight people. This trick-taking game developed from Bezique, a 18th-century French favorite. Named “Binocle” in French, the German immigrants who brought this game to the U.S. changed the pronunciation to Pinochle. Though this game was outlawed in WWI, it eventually became an American favorite.
How to Play Pinochle describes how to set up its unique deck of four suits and six ranks (A, K, Q, J, 10, 9). You’ll discover how to partner up, deal the cards, auction, pass cards, meld, and form groups. When you understand the unique scoring system of Pinochle, you’ll know how and when to take tricks, deal with trump cards, and keep track of your final totals.
You’ll even learn special game-winning strategies for bidding, trumps, passing, and more!
Don’t miss your turn at this fun and fascinating family card game. Download your copy of How to Play Pinochle today and let the games begin!

• Language: English
• Publisher: CRB Publishing
• Release date: Feb 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9788827565216

Book preview

How to Play Pinochle

A Beginner’s Guide to Learning the Rules & Strategies of 2 - 4 Person Pinochle

TIM ANDER

Copyright © 2018 by Tim Ander.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For permission requests, please write to the publisher.

Table of Contents

Introduction

What is Pinochle?

History

How to Play

The Basics

The Partners

The Deal

Phase 1: Auction

In-between Phases: Passing Cards

Phase 2: Melding

Phase 3: Trick-Taking

Pre-1945

Post-1945

Trick Scoring

Final Scoring

Two & Three Player Pinochle

Two Player Pinochle

Two Player Pinochle Variation

Three Player Pinochle

Pinochle Strategy

Bidding

Trump

Passing cards

Trick-Taking

Advanced Pinochle

Conclusion

Introduction

What is Pinochle?

Pinochle is a card game which is played with a 48 card deck. Traditionally the game of Pinochle is played with two or four players, but there are variations for three players, as well as six and eight.

Pinochle is a trick-taking card game and is derived from the game of Bezique, a game originating in 19th century France. The game involves players taking tricks to win points and also gaining points by forming certain combinations of cards, which are called ‘melds’. The game falls into the ‘trick-and-meld’ category due to the gameplay mechanics.

The standard version of Pinochle involves players creating partnerships to take tricks and create melds. The play is broken down into three main phases. The first phase involves bidding, the second involves the melds and the third deals with the tricks. When the three phases have been played out, the score is tallied.

The game of Pinochle has a few ways to determine the winner. The two most common methods are a number of games won and total score. Each deal can constitute a game, with the player, or players, with the highest score, taking the game. Whoever wins the most games is the winner. Players more often play to a total score. For example, you may decide to play to 1000. The first player, or players, to reach 1000 points are the winners of the match.

History

We have already mentioned that the game of Pinochle comes from the bench game of Bezique. When the game was created, it was done so under the name Binocle, which in the French language is translated as ‘eyeglasses’, not that that had anything to do with the actual game. In the French language, the word ‘binage’ is the word for the combination of cards known as ‘binocle’. The exact origin of the word is not clearly known, but the transition from Binocle to Pinochle is.