The dealer shuffles the cards and deals 12 cards in sets of 3 to each player (4 players) in a clockwise direction. Each player receives a card from a shuffled deck, and the player with the highest-value card becomes the dealer.

Nines (and 8s and 7s in a 64-card pack) have no point value.Īlso Read: How to Play Spades with Jokers Dealingīefore the game begins, a dealer is selected based on the highest-value card.The value of cards melded during tricks are as follows: Sometimes, the game also uses two pinochle decks of 64-cards that include 8s and 7s. Card Ranking & ValuesĪ 48-card pinochle deck includes cards from Ace (high), 10, K, Q, J, and 9 (low) of each suit with two of each card. The game’s object is to win tricks by melding cards into combinations of high scoring points to score the value of cards taken in on tricks. The players score points in two phases of the game – the melding phase and trick-taking phase. A round includes six phases – dealing, bidding, exchanging, melding, trick-taking, and scoring. It is played with a 48-card pack, with two sets of 9s through Aces. The game is usually played between four players in two partnerships (partnership pinochle) or between three players playing individually (cutthroat pinochle).

Pinochle is a trick-taking card game that involves the melding of cards. The name means eyeglasses or two eyes and refers to a myth that the game was developed from a deck of cards in which the Jack of Diamonds and the Queen of Spades were portraited, revealing only one eye each. The game was brought from Europe to the US in the 19th century. It either evolved from Bezique or may have originated in the Swiss and later became Binokel, a South German game descended from Bezique. The fun pinochle game originated about 150 years ago and is believed to have two origins.

Rules on playing pinochle card game