You must always follow suit, and if you cannot follow to a plain suit, you must play a trump if possible. The winner of each trick leads to the next. Pick up your melds and lead any card to the first trick. In order to reduce your hand back down to 15 cards, choose three unmelded cards to set aside, face down, to add later to the tricks you win. Your two opponents will temporarily unite in their play against you. If the bidder has already reached or exceeded the value of his or her bid, play ceases immediately, and he or she scores the value of the game (see 'Scoring Points and Bids'). Otherwise, table your melds, including cards from the widow, and announce a suit as trumps. You may concede at this point, losing the amount you bid. It may be clear at this point that your total of melds and cards taken in play won't reach your bid. If you are the bidder, turn the three widow cards face up and add them to your hand. The player who wins the bid becomes the bidder. The aim is to score at least as many points as you bid.

The auction is closed once two players have passed. Once you pass you can't reenter the bidding, but bidders can continue raising the auction. The lowest bid is 250 points, and bids increase by ten points thereafter. Deal three cards (not the last three) to a face-down widow, or kitty.īidding: Starting with the player at dealer's left, each player bids or passes. By tradition, deal in bunches of three, or one bunch of three followed by bunches of four. Cards rank - from high to low - A-10-K-Q-J-9.ĭealing: Deal 15 cards to each player. You can put one together from two standard packs by dropping all deuces through 8s. The cards: A 48-card Pinochle deck is used. Object: To scroe points in melds and in play. Number of players: Three (or four, with the dealer sitting out each deal). Let's get started with basic Pinochle, commonly called Auction Pinochle. If you make your bid, collect points from each opponent as follows:

How do you play high card flush