To win Pinochle, be the first team to score 1,500 points by creating melds, taking the last trick, and/or taking in counters (ace, ten, king) with tricks your team won.

How to Play Pinochle on Solitaired

Pinochle is played with four people partnered into two teams. Even if you don’t know how to play the game, Solitaired uses these features for intuitive, customized play:

• Difficulty levels: Select Easy in the Options menu when you’re just learning how to play, and adjust to Medium or Hard as you get better.
• Highlighted turns and play cues: The player who wins the trick leads the next turn, and if it’s your turn, your playable cards are highlighted.
• Meld points and team score: Because melds add to your score but aren’t a part of the physical gameplay, everyone’s meld points are immediately totaled after trump is called and visible on screen until trick-taking play begins. You can view team scores next to each player.
• Undo button: Whether you’re first learning how to play the game or you simply made a mistake, the Undo button allows you to go back to a better place in the game and then take a different action.

Pinochle Rules

You play Pinochle with a 48-card deck that contains two sets of 9, 10, J, Q, K, A for each suit. Cards are ranked, from lowest to highest: 9, J, Q, K, 10, A. And all four players are dealt 12 cards.

Game Sequence

The game has several variations, but all include some form of bidding, melding, and trick-taking play followed by scoring. On Solitaired, it follows this order of play:

1. Review the 12 cards dealt to you.
2. Bid or pass, based on the points you think you and your partner can earn from melds and tricks. Bidding starts left of the dealer and continues clockwise. You can find the points for each type of meld in the table below.
3. The winning bidder (declarer) chooses trump.
4. The declarer exchanges four cards with their partner.
5. Score the melds. Everyone lays down and publicly scores their melds, and then returns meld cards to hand.
6. Play tricks in rounds, following suit when possible. If you can’t follow suit, you must play trump, and if you can’t play trump, you can play any card.
7. Score the hand, including meld and points from tricks taken, and determine whether the bidding team made its bid.
8. Play additional hands until one team reaches 1,500 points.

Bidding Rules

• Players bid on how many points total (meld and trick points) they think they can take as a partnership.
• Bidding starts at 250, and you bid in 10-point increments. Any ace, ten, or king (counter card) is worth 10 points, and the last trick is worth 10 points, for a total possible of 250 during trick-taking play. So formulate a bid based on how many of the 250 points you think you can take plus meld points.
• The highest-bidding player gets to call trump.
• If all players pass, the dealer must bid 250 and call trump.
• The team with the winning bid must meet or exceed the bid at the end of the round or lose points.
• The team that calls trump exchanges four cards. The goal is to give the declarer the best hand possible in this exchange.

Meld Phase

• Players reveal melds. You score points for your team based on the card combinations in the chart below. You call out or show these melds before trick-taking play begins and score them.
• Meld points are combined for each team. Melding happens automatically on Solitaired. You can see your team’s points immediately after the melding round in the middle of the gameplay area and in the scoring breakdown after each hand.

Trick-Taking Play

• The declarer leads the first trick. The player that called trump can lead any card you want to, even trump.
• You must follow suit if you have it. If you can’t follow suit, you must play trump. If you can’t follow suit or play trump, you can play any card.
• The person with the highest card of the lead suit or the highest trump card wins the trick and leads the next one.

Scoring

• Each team adds up their trick scores.
  • Any ace, ten, or king (counter cards) taken in a trick is worth 10 points.
  • The last trick is worth 10 points.
• Meld and trick scores are added together for a hand score.
  • Teams add their hand scores to their total scores.
  • If the team with the winning bid doesn’t make their contract they are “set” and their hand score is deducted from their total score.

Pinochle Strategies

• Evaluate your melds before bidding. Because meld points count toward your team's bid, look for valuable combinations in your hand before deciding how high to bid. For example, a Trump Run (A, 10, K, Q, J) is worth 150 points, while Aces Around (one ace of each suit) is worth 100. Add your potential meld points to the counter points you expect your team to win in tricks, but don't bid so high that you're relying on your partner to have specific cards.
• Strengthen the bidding hand with the exchange. If your partner called trump, give as many trump cards to them as possible in the four-card exchange. If you still have cards to exchange, then give them aces of other suits. The point is to make their hand as strong as possible. If you called trump, give your partner four lower-ranking cards that are less likely to help you win tricks, such as nines, jacks, or queens. Prioritize keeping trump cards and counters (A, 10, K) that can help you win tricks. Before exchanging cards, also check which ones you need to complete valuable melds, such as runs or marriages because melds are scored before trick-taking begins.
• Draw out trump when your team calls it. If your team called trump, leading trump to draw out trump cards. Then your aces in other suits can take tricks without fear of being trumped.
• Track cards played. You know that there’s two of each suit’s cards. So by looking at your hand and what’s been played, you can determine what cards are safe to lead. For example if all the aces and tens of clubs have been played as well as trump, you know you can play the K♣ and take the trick.
• Protect your counters. Because counter cards are worth points, you don’t want to give them away to your opponent. So avoid playing them in tricks that your opponent looks likely to win. For example, if your opponent leads the trick with the K♥ and you have no hearts or trump to play, play a queen, jack, or nine of another suit. But if your partner leads the trick, playing a counter card gives your team the points.
• Pay attention to what suits players don’t have. Because everyone must follow suit, you can see just as much by what a player doesn’t play. When you see other players not following suit, you know they may trump that suit later, which affects how you lead.

Pinochle is a fast-paced partnership game where you can score big if you play your cards right. If you enjoy trick-taking games, you can try others like Euchre or Bridge on Solitaired along with plenty of Solitaire games for free!