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This page describes how to play JoeDog’s Pinochle, a computerized version of the classic card game. To learn how to play the card game itself, see Pinochle: Rules of the Game.
JoeDog’s Pinochle is a computerized card game written in java. The latest version is available here: Pinochle. Right-click the link and download it to your desktop. In order to run the game you’ll need to have java installed on your computer. If you don’t have java, you can download it from Oracle. If java is in your $PATH (or %PATH% if you have Windows, you should be able to double-click the file and run the game.
The first time the game runs, you’ll be asked to configure it.
In this example, you’ll be asked to provide names for the the players at the table. Generally, there will be four players: three computer players and three computer players. You, the human, will sit in the South position and be paired with a computer partner in the North position. What you want to do here is provide those players with names. I like to pit my wife and I against our dogs, Limey and Pommie. (Yes, they’re English bulldogs)
There are a few additional options to configure like Winning Score, Minimum Bid, Deck Size, etc. If an option is grayed out, then it’s currently not available. In the example above, Double deck is grayed out. That means it’s a place holder for a future option. Be patient – I want double-deck pinochle as much as you.
After you configure the game, click the “Save” button. Once you save the configuration, you’ll never have to deal with this window again. But if you want to change things (and you should check this screen when new versions are released), click on “Preferences => Configure… ” or type ctrl-c.
To start a new game, go the the File menu and select “New” or type “ctrl-n” When a game begins, you’ll be asked to bid on your hand as shown in this screen shot:
Here we’re playing auction bid. In this example the next highest bid is 17. To make that bid, click “OK” To pass the auction, click “Cancel”. If a player tops your bid, the auction will come around to you again. When that happens, you’ll have another opportunity to outbid the competition or pass. The auction is complete when all but one player passes.
The player with the highest bid gets to name trump. If a computer player gets the highest bid, a card suit symbol will appear in the top left corner to signify which suit designated trump. A number will appear beside the suit. That represents the winning bid. It is the score the bidding team must make in order to keep their points. Failure to make the bid will result in a “ride.” A team that rides is scored a negative bid.
If a human wins the bid, a dialog will appear with which trump can be selected as shown in the screen shot below:
In this game, we’re doing a pass option. The team that names trump gets to pass three cards to their partner. Let’s imagine an example to show how it works. South won the bid with 19 points. Since South took the bid, his North passes three cards to his partner which is you, the human player.
After you receive those cards, you’ll have three more than any other player. To even the hands, you must pass three cards back to North. How do you do that?
Select the cards you wish to pass by clicking them with your mouse. When you select a card, it will pop up higher than the rest of the cards in your hand (see screen shot below). Once you’ve selected three cards, the Pass Button will become enabled. If you select more than three it will be disabled again.
When you’re finally ready to pass, click the Pass button. Once you do that, all players will hold the same amount of cards are you’re ready to play the hand.
The next phase of a pinochle game is meld. This is when you are awarded points for card combinations that you lay on the table.
JoeDog’s meld behaves a lot like the pass phase. You select the meld combinations in your hand. When a card is selected, it will pop up above the other cards. Once you’ve selected every card you plan to meld, you’ll hit the Meld button.
Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you’re dealt poor hands. Some of those hands may not contain any meld. If your hand has no meld, you still have to hit the Meld button in order finish this phase of the game.
Once you hit, Meld all the meld on the table will be revealed to you. You’ll see your opponents’ meld and they’ll see yours. The computer will remember the cards you’ve melded and try to use that knowledge to its advantage. But it only knows what you put on the table. It can’t “see” the cards that remain hidden in your hand. If you’re new to pinochle and don’t know the melding pairs, you can certainly display every card in your hand. The computer will meld your cards for you. Just remember, if you throw every card on the table, your opponents will remember them….
In the screen shot below, we see what happens after you hit the Meld button. The aces round you selected in the previous screen shot is laid out on the table. Remember when when we said the computer can “see” your meld? In this example the only cards it “sees” are the four aces you laid on the table. The remaining cards in your hand are hidden from view.
At this stage we can also see our opponents’ meld. As the computer remembers your cards, it would behoove to remember theirs. For example, you know your Ace of spades is a safe play because both your opponents have spades.
Finally, we come to the best part of computer card playing: there’s no need to keep score. Once the meld is laid on the table, the computer adds your scores. In this example, we see that you and North have 14 points while East and West have 13. To complete the meld portion of the hand, click the “Play” button that appears after the cards on placed on the table…
When play begins, you will be prompted to place cards into the trick on the table. You can see the prompt on the left side of the bottom gray bar. In this case it says, “South, it’s your turn. Clubs was led.” This means if you have Club you must play it. If not, you must throw trump or play off if you have none.
The rules of play are enforced by the computer. If you do something illegal, it will call you a CHEATER and ask you to make a proper play.
To play a card, simply click the card you want to throw and it sail into the middle. You can tell who played which card by its position in the trick. East and West’s cards appear closest to them. North’s card is slightly elevated. So even though we haven’t seen this trick, we know by is positioning that West played the Ace, North played the Nine and East played a King. When you throw a card, it will appear slightly popped down so its closest to your position.
JoeDog’s pinochle keeps a running tally of the counters that were taken. In the second row of the score sheet we see that you and North have already taken 10 counters while East and West have one. When the hand is complete, the hand total will appear in the row marked “Total” while the running game total will appear in the final row marked “Score.”
Have fun.
OBJECTIVE OF PINOCHLE: Win tricks and collect the most points.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2-4 Players (4 players play with partners)
NUMBER OF CARDS: 48 card deck
RANK OF CARDS: A (high), 10, K, Q, J, 9
TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking
AUDIENCE: Adult
INTRODUCTION TO PINOCHLE
Pinochle is a trick-taking and melding card game with components similar to Bridge, Euchre, Spades, and Hearts. Unexpectedly, it also has similarities to the popular kid’s game War. The game’s origin is from the French game Bezique. Non-French speakers adopted the name ‘Binocle’ for the game, which means eyeglasses in French. German immigrants who adopted the game mispronounced it as “pinochle” and brought that name with them to America where the game subsequently spread.
THE DECK
The Pinochle deck has 48 cards. In each of the four suits, the deck has two of each: A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9. These cards, however, do not follow the traditional ranking. Ace is high, followed by 10, and K, and are often referred to as counters. Meaning these cards are always worth points. There are several methods of scoring which will be outlined below in the scoring section, some of which include Q, J, 9 as both being worth points and as NOT being worth points. When these cards are valued at 0 points, they are referred to as noncounters. The mechanism of scoring must be mutually agreed upon before the deal and the play.
THE DEAL
A dealer may be chosen by whatever method players wish. They then will shuffle the cards thoroughly and distribute 12 cards to each player, 3 or 4 cards at a time. The deal starts to the left of the dealer and moves clockwise, ending with their own set of cards.
Once each player has their hand, they examine their cards and prepare for the auction or bidding phase.
*If playing without bidding, after the deal, the dealer flips over the top card of the deck and places it face-up on the table. The suit of this card is the trump suit and all cards of that suit beat cards of all other suits. High ranking trump cards beat other trump cards. The remainder of the deck is placed face-down on the table and is the stockpile.
THE AUCTION/THE BID
A bid is a prediction of the number of points your hand might earn. The player who bids the highest, or the winner of the bid, has the following perks:
- declare trump suit
- receive cards from their partner
- lead the first trick
The minimum bid players must make is 250 points. Bids increase by factors of 10 and consist only of a number. The bid goes around the table until each player passes and a winner is declared. Starting to the left of the dealer, and moving clockwise, player’s have the following options during bidding:
- bidnormally, by bidding 10 points higher than the previous bid
- give a jump bid, and bid 20 points higher than the previous bid
- pass and leave the bidding
- OR pass with help, which means you pass but you are giving extra information to your partner.
After the winner emerges, they announce the trump suit.
Passing Cards
The winner of the bid and their partner have the right to exchange cards. The winner’s partner selects exactly four cards to pass to their partner. The declarer (winner of the bid) adds those four cards to hand and examines them. After, they send back four cards to their partner, which can include sending back some cards they just received.
MELDING
After the passing of cards, all four players can place their melds on the table. Melds are made of particular card combinations, each combination having its own point value. There are various types of melds which players can create including arounds, flushes, marriages, and pinochle.
“Arounds”
Aces around (100 Aces) – four Aces, different suits – 10 or 100 points
Kings around (80 Kings) – four Kings, different suits – 8 or 80 points
Queens around (60 Queens) – four Queens, different suits – 6 or 60 points
Jacks around (40 Jacks) – four Jacks, different suits – 4 or 40 points
Aces abound (1000 Aces) – eight Aces – 100 or 1000 points
Kings abound (800 Kings) – eight Kings – 80 or 800 points
Queens abound (600 Queens) – eight Queens – 60 or 600 points
Jacks abound (400 Jacks) – eight Jacks – 40 or 400 points
“Marriages & Flushes”
Marriages and Flushes are the sequence combinations.
Trump Marriage – K and Q of Trump suit – 4 or 40 points, 8 or 80 points if double
Marriage – K and Q of any suit – 2 or 20 points, 4 or 40 points if double
Marriages around – K and Q in each suit – 24 or 240 points
Flush (run) – A, 10, K, Q in trump suit – 15 or 150 points, 150 or 1500 if double
“Pinochle”
Pinochle – J of diamonds and Q of spades – 4 or 40 points
Double Pinochle – both J of diamonds and Q of spades – 30 or 300 points
Dix – 9 in trump suit – 1 or 10 points
Once each player sets their melds out they are scored and recorded on the scoring pad.
Since there are a maximum of 250 points available in the trick-taking phase of the game, if the declarer is 250+ points under their bid after melding they may throw in their cards and not participate in the trick-taking whatsoever.
If their bid is within 250 points after melding they may play their hand in the trick-taking.
Trick-Taking
After the melds have been scored players pick up their hands and prepare for the trick-taking portion of the game. The declarer leads the initial trick by playing any card they wish. A trick is won by playing either the highest ranking trump card or, if there are no trumps, the highest ranking card that follows the suit led with. During a trick, each player plays exactly one card. This continues until all 12 tricks have been played. Each trick after the first trick is led by the winner of the previous trick. Trick-taking follows the rules below:
- When you can follow suit you must. If you have a card in hand the matches the suit lead with you must play it. Play a higher ranking card than the lead if possible.
- If you are unable to follow suit, but a have a card in hand from the trump suit, you must play that card. This is called trumping the trick. If the suit led with was a trump play a higher ranking trump card if possible.
- In the event you can neither follow suit or play a trump, you may slough. This means playing any card at all.
Each team should designate a puller. This player will collect the cards from tricks won in a face-down pile in front of them for scoring later in the game.
SCORING
After all twelve tricks are played players score the cards collected. Aces, 10s, and Kings are worth 10 points each. Winning the final trick is also worth 10 points. This gives a total of 250 points players can collect during trick taking.
If the declarer matches or exceeds their bid, their total score (melds + tricks) is added to their running total. If they are unable to match their bid, the amount of the bid is subtracted from their running total.
When declarers ‘throw in’ their opponents score their melds. Tricks are not scored as no tricks are played. The declarer loses the amount they bid.
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The game continues until a team scores 1500+ points. If both teams hit 1500 points in the same round the declarer’s team automatically wins.
REFERENCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezique
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle
https://www.fgbradleys.com/rules/rules4/Pinochle%20-%20rules.pdf
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https://www.pagat.com/marriage/pinmain.html