Double Deck Pinochle Rules: Bidding, Melds and Scoring

Double deck pinochle is the 80-card partnership game. Four players sit in two teams, partners across from each other. Each hand has a bid, a meld and 20 tricks, and the first team to 500 points wins.

These are the rules our double deck game plays. Where clubs and the National Pinochle Association (NPA) play differently, each section says so. The meld table is printable at the end of the meld section.

At a glance

The deck

The deck has 80 cards: an ace, 10, king, queen and jack in each suit, four times over. There are no nines. Pagat notes you can make one by mixing two pinochle decks and taking out the nines.

Cards rank ace (high), 10, king, queen, jack (low). The 10 beats the king. When two identical cards land in the same trick, the one played first wins.

The deal

A dealer is chosen at random. All 80 cards are dealt, 20 to each player.

Our game deals by computer. At the table, Pagat says dealing practice varies: 4 at a time, 5 at a time, or 2 then 3. The NPA tournament rules allow only 4 or 5 at a time.

Bidding

The player to the dealer’s left bids first, and bidding goes clockwise.

• The minimum bid is 50. Bids go up by 1 from 50 to 60, then by 5 up to 250: 50, 51, 52 … 60, 65, 70 … 250.
• Each bid must top the last. You may bid again on later turns as long as you go higher.
• A pass is final. Once you pass, you are out of the bidding for that hand.
• Bidding ends when three players have passed. The last player left wins the bid.
• A bid of 250 ends the bidding at once, since no one can top it.
• If no one bids, the dealer is forced to bid 50.

Other tables use other ladders. The NPA rules go up by 5 only until 100, then by 10, so every bid past 100 ends in 0. Pagat lists groups that allow any number from 50 up.

Many players use bids to signal. A raise of 1 says “I want to name trump.” A raise of 2 or more shows meld, about 10 points of meld for each point of the raise. These are conventions, not rules. Pagat describes this as a common system.

Naming trump

The high bidder names trump, and it must be a suit in which the bidder holds a marriage (a king and queen of that suit).

If the bidder has no marriage at all, the bidding team forfeits. Its bid is subtracted from its score, the hand ends, and the other team scores nothing. The dealer who is forced to bid 50 with no marriage loses 50 the same way.

Other rules for this case:

• Pagat: the same forfeit, and neither side counts meld.
• NPA: the bidding team goes set, and the opponents receive the bid plus their meld if it is 20 or more.
• Some tables don’t require a trump marriage at all, according to Pagat.

No passing

Our game has no passing of cards between partners. Neither do Pagat’s main rules or the NPA tournament rules.

Passing is a common house rule, though. Pagat’s variations section describes:

• the bidder and partner passing 3 cards to each other at the same time, face down;
• other groups passing anywhere from 1 to 4 cards;
• the partner passing first, with the bidder passing back the same number;
• passing before trump is named.

Meld

After trump is named, every player shows their meld. Partners add their meld together.

There are three types of meld. A card can count in melds of different types, but in only one meld of each type. A queen of spades can sit in a spade marriage, a pinochle and queens around at the same time.

Each meld can be single, double (two of every card), triple or quadruple.

Points that trip people up:

• A run includes its own king and queen. They can’t also score as a royal marriage. You need an extra king and queen of trump for that, so A-10-K-K-Q-Q-J of trump is 15 + 4 = 19. An extra king alone adds nothing.
• A king and two queens make one marriage, not two.
• A run outside trump is worth only the marriage inside it.
• Tens around score nothing, and there’s no dix, since the deck has no nines.

Two hands, counted

Hand 1 (Pagat’s example). Hearts are trump. You hold A♥ 10♥ K♥ K♥ K♥ Q♥ Q♥ J♥, Q♦ Q♦ J♦, Q♣ Q♣, and A♠ K♠ K♠ Q♠ Q♠ J♠ J♠.

The third K♥ has no queen left to marry. One Q♠ counts in the spade marriage, the pinochle and queens around, one meld of each type.

Hand 2. Hearts are trump. You hold A♠ A♠ A♦ A♦ A♣ A♣ A♥ A♥, 10♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥, J♦ J♦ Q♠ Q♠, K♣ K♣ Q♣ and 10♠.

One A♥ counts in both the run and double aces.

Other meld tables

Double deck tables vary more than the rules do. Our game uses the main table on Pagat’s double deck page. The NPA’s 2014 tournament rules print a different table, and Pagat reports a third set of values found in many books.

A dash means Pagat’s summary gives no figure. The NPA table lists no marriages, although its rules have the bidder’s first marriage meld declare trump.

The roundhouse is a king and queen of every suit. Our game scores it as its parts: royal marriage 4, three marriages 6, kings around 8 and queens around 6, for 24. A double roundhouse is 160 the same way. Pagat notes that some players give a roundhouse 32, count it as 39 with a run, or count a double roundhouse as 240.

Pagat also mentions players who score a single pinochle as 14.

This page prints with the meld chart as a cheat sheet. Use your browser’s Print command.

The Rule of 20

Twenty points is the bar for both meld and tricks:

1. A team with less than 20 meld scores no meld.
2. If the bidding team has less than 20 meld, its bid is subtracted from its score and the hand ends after the meld. The opponents score their meld, but only if it is 20 or more.
3. A team that takes less than 20 trick points scores nothing for the hand. Even its meld doesn’t count.
4. If the bidding team takes less than 20 trick points, its bid is subtracted from its score, however much meld it has.

So an opposing team with less than 20 meld can still score its trick points, but only if those come to 20 or more.

Bid out of reach

If the bidding team’s meld plus all 50 trick points can’t reach the bid, the hand isn’t played. The bid is subtracted from the bidding team’s score, and the opponents score their meld if it is 20 or more. The NPA calls this a “board set.”

Play

The player who won the bid leads the first trick and may lead any card. Play goes clockwise, and the winner of each trick leads the next.

• Follow suit and crawl. You must play a card of the suit led that beats the highest card in the trick, if you can. If the queen of spades is led and you hold the king and jack of spades, you must play the king.
• Can’t beat it? You must still follow suit with any card of that suit. Once a trick has been trumped, no card of the led suit can win, so any card of that suit will do.
• Out of the suit? You must play a trump, and beat any trump already in the trick if you can.
• No cards of the suit and no trump? Play anything.

The highest trump wins the trick. With no trump in it, the highest card of the suit led wins. Between identical cards, the first one played wins.

Trick points

Each ace, 10 and king you take in a trick is worth 1 point. Queens and jacks are worth nothing. The team that wins the last trick gets 2 more. That makes 50 trick points in every hand, 48 from cards plus 2 for the last trick.

Scoring

At the end of the hand, each team adds its meld (if it is at least 20) to its trick points.

• The bidding team makes its bid if it took at least 20 trick points and its meld plus tricks reach the bid. It scores everything it made, not just the bid.
• If it falls short, it is set. It scores nothing for the hand, and the bid is subtracted from its score.
• The other team scores its meld (if 20 or more) plus its tricks, as long as it took at least 20 trick points.

Worked examples

• A. The bidders have 34 + 31 = 65, which beats 60, so they score 65. The others took only 19 trick points, under 20, so their 22 meld is lost too.
• B. The bidders have 41 + 28 = 69, short of 75, so they lose 75. The others’ 17 meld is under 20 and doesn’t count, but their 22 trick points do.
• C. The bidders melded only 16, so the hand ends there and they lose 55. The others score their 26 meld.
• D. Meld 45 plus all 50 trick points is 95, which can’t reach 100. The hand isn’t played and the bidders lose 100. The others’ 18 meld is under 20, so they score nothing.
• E. The bidders’ 60 + 18 = 78 is well over 50, but they took fewer than 20 trick points, so they lose 50. The others score 24 + 32 = 56.

Winning the game

The first team to reach 500 points wins.

If both teams reach 500 on the same hand, the bidding team wins, even with the lower score. If the bidding team ends a hand on 505 and the other team on 530, the bidding team wins. This is called “bidder out.” Pagat gives the same rule.

A team that falls to −1,000 points loses at once. Only the bidding team can lose points, so it takes several sets to get there.

Keep the running score on our printable score sheet or with the score keeper.

How double deck differs from single deck

Both games as our site plays them:

The single-deck melds are on the meld chart, and the full single-deck game is on the pinochle rules page.

NPA tournaments

The National Pinochle Association runs double deck partnership tournaments under its 2014 rules. Play is in rounds of four deals, and each player deals once per round. The meld values are its own table above, bids above 100 go up by 10, and the bidding team must save 20 or more trick points. A team that goes set loses the bid to the opponents. Two bonuses have no match in our game. A team that wins all 50 points in one hand has a “pinochle”: it receives its meld, the 50 points and a bonus of 500. A “skunk” occurs when the opposing team is scoreless at the end of four hands, and earns the winning team a bonus of 200.

Sources

• World of Card Games’ rules, which our game follows: the deck, bidding, the trump marriage, the meld table, the Rule of 20, bid out of reach, play, scoring and game end.
• Pagat: Double Deck Pinochle: the main meld table, dealing methods, the meld example, the passing and scoring variations, the “many books” values and the roundhouse.
• National Pinochle Association, Tournament Rules (approved Tampa 2014, revised July 2014; the archived copy linked from Pagat’s page): the NPA meld table, bidding, board set, and the pinochle and skunk bonuses.