Pinochle Rules and Gameplay
Pinochle is played with 4 sets of cards. Just the cards Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and Ten are used from each pack.
Players first bid for a contract (how many points they can meld and score in total) and then the team that bids the highest attempts to make or better that contract.
The last person to bid decides the trump suit. Then the melds are determined for each team (points scores for certain features of your hand. eg points for an Ace in each suit, a King in each suit, etc. egii points for a Marriage (King and Queen of a suit), egiii poinsts for AKQJT of one suit.
Then after the meld scores are posted, the game proceeds to the tricks.
The person who bids the contract gets to lead and all players must follow suit. If cards of the same value are played in the trick, the player to play the high card first wins. The winning of a trick is the person who leads a card for the next trick.
When all tricks are played the points are totalled to see if the contract has been made, with penalty points for failure.
The winners are the team getting to the predetermined target score first, usually 500 points
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