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- PINOCHLE version 1.3 - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pinochle is distributed as a Shareware program. You are free to make copies of this program for your friends and upload to BBS's or Internet Services provided the program has not been altered in any way or included as part of another software program. Please refer to the VENDINFO.DIZ file for distribution information. If you enjoy PINOCHLE and keep the program for more than 30 days, please support the Shareware Concept and register your copy with us. See VENDINFO.DIZ for registration and installation instructions. VENDINFO.DIZ can be viewed by typing READ_ME <enter> at the prompt of the directory the PINOCHLE files are located. ----------------- Registered vrs Unregistered ----------------------- Registered copies of Pinochle receive our own secret formulas and strategies used by this program, to calculate... When or When not to bid How high to bid When to make a meld bid & how to make it Selecting cards to pass/pass back to your partner Selecting Lead and Follow plays from your hand Registered copies also unlock a Won/Lost history of games played for the current players and a running total of all games played against your opponents. Shareware registration screens are of course removed as well. Registered users also receive a gift certificate worth $24.00 towards the purchase of any item from SAC Products sculpture line ($50 minimum). The catalog can be viewed from our web site or a printed copy is available for a small fee (also deductible if a purchase is made). The most recent version of PINOCHLE can be downloaded from our web site. Registration is valid on all 1.x versions of the game. Our web address is: http://www.oro.net/~saclgw/index.html Registered versions of PINOCHLE are NOT Shareware and are not to be re-distributed in ANY form to anyone. ----------------- Keyboard/Mouse input ------------------------------ Pinochle supports pointing devices that are Microsoft compatible. If such a device is installed on your computer, you can play the game without touching your keyboard. If such a device is NOT installed, the program will accept keyboard input to play the game. This is a 4 handed game. The computer controls ALL hands except yours. Your opponents are the East and West hands. You always play the South hand and your partner is North. You can change the name of the players at the beginning of each game. This adds a personal touch to the game. If you change the players names, the total games won and lost start over again from zero for each team. The running totals against all opponents is never changed. These totals are continually updated and will be revealed with your registration. You make your own decisions in 4 areas of the game. Bidding Selecting Trump Passing cards Play of your hand Pinochle provides "Hints" for players in 3 of these areas. Bidding Passing cards Play of your hand Hints: If you are using the keyboard, press the forward slash key. Type / <enter> If you are using a mouse, press the right mouse button. Hints are provided to help the player if you can't make a decision. They are generally very reliable, but players should not rely on them entirely to play the game. Bidding: Very straight forward. When it's your time to bid, enter your bid with the numeric keys. (Mousers click up or down arrow) The FIRST ROUND of bidding is monitored by the program for Meld Bids. These are rare in a single deck game but can be effective in a few scenarios. If you are not familiar with meld bids, ALWAYS bid only 1 point higher than the last bid made (If this is your first bid). If you are the first bidder, always open at 15. Higher bids made during the first round of bidding send a signal to your partner that you are holding XX amount of meld and could SET your partner, making him very mad at you. After your first bid, all signals are off. Go for it! PASS: Mousers click down arrow. When pass appears in bid click OK Keyboarders press 0 <enter> Passing cards or Playing Cards: Here you will be asked to select a card from your hand to either pass or play. Mousers point to card and click. Keyboarders: The card value you select is a number between 1 and 6. ACE = 6 Ten = 5 King = 4 Queen = 3 Jack = 2 Nine = 1 The card suit you select is the first letter of the suit's name. Hearts = H Clubs = C Diamonds = D Spades = S Suits are not case sensitive. Type upper or lower case. To select a card to pass or play enter the value then the suit. example: Pass or Play 10 of Diamonds type 5d <enter> at the prompt example: Pass or Play Ace of Clubs type 6c <enter> at the prompt example: Pass or Play 9 of Spades type 1s <enter> at the prompt You are always asked to confirm your pass or play. type Y or N <enter> (not case sensitive) to complete the play or start over. Melds: All melds are controlled by the computer including your hand. Selecting Trump: Mousers point to the suit you want to select and click. Keyboarders: Type the first letter of suit's name <enter> Shoot the Moon: (Intention to take ALL of the tricks) All hands have this option. It must be declared before play of the hand begins. If you have a powerful hand, you might get the prompt "Think you can take them all?". This does NOT mean it is actually possible. It leaves that decision up to you. Failure to "Hit the Moon" after it has been declared results in an automatic SET for the amount bid, loss of all meld and points taken during play plus a deduction of 25 bonus points. If you succeed you win all meld, 25 points scored for tricks taken plus 25 bonus points. -------------------------------------------------------------- Quitting the game: Cancel the game at most prompts by pressing <ESC>. If you cancel a game before the hand is completed, the game will NOT be saved for future play. If you wait until the hand is finished and then quit the game, the current scores and dealer rotation can be saved and then resume the game some other time. -------------------------------------------------------------- Sets: If a player SETS and the opponents have no meld to save, play of that hand is cancelled and a new deal is made after reviewing the hands. If a player SETS and opponents HAVE meld to save, play of that hand is made and opponents get to score all counters taken. -------------------------------------------------------------- Saving a Game for Play later: At the end of each hand you have 4 choices: <1> Continue Play <2> Save Game and Quit <3> Quit <4> Won/Loss History Selecting #2 will save the current scores and dealer rotation for play resumed at some other time. Selection #4 is for Registered users only and prints the Won/Loss record of the current players to the screen. It also prints a recap of the total games Won and lost by all players since the program was installed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Run time errors: PINOCHLE will rarely encounter an error. There is a possibility, because of the unlimited scenarios created by the deal and the passing of cards between hands, that a hand controlled by the computer might generate an error on the pass back to their partner. This is the most difficult decision the program has to make, especially if every card in the hand is involved in a variety of melds. I have included in the error handler a print out to the screen that describes the scenario that created the error. If this situation occurs, PLEASE report the screen data to the author. We have tested the program in 100s of hands and have not received an error on this version, but I don't believe "Bullet Proof" software exists. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- That's it! Many of the secret formulas and strategies used by PINOCHLE are sent to those who register their game. Unless you are a "Whale" of a Pinochle player you may find yourself getting beat frequently without this information. Please contact me if you have suggestions to improve the game. Your comments will be greatly appreciated and can make the game even more challenging. ENJOY!! ---------- WHAT HOYLE LEFT OUT! --- (Common rules of the game) ----- I am sure there are books or publications out there somewhere that do a good job of explaining the fundamentals of Pinochle. I just haven't come across them. Next to Contract Bridge, Pinochle is the most widely played, 4 handed, recreational game in the world. I can't prove this statement but in the 40 odd years I have been playing the game, this is what I have always been told. There are always Pinochle players, eager for a game, in every group or organization that I have seen but I have never come across anyone who learned the game from a book. It seems to be a game that has survived and grown simply by one person teaching another, and another, and another. This may account for the many variations of the game that exist. For those of you who want to learn the game, I am supplying the following rules and regulations that I have found consistent with players everywhere. HOYLE's description of the game in their second revised edition is not quite up to date in my opinion. They do explain the penalties of the game which is worth keeping around in case you want to play with friends. You will find a few differences between the rules I am listing versus those described by HOYLE. Other popular versions of Pinochle are the 3 handed, 2 handed and double deck games. I will address only the 4 handed, single deck game in this document. Learning this game will make learning the others a snap, if you wish to play them as well. 4 Players play the game as two sets of partners. The partners play opposite each other at the table. Pinochle is played with a deck of 48 cards. The four traditional suits of Spades, Diamonds, Clubs and Hearts are represented with 2 each of the following cards in each of the four suits. ACE, TEN, KING, QUEEN, JACK, NINE The ACE is the Highest ranking card followed by the TEN, etc., to the NINE, the lowest card in the deck. ------------------------ The Deal It is typical for each player to draw a card from the deck to determine the first dealer of the game. Highest card drawn wins the deal. After shuffling, dealer must offer the player on the right a chance to cut the deal. The cut is not mandatory. Player on the right can decline the cut. Each player receives 12 cards. The dealer has the option to deal the cards 1, 2 or 3 at a time, starting with the player on his left in a clockwise rotation until all hands are dealt. The dealer cannot change the starting number of cards dealt per player once established. i.e., start with one card to player on left, all players get 1 card at a time until the deck is dealt. Start with 3 cards at a time, all players get 3 cards at a time until the deck is dealt. Each player should arrange their hand according to suit and rank of cards within the suit. (It is helpful to alternate the suits black, red, black, red for easy identification in your hand. I like to start with Spades, Diamonds, Clubs and then Hearts. This is only to arrange your hand in an easily recognized order and has nothing to do with the rules of the game.) ------------------------ The Bid Bidding (some times referred to as the auction) begins with the player to the left of the dealer. Traditionally the bidding would start with the minimum bid allowed, 100 and must be raised in increments of 10. This system was abandoned years ago by most players. The common system used today is to drop the zero from the end of ALL bids and establish the minimum bid as 15. Subsequent bids are then raised by 1 or more points. The bids are made in a clockwise rotation around the table until only one bidder remains and the other three players have passed. Players determine how high to bid their hand by estimating the combined total of how many points they think they can make during the meld and the total counters they think can take during the play of the hands. Failure to make their bid at the end of the hand results in a SET. When a SET occurs the bid is deducted from their teams points and all points made during the hand are lost. This is the most difficult part of the game for most players. Obviously, it is to your advantage to take the bid for as low a figure as possible. (Registered users of PINOCHLE receive a copy of our "Secrets of the GAME" which includes my own system of setting a maximum bid for your hand. It is similar to the Goren system used internationally in the game of Bridge.) The last remaining bidder owns the bid and declares a Trump suit. This is the strongest suit in their hand. Strength being measured by which suit will not only produce the most meld but also capture the most tricks during play of the hands. ----------------------- The Pass The Bid Winner's PARTNER now selects 4 cards from their hand and passes them, face down, across the table to the Bid Winner. The Bid Winner inserts these cards into his/her hand. This pass is referred to as "Help" for the Bid Winner and as a general rule contains any Trump and/or Aces the PARTNER has in their hand. The Bid Winner must now select 4 cards to pass back to his PARTNER. This pass is also made face down, across the table and the PARTNER returns these cards to their hand. This pass is generally cards that the Bid Winner cannot use in either a meld or lack the potential to take a trick during play of the hands. Passing of cards is done only between the Bid Winner and his/her Partner. Both hands must now contain 12 cards each. ----------------------- The Meld After the passes have been made all players may now lay down and count their meld. Like bidding, it is the common practice to drop the zero from the end. Years ago a double pinochle was some times referred to as "300 pinochle". Under the old system the point value for this meld was 300 points. Today we count it as 30 (dropping the zero on the end). Legal melds that can be made by any player are as follows: RUN: = 15 ACE, TEN, KING, QUEEN, JACK of the suit declared as Trump. DOUBLE RUN: = 150 2 each of the cards listed under RUN. Suit must all be Trump. PINOCHLE: = 4 JACK of DIAMONDS and QUEEN of SPADES DOUBLE PINOCHLE: = 30 2 of each, JACK of DIAMONDS and QUEEN of SPADES ACES AROUND: = 10 1 ACE from every suit, 4 in total DOUBLE ACES AROUND: = 100 2 ACES from every suit, 8 in total KINGS AROUND: = 8 1 KING from every suit, 4 in total DOUBLE KINGS AROUND: = 80 2 KINGS from every suit, 8 in total QUEENS AROUND: = 6 1 QUEEN from every suit, 4 in total DOUBLE QUEENS AROUND: = 60 2 QUEENS from every suit, 8 in total JACKS AROUND: = 4 1 JACK from every suit, 4 in total DOUBLE JACKS AROUND: = 40 2 JACKS from every suit, 8 in total MARRIAGE: = 2 1 KING and 1 QUEEN of the same suit, Non-Trump suits only TRUMP MARRIAGE: = 4 1 KING and 1 QUEEN of Trump (This meld is not counted if any of the cards are used to make a RUN) Extra marriages in trump can be meld if not used to make a RUN NINE of TRUMP: = 1 For each NINE of Trump melded ROUND ROBIN: = 24 1 MARRIAGE in every suit. This is a convenient way to add the sums of KINGS and QUEENS around plus the values of the MARRIAGES. Each player removes the meld from their hand and lays it face up on the table directly in front of them. Each of the partners add their individual meld together and the player keeping the score records the team totals on the score pad. (Partners are not allowed to pool their cards together.) Once the totals are recorded each player returns the cards they melded to their hand. ----------------------- The Play The Bid Winner "Owns the Lead" and starts play of the hand by placing a "lead" card in the center of the table. The player to the left of the Bid Winner plays 1 card on the "lead" and in a clockwise rotation the other players also play 1 card on the "lead". NO player is allowed to play "out of turn". The 4 cards played are called a "Trick". RULES of PLAY are as follows: Players must Follow the Suit of the "lead" card if they can. If they can Follow suit: They must try to beat the highest card played thus far in the "lead" suit of this Trick. If they cannot beat the highest card played in the "lead" suit they may play any lesser card of the "lead" suit. If they can't Follow suit but have Trump: They must Trump the Trick if they hold Trump in their hand. They must beat any other Trump card played in this Trick if they can. If they can't beat the highest Trump card played they must play a lesser trump card. If they can't Follow suit OR Trump: They may play any card The player who plays the highest card in the "lead" suit takes the Trick if it was NOT Trumped ... OR ....If the Trick was Trumped, the player who plays the highest Trump card takes the Trick. In the case of duplicate winners the first card played takes the trick. Each team collects their own tricks and stacks them face down on the table out of the way of remaining plays. The player who took the last Trick becomes the Leader of the next round of play and continues as before starting with the player on the new Leaders left. Play continues until all cards have been played. ----------------------- The Count When play of the hand is finished, each team counts the number of "counters" taken in their Tricks. "Counters" are any ACE, TEN or KING. All other cards count nothing. There is a total of 24 points in the deck. 1 extra point is awarded the team that takes the last Trick making a total possible points of 25. The score keeper adds the count of each team to their meld and the result is their TOTAL. Bid Winners Team: ----------------- If their TOTAL meets or exceeds their Bid, their TOTAL is added to their score by the score keeper. If their TOTAL is less than their bid, they are declared SET and the amount of their Bid is deducted from the score they held at the beginning of the hand. All meld and count are discarded. If they failed to take at least 1 counter during play, they do not save their meld and SET. Score the same as previously outlined. Opponents Team: --------------- Opponents team must take at least 1 counter during play to save their meld. If this was accomplished their TOTAL is added to the score they held at the beginning of the hand. ----------------------- New Hand The new dealer is the player to the left of the last dealer. Continue the game until a score of 250 points is reached by one team. If both teams go over 250 in the same hand the team with the highest score wins the game. ----------------------- Shoot the Moon The Winner of the bid may at his/her option declare that they intend to "Shoot the Moon". This declaration must be made after all melds have been counted and BEFORE the first card of the hand is led during play. Making this declaration means the Bid Winner intends to take ALL the Tricks. If he/she succeeds, a bonus of 25 points is awarded the team at the conclusion of the hand. If he/she fails to take all the Tricks, SET is declared. Their team loses all points accumulated in the hand and deduct their bid plus 25 points from the score they held at the beginning of the hand. ****************************************** PINOCHLE upgrade information: Pino1.0 .........................introduced 4/23/97 Pino1.2 .........................introduced 5/15/97 Fixed pesky little bug that caused a run time error in pass back routine. Added Hints for players during play of the game. Changed bidding from conservative to aggressive. Improved pass and play routines. Added passed cards and max bids to Review of origional deal. Fixed display glitch on Double Pinochle meld display when Trump = Diamonds, extra marriage in Diamonds = True and had Run with double pinochle. (It was displaying the jacks of diamonds instead of the queens of spades.) Pino1.3 .........................introduced 5/19/97 Fixed the bug I missed in the new HINTs routine of 1.2. (Sorry about that. Wouldn't you know, it popped up the day after I uploaded 1.2 to the internet. RATS!) Added a new pass back routine. When the run is missed and a set looks possible it attempts to make more meld in the partners hand and prevent the set.