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- Doubles pinochle is a computer version of double-pack
- pinochle. Two teams with two persons each play against each
- other. Your partner sits across the table from you.
- The deck has 80 cards not 52. There are 4 suits - clubs,
- diamonds, spades, and hearts. In each suit are 4 aces, 4
- tens, 4 kings, 4 queens, and 4 jacks.
- The game is usally won by the first team to score 500
- points, although there are 3 other ways to win that I'll talk
- about later.
- The game has two basic parts - bidding and trick play.
- Bidding determines who will pick trump and thereby have a
- better chance of getting points during trick play. To 'take
- the bid' and be allowed to name trump you must bid higher than
- everyone else. Say you take the bid with a bid of 60. You
- can now pick trump - either clubs, diamonds, spades or hearts -
- whichever is your best suit. With the luxury of naming your
- best suit trump comes a risk - if your team fails to get 60
- points from meld (explained later) and trick play or fails to
- get 20 points or more during trick play or has less than 20
- meld points, 60 points will be subtracted from your score.
- To begin bidding one person deals everyone 20 cards. This
- person, the dealer, automatically bids 50. The player to the
- dealer's left has the first chance to bid over the dealer. The
- player may pass or bid at least one higher. Bidding continues
- clockwise around the table. The first trip around the table is
- the meld bidding round. A meld bid usually indicates how much
- meld a player has. Say the highest bid so far is 52 and your
- partner bids 53. Then your partner will probably have at least
- 10 to 19 meld points. If your partner bids two higher than the
- highest bid expect 20 to 29, 3 higher 30 to 39, etc. Bids
- higher than 60 must be a multiple of 5 (65, 70, 75, etc). Bids
- of 60 and above are not considered meld bids.
- After someone takes the bid and names trump, everyone
- shows their meld (explained later) and each team's points are
- added up for their meld. If a team doesn't have at least 20
- meld they get 0 meld points and don't have to show their meld
- cards.
- Now its time for trick play. The player who took the bid
- is the first to play a card. If the high bid is 50 (no one bid
- over the dealer), the player may play any card. Otherwise, the
- player must play a card from the trump suit. The other players
- play a card going clockwise around the table. The suit of the
- first card played is the lead suit. If a player has at least
- one card in the lead suit, the player must follow suit. If the
- player doesn't have a card in the lead suit, the player must
- play a trump card. If the player has no card in the trump suit,
- the player can play any card. Once 4 cards are played, the
- highest card takes the trick. An ace is the highest card
- followed by ten, king, queen, and jack. If one or more trump
- cards was played, the highest trump card will take the trick.
- Otherwise, the highest card in the lead suit takes the trick.
- The first player to play the highest card takes the trick. The
- team that takes the trick receives one point for each ace, ten
- and king in the trick. The team that takes the last trick in the
- hand gets two extra points.
- After trick play, the scores are totalled. The team that
- didn't take the bid will have its meld points and trick points
- added to its score, if the team got at least 20 trick points.
- The bidding team will have its meld points and trick points added
- to its score, if the team got at least 20 trick points, 20 meld
- points and a total equal to or above the high bid. Otherwise,
- the bidding team will have the high bid subtracted from its
- score.
-
- Meld - Some combinations of cards are worth points (called
- meld points). For each of these combinations in your hand, you
- will get a certain amount of meld points. For example, if you
- have a jack of diamonds and a queen of spades, you will get 4
- meld points. (The following values for melds may be changed in
- the program to conform to some of the variations of double-pack
- pinochle.)
-
- Marriages - king and queen in a suit
- 4 points for each marriage in trump
- 2 points for each marriage in a suit other than trump
-
- Runs - ace, ten, king, queen, and jack in trump
- 15 points for each run
-
- Arounds -
- Jacks around - a jack in clubs, diamonds, spades, and hearts
- 4 points for single jacks around
- 40 points for double jacks around
- 60 points for triple " "
- 80 points for quadruple " "
- Queens around - a queen in clubs, diamonds, spades, and hearts
- 6 points for single
- 60 points for double
- 90 points for triple
- 120 points for quadruple
- Kings around - a king in clubs, diamonds, spades, and hearts
- 8 points for single
- 80 points for double
- 120 points for triple
- 160 points for quadruple
- Aces around - an ace in clubs, diamonds, spades, and hearts
- 10 points for single
- 100 points for double
- 150 points for triple
- 200 points for quadruple
-
- Pinochle - jack of diamonds and queen of spades
- 4 points for single
- 30 points for double
- 45 points for triple
- 60 points for quadruple
-
-
- 4 ways to win the game :
- (1) First team to score 500 or more points. If both teams
- reach 500 at the same time, the bidding team wins.
- (2) Take all 20 tricks in a hand.
- (3) Score 250 or more points before the other team has
- made any forward progress. If a team is at -54
- points and scores 20 points to move to -34, then
- forward progress has been made.
- (4) Have quadruple pinochle and get at least 20 trick points.
-
- A few more rules - The player who names trump, the bid taker,
- must have a marriage in trump, unless the high bid was 50. If
- the high bid was above 50 and the bid taker has no marriages, the
- bid taker's team has the high bid subtracted from their score
- and the hand is redealt.
- The bid taker always has the option of folding. When folding
- the bid taker's team has the high bid subtracted from their score
- and the other team gets their meld points added to their score and
- the hand is redealt.
-