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Text File | 1994-02-18 | 15KB | 297 lines

Rules for DOUBLE-DECK PARTNERSHIP PINOCHLE There are many different ways of playing pinochle. For this reason, many of the following rules are changeable. The following rules are the ones the program starts with before any changes are made. OBJECT : Score 500 points before the other team does. Though there are 3 other ways to win (mentioned later). TEAMS : 2 teams, your partner sits across the table from you. DECK : 80 cards. 4 suits - clubs, diamonds, spades, and hearts. In each suit are 4 aces, 4 tens, 4 kings, 4 queens, and 4 jacks. The game has two basic parts - bidding and trick play. BIDDING : 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 a total of 60 points (what you bid) 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 54. Then your partner will probably have 20 to 29 meld points. If your partner bids three higher than the highest bid expect 30 to 39, 4 higher 40 to 49, etc. 1 higher does not give an indication of meld. A bid of 59 indicates double aces around. 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. A player must always show aces around. If the bidtaker (player who took the bid) does not have a marriage (king and queen) in trump and the bid was not 50, the bidtaker must fold and the bid is subtracted from the team's score. The bidtaker may fold after naming trump. If the bidtaker folds the bid is subtracted from the team's score. The other team adds their meld to their score (if their meld was at least 20). TRICK PLAY : If the bidtaker has a marriage (or the bid was 50) and does not fold then the team's play their cards (trick play). The bidtaker is the first to play a card. If the high bid is 50 (no one bid over the dealer), the bidtaker may play any card. Otherwise, the bidtaker 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. A player must beat the highest card played if the player is playing the same suit as the highest card and the player is able to beat the high card. 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. Sometimes your partner will give you lead backs. The program begins with ace lead backs. An ace lead back is when you play an ace and your partner plays an ace of the same suit on your ace. Your partner is letting you know that if you play that suit again your partner will take the trick (or very likely will). SCORING : 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. When a team reaches 400 or more points, the team must either take the bid or set the other team to score points. 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. A card can be used in more than one meld combination except a marriage in a run cannot count separately as a marriage. 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 save the bid. BIDS AND PASSES TABLES The following is not part of the rules, but a description of how to customize the bidding by making changes to the BIDS and PASSES tables. You need to be careful when making changes to the tables. The bids and passes listed in the tables only apply when the bidder's partner is still in the bidding. PASSES VERBAL PASS : If you were playing with real people, VERBAL PASS is what is actually spoken. WHEN TO USE : This may be one of the following : 1ST BIDDER, 2ND BIDDER, 3RD BIDDER, 4TH BIDDER, AFTER 1ST ROUND, 1ST ROUND. The first 4 mean the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th bidder, respectively, of the first round. Example : If WHEN TO USE is "3RD BIDDER", then this pass can only be used by the 3rd bidder of the 1st round. MELD : Tells your partner how much meld you have. Examples : 20-29 : You have 20 to 29 meld. 80+ : You have 80 or more meld. ACES : Tells your partner how many aces you have or, if you have single or double aces around. Examples : 4-6 : You have 4 to 6 aces. 5+ : You have 5 or more aces. SINGLE : You have single aces around. DOUBLE : You have double aces around. BIDS VERBAL BID : If you were playing with real people, VERBAL BID is what is actually spoken. "actual" means a number such as 51 will be spoken. Do not type in "actual", press the enter key or left mouse button before typing in anything to make "actual" appear. ACTUAL BID : This is the numerical value of the bid. Examples : 59 : You bid 59. +3 : The highest bid +3. If the bidder before you bid 52, then you would bid 55. +3 to +5 : If the highest bid is 52, you could bid 55, 56, or 57. +3+ : If the highest bid is 52, you could bid 55 or greater. When typing in use a "-" instead of "to". WHEN TO USE : See description of WHEN TO USE under PASSES. BID MUST BE : What you bid must be in range given. Examples : 0 - 57 : Your bid must be 57 or less. 60+ : Your bid must be 60 or greater. HIGH BID MUST BE : The highest bid must be in the range given. Examples : 0 - 57 : The highest bid must be 57 or less. 60+ : The highest bid must be 60 or greater. MELD : See description of MELD under PASSES. NEED MELD : Example : YES : You want your partner to give you a meld bid. ACES : See description of ACES under PASSES. WANT THE BID : Examples : YES : You want to take the bid. NO : You don't want to take the bid. MARRIAGE : Examples : YES : You have at least one marriage. NO : You do not have any marriages. TRUMP : Tells your partner how much trump you would have if you took the bid and named trump. Examples : 6 : You would have 6 trump cards. 5-7 : You would have 5,6, or 7 trump cards. 7+ : You would have 7 or more trump cards. POWER : Interpreted differently by each player. At the least a player will assume you will have 7 or more trump cards. SAVE BID : You are bidding only to save your partner. Example : YES : Your partner is the highest bidder so far. You are telling your partner you do not have a good playing hand and your partner should only pass if he has a bad playing hand. If you want it to also indicate you have a marriage, you must put a YES in MARRIAGE. You may also want to put a NO in WANT THE BID to make it less likely that your partner will pass. Most changes can be made by pressing the enter key or left mouse button. Numerical values and VERBAL PASSES and VERBAL BIDS (other than "actual") must be typed in. A "-" in WHEN TO USE or ACTUAL BID will disable and eliminate that bid or pass. A "-" in all others but VERBAL PASS and VERBAL BID means NO INFORMATION GIVEN TO PARTNER or MAY BE ANYTHING. When making changes to the BIDS tables, make sure that every bid you could possibly make will correspond to one the the bids listed in the tables. For instance, if the following 2 bids are the only bids listed in the table : VERBAL BID : actual actual ACTUAL BID : +1 to +10 +15+ WHEN TO USE : 1ST ROUND 1ST ROUND BID MUST BE : 60+ 60+ HIGH BID MUST BE : 0-59 0-59 Then the following examples will cause problems : 1) The highest bid is 60. The computer players will pass if there partner is still in the bidding because they have no bids to choose. (HIGH BID MUST BE is 0-59 for both bids). 2) The highest bid is 50 and you bid 62. The computer players will not know how to interpret your bid. (+12 is not covered in ACTUAL BID). The computer players will always pick the 1st bid on the tables if your bid does not fit anywhere. 3) The computer players will pass after the 1st round if their partner is still in the bidding because none of the bids have AFTER 1ST ROUND in WHEN TO USE. If you make changes to the BIDS tables and the computer players pass in situations where you don't think they should, it's likely the changes you made have caused the computer players to have no bids to choose from in certain situations. If the opening bid is set to 50, the computer initially considers the high bid to be 49. Remember this when using a "+" in ACTUAL BID. If the dealer is stuck with the bid, the high bid is 50.