Double Deck Pinochle Questions and Answers
The questions that come up most often once people start playing, from deck composition to the exact cost of going set. The full rules run through setup and play in order; this page handles the edges around them.
Why are there no nines in double deck pinochle?
The 80-card deck uses only Ace, Ten, King, Queen and Jack, four copies of each. Removing the nines is what defines the deck, and it removes the dix meld with them. Single-deck pinochle keeps its nines and scores the nine of trump as a dix.
How many cards does each player get?
20. The full 80-card deck is dealt out between four players with nothing held back. There is no widow, no kitty and no stock to draw from, so the cards in front of you at the start are all you will ever have.
Is there card passing in double deck pinochle?
Not in the standard game. Some tables play a variant where the bidder and their partner exchange three cards after the auction, but the base rules have no passing. This is a real difference from single-deck pinochle, where passing is part of the core game.
What counts as a marriage?
A King and Queen of the same suit. In the trump suit it is called a royal marriage and scores 4; in any other suit it scores 2. Marriages also gate the auction, because you must hold one in the suit you want to name as trump.
What happens if the high bidder has no marriage?
The hand is not played. Trump requires a marriage in the named suit, so a bidder holding none anywhere throws the hand in and their partnership is set for the full amount of the bid. It is the main risk of bidding hard on aces alone.
Can the same card count in more than one meld?
Yes, across different classes. Melds group into runs and marriages, pinochles, and arounds. The Queen of spades can serve a marriage, a pinochle and queens around at once. It cannot count twice within the same class.
Does a run also score as a royal marriage?
No. A run contains a King and Queen of trump, and runs and marriages belong to the same class, so those two cards are already spent. A second King and Queen of trump in the same hand does score a royal marriage on top of the run.
What is a double run?
Two complete A-10-K-Q-J sets in the trump suit, worth 150. A run plus one extra trump card is still a single run at 15. Triple is 225 and quadruple 300, which only the four-copy deck makes possible.
Why is a double pinochle worth 30 and not 40?
Pinochle does not follow the multiplier the other melds use. Runs and the four arounds all scale by 10, 15 and 20, but pinochle runs 4, 30, 60, 90. It is an exception worth memorising rather than deriving.
What are aces around worth?
One Ace in each of the four suits scores 10. Two of each is 100, three of each 150, and all sixteen aces 200. The jump from 10 to 100 for the doubled version is the largest single step in the meld table.
Do I have to beat the highest card played?
At most tables, yes. You follow suit and must play higher than the best card so far if you can. Void in the led suit, you must trump; if the trick is already trumped, you must overtrump when able. Some tables apply this only when trump is led.
Do I have to beat my own partner's card?
Under the strict crawl rule, yes. No published ruleset carves out an exemption for a partner who is already winning the trick, so the obligation to head the trick applies regardless of who currently holds it.
Which card wins when two identical cards are played?
The one played first. With four copies of every card this decides a large share of tricks. Following an Ace of hearts with your own Ace of hearts loses, so leading a card is worth more than matching it.
How many points are available in a hand?
50 in tricks, always. Aces, Tens and Kings are one counter each and there are 48 of them, plus 2 for taking the last trick. Meld is on top of that and varies with the deal.
What does going set cost?
Everything for that hand plus the bid. A set partnership scores nothing, including meld it had already displayed, and the full bid is subtracted from its running total. The defenders still keep every point they earned.
What if both teams pass 500 on the same hand?
The bidding side wins. This is a standard rule rather than a house convention, and it exists so the partnership that accepted the risk of the contract takes the game rather than losing it on a count-back.
How long does a game take?
A hand runs 20 tricks plus the auction and meld, and a game to 500 usually takes several hands. Expect a full game to run considerably longer than single-deck pinochle, since each hand deals 80 cards rather than 48.
The meld scores itself as soon as you name trump, so you can see what your hand is worth before the first card is played.
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