Binokel

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Melds
5. Bidding
6. Dabb, discarding and trumps
7. Showing melds
8. Playing the tricks
9. Scoring
10. Winning the game
11. Durch
12. Tips for beginners
13. Variants

Overview

Binokel is considered, alongside Gaigel, the national card game of Swabia, and it is the ancestor of American Pinochle. Three players each play for themselves. In every hand, they first bid for the right to pick up four extra cards (the Dabb) and choose trumps; the highest bidder – the declarer – must then score at least what they bid. Points come from melds (card combinations you show) and from the cards you win in tricks. The first player to reach 1500 points wins.

• Players: 3 (a fourth player can join – see Variants).
• You need: two standard 52-card decks, and paper and pencil.

Deal, bidding and play go anticlockwise (to the right).

The cards

From both decks, take out the Aces, Tens, Kings, Queens and Jacks – 40 cards, each card twice. The Ten ranks just below the Ace:

The cards are worth 240 points in total, and whoever wins the last trick gets 10 extra – 250 in all.

Setup

1. Draw for the first dealer. After each hand, the deal passes to the right.
2. The dealer shuffles and lets the player on the left cut.
3. Deal 12 cards to each player in packets of 3, starting with the player on the dealer's right (forehand). After the first and the second round, put 2 cards face down in the middle. These 4 cards are the Dabb.

The next player to the right of forehand is middlehand; the dealer is rearhand.

Melds

A meld is a combination in your hand that you show for points:

"Double" means you have both copies of every card (e.g. eight Aces, or both Q♠ and both J♦).

There are three kinds of meld: sequences (families and pairs), four of a kind and Binokel. One card may be used in melds of different kinds, but not twice in the same kind: the King and Queen in a family can't also count as a pair. Four Tens score nothing.

Example: You hold K♠ Q♠ Q♥ Q♣ Q♦ J♦ and spades are not trumps. You meld the spade pair (20), four Queens (60) and the Binokel (40) – 120, with Q♠ used three times.

Bidding

A bid is the number of points you promise to score (melds + tricks), if you get the Dabb and choose trumps.

1. Forehand must open with 150.
2. Middlehand either passes or bids 160; then forehand passes or bids 170, and so on – always 10 more, no jumps.
3. When one of them passes, the dealer may pass or bid 10 more than the last bid, and continues against the remaining player.

The last one left is the declarer, with the final bid as their target.

Dabb, discarding and trumps

1. The declarer turns the Dabb face up for everyone to see and takes it into their hand (16 cards).
2. They lay 4 cards face down in front of them (discarding). Their card points count for the declarer at the end, but they can't be melded.
3. The declarer names the trump suit.

Giving up: if the bid now looks hopeless, the declarer may give up at once. They lose the bid (instead of double), the others each score 50 plus their melds, and the next hand is dealt.

Showing melds

Otherwise, starting with the declarer, each player lays out their melds and writes them down, then takes the cards back. Melds only count if that player later wins at least one trick.

Playing the tricks

Forehand leads to the first trick; the others play one card each, anticlockwise.

1. Follow suit if you can.
2. If you can't, play a trump.
3. In both cases, beat every card in the trick if you can.
4. With neither suit nor trump, play any card.

The highest trump wins, otherwise the highest card of the suit led. If two identical cards are best, the first one played wins. The winner leads next. Everyone keeps their own tricks.

Scoring

After all 12 tricks, each player adds up their trick points (+10 for the last trick) and their melds.

• Declarer: tricks + discards + melds. If this reaches the bid (and they won at least one trick), they score the whole total. If not, they lose twice the bid.
• Opponents: each scores their own tricks + melds – but a player without a trick scores nothing.

Scores can go below zero.

Example: Anna wins the bidding at 300 and melds 190. Her tricks and discards bring 128: 318 – she scores 318. With only 280 she would lose 600.

Winning the game

The first player to 1500 wins. If several reach it in the same hand, the declarer wins; otherwise the higher score.

Durch

After picking up the Dabb and discarding, the declarer may announce Durch instead of naming trumps: they must win every trick, with no trumps and no melds. The declarer leads. Success scores 1000; as soon as an opponent wins a trick, the declarer loses 1000.

Tips for beginners

• Count your melds before bidding, add what your tricks may bring and remember the Dabb could help – or not.
• Discard Aces and Tens you might lose – their points still count for you.
• Discard whole short suits, so you can trump them early.
• Save a winner for the last trick – the 10 points often decide it.

Variants

All optional – agree before playing.

• Four players, one against three: 9 cards each, dealt in three packets of 3, with 2 cards to the Dabb after each of the first two rounds.
• Kreuzbinokel (four players in two teams): partners sit opposite and add their points together, but each player's melds count only if that player wins a trick. The bid is met if the team's total reaches it.
• Four at the table, three play: the dealer sits out.
• With Sevens (48 cards): add both 7s of each suit (0 points). The trump 7 (Dissle) melds for 10 (both: 20). Three players get 15 cards and 3 go to the Dabb.
• Other targets: 1000 or 2000, or a fixed number of hands.
• Minimum bid 200 or 250 instead of 150.
• Open Durch: play with cards face up for 1500, or without using the Dabb for 2000.