Pinnacola

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card values
3. Melds
4. Setup
5. Playing a turn
6. Going out
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Pinnacola is an Italian rummy game played with two decks and jokers, a relative of Canasta and Burraco. You collect sets and runs and lay them face up on the table (melding); melded cards score points for your team, cards still in your hand count against you. The special feature is the discard pile: the discards lie in an open row, and you may take any card from it – but then you also take every card discarded after it. Whoever gets rid of all their cards goes out and ends the hand. The first team to 1500 points wins.

There are no official rules, and almost every club plays a little differently. This page describes the common form; the popular Pinella, with the black 2s as extra wild cards, is under Variants. (Pinnacola has nothing to do with Pinochle, despite the similar name.)

• Players: 4, in two teams; partners sit opposite each other. Two players can play head to head.
• You need: two standard 52-card decks and their 4 jokers (108 cards), shuffled together, and paper and pen for the score.

Card values

Melds

A meld is a group of at least three cards laid face up on the table. Each team keeps its melds in front of one partner, and both partners may add to them.

• Set (tris): 3 cards of the same rank in different suits, e.g. 9♠ 9♥ 9♣. Because there are two decks, you may hold two identical cards (two 9♠), but they can never be in the same set.
• Poker: a set of all four suits, e.g. K♠ K♥ K♦ K♣. A poker is complete – nothing more can be added.
• Run (scala): 3 or more cards of one suit in sequence, e.g. 6♦ 7♦ 8♦ 9♦. The Ace can be low (A-2-3) or high (Q-K-A), and a run may cover the whole suit from Ace to Ace, but it never goes "round the corner": K-A-2 is not a run.

Jokers are wild: a joker can stand in for any card you need, e.g. 7♣ joker 9♣ (the joker is the 8♣) or Q♥ Q♠ joker. When you put a joker into a set, say which suit it stands for. A meld without jokers is clean.

Setup

1. Dealer: choose a dealer at random; after each hand, the turn to deal passes to the left.
2. Deal: the dealer shuffles and deals 13 cards to each player, one at a time, clockwise.
3. Discards: the next card is turned face up – it is the first card of the discard row. The rest of the cards form the face-down stock.

Every discard is added to the end of the row, slightly overlapping the one before, so that all discards stay visible in the order in which they were played.

Playing a turn

The player to the dealer's left starts; play goes clockwise. On your turn:

1. Draw: take the top card of the stock – or take a card from the discard row. You may choose any card in the row, but you must also take all cards to its right (all those discarded after it). The card you chose must be melded in this turn, in a new meld or added to one of your team's melds; the others go into your hand.
2. Meld (optional): lay down new melds and/or add cards to your team's melds.
3. Discard: put one card at the end of the discard row. This ends your turn.

Example: The discard row reads 4♣, J♦, 9♥, 2♠, K♣. Anna holds 9♠ 9♣. She takes the 9♥ together with the 2♠ and K♣ after it, melds 9♠ 9♥ 9♣ at once, keeps the 2♠ and K♣ in her hand, and discards.

Adding to melds: you may add cards to your own melds at any time on your turn. You may add to your partner's melds only once you have melded something yourself. You can never add cards to the opponents' melds.

Swapping a joker: once you have melded something, you may take a joker from any meld on the table – yours or the opponents' – by putting in its place the real card it stands for. You must meld the joker again in the same turn.

Going out

You go out when you have no cards left – either by discarding your last card or by melding all your cards. The hand ends at once.

Pinnacolone: a clean run of one suit from Ace to Ace (all 14 cards, A-2-3-…-K-A) wins the whole game immediately.

If the stock runs out, the discard row – except the last card – is shuffled to form a new stock.

Scoring

At the end of the hand each team adds up:

If a team has not melded anything at all, the cards in its hands count double against it. A hand score can be negative.

Example: Anna goes out. Anna and Carla have melded a clean poker of Kings (40, doubled to 80), a clean run 5♥ to 10♥ (5 + 50 = 55, doubled to 110) and 3♣ 3♦ joker (35): 225, plus 100 for going out. Carla still holds Q♠ and 4♦ (15): 310. Ben and Dan have J♦ Q♦ K♦ A♦ (45) and 7♠ 7♥ 7♣ (30); Ben still holds a joker and 9♣ (35), Dan A♠ 2♣ 8♥ (30): 75 − 65 = 10.

Winning the game

Add the hand scores together. When a team reaches 1500 points or more after a hand, the team with more points wins (if they are level, play another hand). Two players usually play to 1000.

Tips for beginners

• Watch the discard row. It shows everything your opponents have thrown away – and a card deep in the row can win you a whole handful at once, as long as you can meld it.
• Don't take a long stretch of the row lightly. Every card you pick up counts against you if an opponent goes out.
• Don't sit on jokers. A joker in your hand costs 25 when someone goes out; a joker in a meld can be stolen, so place it where the real card is already gone.
• Build clean runs. Six cards in a row without a joker count double.
• Meld early if the hand looks fast. A team that has melded nothing pays double.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Pinella: take the red 2s out of both decks (104 cards). The four black 2s are pinelle: wild cards like the jokers, worth 20 points. Runs then skip the 2 and go A-3-4-…-K-A, so the full Ace-to-Ace run has 13 cards. A pinella in a meld may only be swapped out by the team that melded it. To go out, your team must have melded a poker or a clean run of at least 6 cards, and you must discard your last card.
• Stricter going out: according to Italian Wikipedia, some tables require a poker and a clean run of seven, the pinnacola, before anyone may go out.
• Double score: going out in one turn doubles the team's hand score instead of the +200.
• Flat penalty: a player who has melded nothing when the hand ends scores −200 instead of paying double.
• Keeping jokers: at some tables a swapped joker may be kept in the hand.
• Other values: some clubs count jokers as 30 points, or play to 1800, 2000 or 2500.