Three-Hand Pinochle

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. Bidding
5. The widow and trump
6. Melds
7. Playing the tricks
8. Scoring a hand
9. Winning the game
10. Tips for beginners
11. Variants

Overview

Three-Hand Pinochle (also called Cutthroat Pinochle) is a trick-taking game in which everyone plays for themselves. In every hand the players bid for the right to take three extra cards, the widow, and to choose trump. The highest bidder, the bidder, then plays alone against the other two. Points come from melds – card combinations you show on the table – and from the Aces, 10s and Kings you win in tricks. The first player to reach 1500 points wins.

• Players: exactly 3.
• You need: two standard 52-card decks (same size, ideally the same back) and paper and pen for scoring.

The cards

From each deck, take out everything from 2 to 8 and the jokers. Shuffle the rest together: 48 cards, with A, 10, K, Q, J and 9 in every suit – every card exists twice.

In every suit the cards rank from high to low:

A – 10 – K – Q – J – 9

Note the 10: it ranks below the Ace but above the King.

Aces, 10s and Kings are called counters: each one won in a trick is worth 10 points. Queens, Jacks and 9s are worth nothing in tricks.

Setup

1. Dealer: cut for the first dealer (or decide at random); after each hand the deal passes to the left.
2. Deal: the dealer shuffles and deals, usually three cards at a time, clockwise starting on the left: 15 cards to each player. At some point during the deal, 3 cards go face down in the middle as the widow – but never the last card of the pack.
3. Your 15 cards are your hand – keep them hidden.

Bidding

A bid is a promise: "I will score at least this many points this hand" – meld plus points from tricks.

• The player left of the dealer speaks first, then in turn clockwise.
• The lowest bid is 250. Every bid must be higher than the last one, in steps of 10 (260, 270 …).
• Instead of bidding you may pass. Once you have passed, you are out of the bidding for this hand.
• Bidding ends when two players have passed; the player left is the bidder. (If the first two both pass, the third may still take the hand at 250 – or pass too.)
• If all three pass, the cards are thrown in and the next player deals.

The widow and trump

1. The bidder turns the 3 widow cards face up for all to see and takes them into their hand (18 cards).
2. The bidder discards any 3 cards face down onto their own trick pile. Discarded cards can't be melded, but any counters among them count for the bidder at the end.
3. The bidder names the trump suit. Trump is the strongest suit: any trump beats any card of another suit.

Melds

First the bidder, then the other two in turn lay their melds face up on the table and announce the value.

Doubles: a meld held twice scores much more: double run 1500, double pinochle (both Q♠ and both J♦) 300, all eight Aces 1000, Kings 800, Queens 600, Jacks 400. Two marriages in the same suit simply score twice.

Using a card twice: melds come in three groups – (1) runs, marriages and dix, (2) pinochles, (3) "arounds". A card may count in melds of different groups but not twice in the same group. So Q♠ can be in a pinochle and in a spade marriage, and K♥ in Kings around and a heart marriage. The K and Q inside a run don't count again as a royal marriage – but an extra trump K or Q adds one: run plus extra King = 190.

Example: Clubs are trump. Anna, the bidder, melds A♣ 10♣ K♣ Q♣ J♣ (run, 150), Q♠ J♦ (pinochle, 40) and A♠ A♥ A♦ A♣ (Aces around, 100) – the A♣ counts in both the run and the Aces. Total meld: 290.

Write down each player's meld. Then everyone takes their cards back into their hand.

Giving up: if the bidder now sees that the bid cannot be made, they may give up without playing. The bid is subtracted from the bidder's score (a single set), and each other player scores their meld.

Playing the tricks

A trick is one round in which each player plays one card face up, clockwise. The highest card wins all three cards.

1. The bidder leads (plays the first card) to the first trick. Afterwards, the winner of each trick leads to the next.
2. The rules are strict: - You must follow suit: play a card of the suit that was led if you can. - You must beat every card played so far if you can. - If you have no card of the led suit, you must play a trump. - Only if you can do none of this may you play any card.
3. Who wins: the highest trump wins; if there is no trump, the highest card of the suit that was led wins. If two identical cards tie, the one played first wins.
4. Everyone keeps their own tricks.

All 15 tricks are played. The winner of the last trick scores 10 points extra. With the discards, there are 250 points from tricks in every hand.

Scoring a hand

Everyone counts the counters in their tricks (the bidder includes the discards): 10 points each.

• Bidder: if meld plus trick points is at least the bid, the bidder scores all of it. If not, the bidder scores nothing and loses twice the bid (a double set). Scores can go below zero.
• Other players: each scores their own meld plus their own trick points – but the meld only counts if that player won at least one counter.

Example: Anna bid 350 and melded 290. She wins 8 counters (80) plus the last trick (10): 290 + 90 = 380, so she scores 380. Ben melded 60 and won 16 counters (160): he scores 220. Carla melded 40 but won no counter: she loses her meld and scores 0. Had Anna taken only 50 in tricks (340 < 350), she would have lost 700 – giving up before play would have cost her only 350.

Winning the game

The first player to reach 1500 points wins. If more than one player reaches 1500 in the same hand, the bidder wins; if the bidder is not among them, the higher score wins.

Tips for beginners

• Count on the widow, but not too much. Three unknown cards rarely fill more than one gap in your meld.
• Discard counters wisely. A 10 or King that would probably be lost in play is safe in your discard – it counts for you.
• Give up in time. If the bid is hopeless after the meld, giving up costs half as much as losing.
• As a defender, help the weaker opponent of the bidder: together you want to stop the bid.
• Win at least one counter – otherwise your meld is lost.

Variants

All optional – agree before you start.

• Minimum bid of 100, 200 or 300 instead of 250.
• Single set only: the bidder loses the bid once, even after playing.
• Easier trick rule: you only have to beat the highest card so far when trump was led.
• Bunched hands: some let a player with five 9s and no meld (except dix) have the hand thrown in and redealt.
• Auction Pinochle is the classic form of this game in which players settle up (with chips or counters) after each hand instead of keeping a running score.