How to Score Tricks in Pinochle

A game of Pinochle is divided into three phases: the auction (which determines the trump suit), melding (which combines cards together to win predetermined point values for players) and trick-taking. During the trick-taking portion of the game, a player attempts to win a trick by playing the highest card he can. Point values are assigned to tricks won by a player, which are then added to the player's melding score to determine a total score for the hand.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Pinochle deck
• Knowledge of Pinochle game play
• 2-6 players

1. Lead a trump card if you were the player who won the auction. If not, wait for the auction winner to lead a trump card and for any players before you to play on it.
2. Follow suit if possible. The first trick must be led with trump, but subsequent tricks can be led with non-trump cards. The winner of each trick leads the next, so the player who called trump will not always be leading.
3. Play a trump card if possible when you cannot follow suit. If not, you can play any card in your hand (usually a low one, as this is a "throwaway" play which cannot possibly win you the trick). Note that when a player uses trump because they cannot follow suit, all players making a subsequent play on the trick must play trump as well, regardless of whether or not she could have followed the original suit.
4. Try to score a trick whenever possible. For example, if Diamonds is trump and a player leads the 10 of Diamonds, play the Ace of Diamonds if you have it to win the trick by outranking the 10. Do not save the Ace of Diamonds for later.
5. Know that several scoring variants are widely used to determine the value of tricks taken. Standard Pinochle, though, assigns the following values: a player who takes a trick using an Ace wins 11 points, a trick taken with a 10 gets 10 points. Moving down through card rank, a King wins 4 points, a Queen wins 3, a Jack wins 2 and a trick won with a 9 scores nothing.
6. Add the value of the tricks you won to the points you scored during melding to come up with your overall score for the hand.

Tips & Warnings

• Study strategy guides to improve your Pinochle play. Pagat's website (see Resources below) has a helpful online guide for novice Pinochle players.