How to Play Four Handed Pinochle

Four handed pinochle, known as airplane pinochle is the fastest of single deck pinochle card games. A party of four can enjoy multiple games of high scoring hands. Surely your partner will send you that one card you need for a run; if he has it. Since successful hands come easy, getting a bid becomes the real trick. Careful though, these bids don’t go cheap. Brush the doughnut crumbs off your fingers and bring your coffee to the table. You're in for a fabulous time of playing cards with four handed pinochle.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• A special 48 card pinochle deck
• Four players

1. Choose teams of two and seat partners across the table, not next to each other. Players take turns dealing around the table clockwise, in the same direction cards are dealt. Deal four cards at a time, giving each player twelve cards.
2. Bid your hand. The person to the left of the dealer bids first. Bids start at 250 with successive bids increasing by at least ten. Any player who doesn’t think their hand will score as high as the current bid may pass. The team with the player who declares the highest bid must score as much as that bid, for the hand.
3. Name trump. The player taking the bid chooses which of the four suits will be trump. That player’s partner selects four cards from their hand and passes them across the table, face down. The bid winner chooses four cards to send back to the partner before laying meld.
4. Score meld by showing cards and card groups that count for points. Add meld together for teams on paper, and score as follows:
   
   Run: A, 10, K, Q, J of trump ................................ 150 points
   Double Run: two of the above ............................... 1500 points
   100 Aces: A of each suit .................................... 100 points
   1000 Aces: two A’s of each suit ............................ 1000 points
   80 Kings: K of each suit ..................................... 80 points
   800 Kings: two K’s of each suit ............................. 800 points
   60 Queens: Q of each suit .................................... 60 points
   600 Queens: two Q’s of each suit ............................ 600 points
   40 Jacks: J of each suit .................................... 40 points
   400 Jacks: two J’s of each suit ............................. 400 points
   Pinochle: J of diamonds and Q of spades ...................... 40 points
   Double Pinochle: two J’s of diamonds and two Q’s of spades .. 300 points
   Marriage: K and Q of the same suit ........................... 20 points
   K and Q of trump.............................................. 40 points
   Round House: K and Q of each suit ........................... 240 points
   The 9 of trump ............................................... 10 points
5. Play cards. The player taking the bid leads play by laying a card in the middle of the table, face up. The other players take turns laying a card, in order starting from the player to the left of the one who led. Each plays a card of the same suit led, unless they don’t have any. Then a trump or a card of another suit can be played. Unless trump is led, it can only be played when a player doesn’t have the suit that is led. After the first round, play is led by the one who takes the trick.
6. Take tricks. The one who plays the card of highest value takes the trick. The order of card value is as follows: A, 10, K, Q, J, 9. Any card in the trump suit has higher value than all cards of other suits. Upon taking a trick, keep those cards in your own separate pile, face down.
7. Count the tricks. The player to take the last trick is awarded 10 extra points. Each player gets ten points for every A, 10 and K among their tricks. Partners add trick points together for team scores. That is added to meld points to score the hand. The player who took the bid must have a team score for the hand that equals or exceeds that bid. If not, the amount of the bid is subtracted from their team score. If that is less than their total score, their score goes below zero by that amount and they start the next hand “in the hole.” Positive score counts after all points below zero are regained, and they are out of the hole.
8. Win! A game is played to 1000 points. If both teams score 1000 points or more on the same hand, the team taking the bid for that hand wins, even if their final score is lower; as long as they satisfied their bid points.

Tips & Warnings

• When your partner takes the bid, send trump primarily, then aces to help build their winning hand.