Saving Melds in Pinochle

Video Transcript

"We just touched on the importance of taking 20 counters. Now does it matter if you take more than 20 counters? No. Does it matter if you don't have meld to save? Well you just get less point however, you do get points for the counters that you take regardless of whether you save meld. Meld is a nice thing but keep in mind there is a fundamental difference here. If your side declares the bid you must have A - 20 meld, bare minimum and B, the meld that you have plus the counters that you take must equal or be greater than the amount that you bid. I know that sounds kind of confusing but if you declare a bid of 60 and you have 30 meld then you must take the 30 counters. Whatever the math is we can go through illustrative examples forever. Again counters taken by the declaring side, if this side is naming the trump, they are naming the trump and making the opening lead. The number of counters captured and the number of meld, the amount of meld, preclaimed or predetermined on the score sheet if you are on line follow this on line if you go to a Pinochle site, there are lots of good Pinochle sites, anyway meld and counters must equal or exceed the bid, that's it. If you don't reach your bid, down, down, down, down. Now if you are the defense you have claimed 20 meld, you don't make 20 meld. You don't save the meld but you get the counters. Suppose you don't have the meld but you take 25 counters? You get 25 points. It is just a nice little prize for you for having had the opportunity salvage something. If you don't take 20 counters and you don't have 20 meld - 0. If you don't take 20 counters and you have 15 meld -0, so you have to have 20 counters to save 20 meld otherwise you don't get the values of the counters that you take."