Understand the Value of the Cards in Pinochle

Video Transcript

"An absolute integral part of pinochle is the ability you absolutely have to know the value of the combinations of cards that exist in your hand. They are integral to your bid. They are integral to the scoring. And in many cases, it is a requirement that you not only bid properly, that you claim certain melds such as Aces all around, okay? Now, because there is going to be a trump in every hand we need to identify what the requirements are for naming trump. The only requirement for you to name a trump is to have a marriage. This is a marriage. If you chose to name spades, if you're going to be taking this hand, you're going to be the one that had the highest bid, you could have as little as this. Well, you wouldn't because if you had as little as this there would be eighteen spades out on you. So if you're going to name a trump suit you absolutely have to have a marriage in the trump suit. If you decide to name a trump suit without a marriage, like this, I don't care how many clubs you have, if it doesn't have a king and a queen in it, the minute you name a trump suit without a marriage you are set. You are board set. You are b-o-a-r-d. You are immediately penalized for not declaring marriages, trump suit with a marriage. Now, melding is necessary to determine not only the value of your hand and the strength of your hand, but your ability to compete in the auction. For example, you are rewarded for additional points. And points are the number of points that you'll be not just melding, there's the meld point, but also the points in relation to the value of your bid. If you have a trump suit that has a run its a flush, if you will. Ace, king, ace, ten, king, queen, jack, that's called a run. That's worth fifteen points. Okay. If you have an additional marriage, now you can't claim the marriage and the run at the same time. Because they are both in the same suit. That's duplicated. This would be worth fifteen point if you declared spades as trump. That's very important to consider. Now, you also get points for marriages in the non-trumps suit. A king and a queen of diamonds is worth two points. So now your count is up to seventeen. Okay. You earn additional points if you had what's called a pinochle. Unfortunately, we don't have one in here. But, if we had a jack of diamonds."