(Sometimes it helps for the declarer to lay down his meld and then bury from the remaining cards in his hand.) For simplicity I will assume they are done in the order listed, which is most commonly the case. After reviewing the kitty, he must do 3 things – declare trump, “bury” 3 cards, and show his meld – although the order in which they are done may vary. The three cards in the kitty are shown to the other player. (The auction continues even after all 3 cards were revealed, if necessary.)Īs previously mentioned, the player who takes the bid claims the kitty. We have also used straight auction bidding as well as auction bidding where, after each successive round of bids, one of the three cards in the kitty is revealed. My family generally plays with a single round of bidding. 2-3 sets of 3 to each player (including the dummy hand), 3 to the kitty, deal remaining cards 3 at a time to players.Repeat 3 times, then deal three to each player. 4 to each player (including the dummy hand), 1 to the kitty.Repeat 3 times, then deal two sets of 3 to each player. 3 to each player (including the dummy hand), 1 to the kitty.

5 to each player (including the dummy hand), 1 to the kitty.There is no standard way to deal out the sets of cards some methods used include the following: The remaining 3 go into the middle and are called the “kitty.” These are claimed by the player who takes the bid. The cards are dealt into three hands - each player gets 15 cards, and 15 more go into a “dummy” hand. The length of game can be adjusted by changing the number of points needed to win.Īlternate scoring has the advantage of quicker play, since the declarer can “throw in” a hand (not play it) if he doesn’t have enough meld or doesn’t have a realistic chance to make the bid. Standard scoring generally leads to quicker games since meld is a lot more prominent with 15-card hands and the “kitty” (further information regarding the kitty below). If declarer does not make the bid, he loses one point and his opponent is awarded one point for setting him.If declarer makes the bid (using combination of meld and points taken during play), he earns 2 points.We use two methods for scoring – for lack of better terms, I’ll call them “standard” scoring, where the object is to get to 120 points based on a combination of meld and points taken during each round and “alternate” scoring, where the object is to get a pre-determined number of points (usually 15).įor alternate scoring, the points are determined after each hand as follows: There are 24 “pointers” in the deck, and one point is awarded for taking the last trick, for 25 points total during trick play. Aces, tens, and kings count as points for trick play queens, jacks, and nines are non-pointers. If you are not already familiar with the three-handed version, I suggest reading that post first.)Ī single pinochle deck consists of 48 cards – two of each value (in order of rank) A, 10, K, Q, J, and 9, in each of four suits. (This version is largely based on the three-handed version described in this post. This is intended to be used as a 'standalone' set of rules, and by anyone regardless of their understanding of two-handed pinochle or any other variant. Below (as best as I can remember) are my family's rules for two-handed single-deck pinochle.

Two handed pinochle with dummy hand