Queens And Jacks

Archive for the ‘Playing The Game’ Category

Holding your trump can prove to be a great pinochle strategy or a losing one.  While playing pinochle you must be able to count on your partner, figure out where the cards are, and develop a strategy to take as many tricks as possible, especially the last one which is worth two extra points.


If your pinochle partner has taken the bid, it is your duty to help him discover where the power trump are. I will always play my aces of trump right away if my pinochle partner has taken the bid. This lets my pinochle partner know where at least some of the power is, runs the opponents out of trump and makes them more likely to play their power trump for fear of losing it. It also lets the whole table know who holds what, which is a great advantage if you want to control the play. The bid winner obviously wants control of the pinochle table.

If my opponents take the bid, I like to hold my power trump if I have a strong hand and try to draw out the bid winner’s high trump. This is most likely to be effective if the bid winner is to my left where I can play a 10 of trump and draw his ace right away.

Holding your trump / power cards is a technique that requires good pinochle judgement. If you try to hold your power when you are playing back up to your partner, that is like backing him up in a street fight and not throwing your punches untl after your partner has had much difficulty gaining control, if any at all in the pinochle battle at hand.

This rule is not always true, you should take into factor your judgement, risk, and ability to forgive.  But it happens.

Your partner has thrown his second ace of spades.  You have the other two in your hand, as well as a jack.  Some people, and this is a safer choice, will throw that ace down to let their partner know to come back in that suit.  However.  Some may throw down that jack, signifying that they want that suit to be led back to them.  This is important because it lets your 2nd ace not be used as a lead back card and wasted.  Then it is able to take an extra trick and potentially changing the outcome of the hand drastically.

There are times when there is not a card to play besides a jack, or your partner may not know the “rule”.  So you also need to forgive when you partner does not come back in that suit, or plays a jack instead of a queen.

Using the Jack on the Ace “Rule” can help you get an edge in that tough situation.

The number one rule in bidding is: If you have a marriage in any suit no matter how strong it is you must bid on two different circumstances:

You are the second bidder and the first bidder passed.
Your partner sent you a meld bid and if the person before you passed you must bid to cover in case they felt the risk was worth bidding with no marriage.These two situations call for a bid because if your partner get stuck with the bid, you might be setting yourself up for disappointment.

If you are the person that is first to bid, and you have aces in all suits, you should send a bid of 51, that is to tell your partner that you have aces.  A 51 opening bid is a bid that says “hey I got some power with aces in each suit” that is one of the advantages of being able to open the bidding session.  You should weigh the risks if you have no marriage (ring, like a wedding ring) in case your partner does not adhere to the first rule; passing and leaving you the bid winner with no marraige and you are set automatically.

You are able to “table talk” during the bidding process.  If your hand contains 20 meld you can bid 2 higher to tell your partner you have about 20 meld.  I will bid 20 if I have as little as 14 meld if I have power to back it up (like aces around).  If it is my turn to bid and the auction is at 53, I can bid 55 to let you know I have 20 meld.

18 - 24 meld	2 higher than previous bid
26 - 34 meld	3 higher than previous bid
36 - 44 meld	4 higher than previous bid
46 - 54 meld	5 higher than previous bid
56 - 64 meld	6 higher than previous bid
66 - 74 meld	7 higher than previous bid
76 + meld	8 higher than previous bid
Special Note	This is usually capped at 58. A meld bid of 59 has a special meaning you will see below

There are situations where special bids may apply.  This is when you have 100 Aces (one ace in each suit), 1,000 aces (two aces in each suit) or 30 + meld when you have to bid by increments of 5.  In these situatons you would bid as follows.

100 Aces	Open With 51
30 Meld Bidding above 60?	Bid 10 over last bid and hope your partner knows the rule too!
1,000 Aces	Bid 59