Pinochle

Pinochle

The jack of diamonds and the queen of spades are the "pinochle" meld of pinochle.
Type	Trick-taking
Players	4 in partnerships or 3 individually, variants exist for 2-6 or 8 players
Skills required	Strategy Social skills Teamwork Card counting
Cards	48 (double 24 card deck) or 80 (quadruple 20 card deck)
Deck	French
Play	Clockwise
Card rank (highest to lowest)	A 10 K Q J 9
Playing time	1 to 5 hours
Random chance	Medium
Related games
Sixty-six, Bezique, Marjapussi, Skat, Belote

Pinochle (English pronunciation: /ˈpiːnʌkəl/) or binocle (sometimes pinocle, or penuchle) is a trick-taking card game typically for two to four players and played with a 48-card deck. It is derived from the card game bezique; players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category which also includes a cousin, belote. Each hand is played in three phases: bidding, melds, and tricks. The standard game today is called "partnership auction pinochle."

Pinochle derives from the game bezique. The French word binocle also meant "eyeglasses". The word is also possibly derived from the French word, binage, for the combination of cards called "binocle". This latter pronunciation of the game was adopted by German speakers. German immigrants brought the game to America, where it was later mispronounced and misspelled "pinochle."

Auction pinochle for three players has some similarities with the German game skat, although the bidding is more similar to that of bid whist.

During World War I, the city of Syracuse, New York outlawed the playing of pinochle in a fit of anti-German sentiment. Pinochle was the favorite card game of American Jews and Irish immigrants, while skat was the preferred game of a majority of German immigrants.

A pinochle deck consists of two copies of each of the 9, 10, jack, queen, king, and ace cards of all four suits, for 48 cards per deck. Aces are always considered high. Pinochle follows a nonstandard card ordering. The complete ordering from highest to lowest is A, 10, K, Q, J, 9. The game can also be played using standard ranking with a simple change to scoring.