Pinochle

pinochle, American card game typically played by three players acting alone (cutthroat) or four players in two partnerships. The game derives from a German variety of bezique called binokel (French binocle). All these names mean “eyeglasses” (literally “two-eyes”) and refer to the scoring combination of queen of spades and jack of diamonds, allegedly because the game originated with a deck of cards in which these courtly characters were depicted in profile, exhibiting one eye apiece and therefore two eyes in combination.

A pinochle deck consists of 48 cards, with two cards of each rank and suit from ace (high) through 10, king, queen, jack, and 9 (low). When taken in tricks, the cards are valued as follows, in the simplified point-count system, which is now almost universal: aces, 10s, and kings are worth one point each, and queens, jacks, and 9s are worthless. The table lists scorable melds (card combinations) in the simplified scoring system.