A Guide to Learning Pinochle - Bidding
How to Bid in Four Player, Single Deck Pinochle
There are many versions of four-player, single deck Pinochle, so players shouldn't be surprised to encounter variations to the rules listed in this article.
One player shuffles and deals out three cards at a time clockwise to all players. All cards should be dealt. The person to the dealers left will deal the next hand.
After all cards are dealt, the bidding begins. The player to the immediate left of the dealer is "automatically in" at 250 points. This means that if everyone else were to pass, the bid is "dumped on" that player. The next player may bid or pass. The next lowest bid that person can make is 10 points above what the previous player bid (in this case it's 260). If a player bids higher than 10 points above, it usually is an indicator to his or her partner that he or she wishes to take the bid. If a player's partner passes early in the bid, it's usually wise for the partner who's still in the bid to continue bidding. Otherwise, their opponents might get the bid for cheap.
Winning the bid enables the player to:
- Name trump;
- Receive four cards from his or her partner (in some versions, there is no passing). Four cards must also be passed back to the partner; and
- The right to lead the first trick.
Strategies to Bidding
There are many methods to bidding. Different players prefer using different strategies and have different comfort zones. Moreover, opponents may bluff while bidding. For this reason, reading queues, such as facial expressions and body language, can become a beneficial practice.
All that being said, there are rules of thumb to follow when bidding. The most basic thing for newcomers to remember is that just because they may hold a significant amount of meld, it doesn't mean they have a strong hand for bidding. For instance, if a player has a few sets of marriages, but is not close to a run (see Suite101's article on meld for more details on scoring points), it may mean they have a lot of potential loser cards in their hand. Losers are bad for taking lead on a hand. What one should look for while bidding are a lot of cards in one particular suit (especially the Ace). If a player is missing two or more cards to make a run in the suit, they might wish to reconsider bidding too high.
Holding a lot of Aces, especially if it comes with a lot of potential trump, usually means a winning hand. The player usually has a higher ceiling to bid in this case.
Bidding high on three legs of Pinochle can also be a successful tactic. Double Pinochle consists of two Queens of spades and two Jacks of diamonds and equals 300 points for the team. If a player is just one card from that, even if they don't have a strong hand overall, they may consider bidding higher than normal in hopes their partner has the other card needed to make Double Pinochle.
How High is too High?Different players will have different comfort zones. For some, a bid that doesn't reach, say, 350 points might be considered too cheap. Even if that player has a weak hand, he or she may bid up his or her opponents to at least that mark. For others, 320 points is more comfortable. After the 350 mark, players may consider paying closer attention to what is in their hands. Many consider 400 a high bid. Bidding has a lot to do with feel, but the best way for a player to determine his or her comfort level is to understand what the bid is all about. Imagine a player makes a run and 100 Aces after the pass. That earns his or her team 250 points total. Ideally, the partner would be able to contribute some meld, but that doesn't always happen. If the bid is 400 and 250 points were earned in meld, that team will need 150 points out of 250 points possible during the trick-taking part of the game. On the other hand, if the team earns 150 points in meld, and the bid was still 400, they would need to collect all 250 points in the trick-taking part of the game. If more than 250 points are needed, the team cannot get "on board" and must forfeit the hand.
Voids in suits are another thing to consider when bidding. If, for example, a player bids based on a strong hand in clubs, creating voids in suits that aren't clubs can be a very good thing. It means they may have a better chance to trump opponents' cards when playing out the hand.
Once the bid portion of the game is completed, it's time to move on to the meld portion of the game. (Also see A Guide to Learning Pinochle - Scoring Tricks).
Queen of Spades, Jack of Diamonds make up Pinochle
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