consists of 48 cards in the following rank order: 9, J, Q, K, 10, A. Two cards of each rank and suit are present (i.e. two jack of diamonds, two queen of spades etc.). Kings, tens and aces are worth one point apiece during the play of the game. Each player receives twelve cards. One suit will be the trump suit. Any card in the trump suit has a higher rank than a card of any of the other suits. A trick consists of one card played by each player during the play of the game. A trick is won by the player playing the highest card of the trick.
Points
come from two sources: meld and tricks. Your meld consists of specific combinations of cards present in your hand that have point values. See the meld reference for details. Points also accrue during the play of the game as each team wins tricks with point cards (aces,tens and kings) in them. The total number of points gained in a given hand is the sum of the meld and the points taken in tricks during the play of the game by a team. Those points may be lost in certain situations detailed later.
Bidding
starts with an assumed bid of twenty by the dealer and continues clockwise with each active bidder. A player must bid at least one point higher than the previous bid or pass. Once having passed, a player may not bid again. Bidding continues until no player is willing to exceed the previous high bid. The player with the highest bid then announces which suit is to be trump. The bid represents an estimate of the number of points a player's team can generate in with their hands. If the dealer 'wins' the bid with a bid of twenty, that player may opt to 'throw it in' if the player feels that the team will not be able to generate twenty points during the course of melding and play. 'Throwing it in' results in a loss of twenty points for that hand to the dealing team and a loss of each teams' potential meld. A new hand is then started. 'Throwing it in' is an option that can be disabled through the 'Options' menu selection. Bidding is initiated by pressing the 'Bid' button that appears after the deal. Each time it is your turn to bid a dialog will appear with an option to bid or pass.
Another option is allowing/disallowing 'Meld Bids'. On occasion, you may have significant meld (defined here as 6 or more) but feel that you cannot make the current bid. As an alternative, you can bid one higher than the required bid as a signal to your partner that you have good meld. His top bid will be increased by six and he will bid accordingly. It's a risky percentage play that can backfire if, even with the added meld, he still can't beat the current top bid. You will be stuck with your bid and will have to play it out. It is best used to keep your partner from throwing it in. If allowed, all players will use it when appropriate. Keep an eye out for meld bids from your partner. Meld bids are only given and recognized during the first round of bidding. Don't give a meld bid to your partner if he has already passed!
Melding
follows bidding provided that the dealer did not 'throw in' the hand. Pressing the 'Meld' button when it appears will result in each player showing the cards of their hand that have melding point value and display a total. Team totals are posted on the scoreboard. See the melding reference for the details of meld calculation.
The Play
begins after pressing the 'Play' button with the player winning the bid. That player leads a card, and play continues in a clockwise fashion until all four players have played. The computer will wait for you to click on the card in your hand that you wish to play. Any card may be led while the following cards of the trick must adhere to the following rules of precedence:
1) Follow suit.
2) Always play a higher card than the highest played so far, if possible.
3) Always trump if you cannot follow suit, even if you cannot take the trick.
4) If you cannot follow suit or trump then you may play any card.
The computer will not allow you to make an illegal play. If you make an incorrect play, the computer will tell you what was wrong with the play. The player that plays the highest card in the lead suit or highest trump card wins the trick and that team is credited with the points accrued in the trick. At the end of the hand, if the bidding team has collected enough points and meld to match or exceed their bid then they have 'made their bid'. Failure results in the loss of the team's meld and trick points as well as a penalty equal to the bid. The opposing team keeps their meld and trick points.
Play continues until one or both teams exceeds the winning score. In all human play, this is normally 100 points but, because play goes much faster on the computer, 200 points is recommended but you can set it yourself. The bidding team always counts first. Therefore, if both teams exceed the winning score, the bidding team wins the game even if they have the lesser score. This is called "bidder's out". When the dealing team is close to winning ('going out'), the opposing computer players will not bid unless they are also close to going out. This is called "sand bagging". If the bid is dumped on the dealer, there is a possibility that the dealer will throw it in and take a 20 point set or be set in the play of the game. This is more desirable than the opposing team bidding and playing out the hand with no hope of winning while allowing the opponents to collect meld and points sufficient to win the game.
Options:
As mentioned above, you can toggle the 'throw it in' option by clicking the appropriate box. A beginners mode is also available. In this mode, before the bidding, your melds and suggested bids are displayed for each suit. The bids are just educated guesses. They assume that your partner has 3 points in meld. In typical play, if the bid is in the thirties then you usually make it with a few points to spare. If the bid is in the low twenties and your partner has less than three in meld then you stand a good chance of being set. During the play of the hand, a suggested play is highlighted. While it can be invaluable in learning the play of the game, it can become rather mindless after a while.
That Box in the Corner:
has your score at the bottom. The teams are labelled E/W and N/S (East/West, North/South). The dealer has a hyphen over his initial. The top box displays each team's
meld in the top line. During the play of the game, the second line of the box displays the points accrued by each team's tricks. The lower box displays the winner of the bid, trump and the winning bid for this hand.
Notes:
The best way to understand all of this is to play. Just try to explain your favorite card game succinctly! In normal play, you are required to count your own meld. If you undercount meld points then you are out of luck. In the interest of speedy and smooth play, I don't require you to count your own meld. If you expect to keep up, however, you will have to count meld well in order to bid effectively.
Purist pinochle players will find this game only very familiar. This is the reason for the misspelled rubric. The game I programmed was taught to my wife and me by friends who learned it from their parents etc. When I was nearly finished with it, I looked up the rules (when all else fails, read the instructions!). I liked our version better.
Technical Stuff:
This was written in LSP 2.0 so I suppose certain portions are copyrighted by Symantec or Think Technologies or whoever. I'm not even sure you have to say that anymore.
The game never cheats or looks at any other hands during the play or formulating the bids. It does take some liberties during the bidding process. If a player can overbid the current high bid and that high bid is his partner's bid, the game will peek at his partner's bid data. He will only bid if his top bid is higher than his partner's. With real people, you will rarely bid up your partner, but the computer partners will bid each other up until one drops out. I built in a little table talk to prevent that. So, if your partner and you are involved in a bidding duel, he will bid higher than he thinks you should. If you win the bid from him, you're really pushing your luck.
Thanks:
to Jon Wind for the About… box utility your using to read this message. Thanks also to Tom Hedges and Mark Zimmer (Fractal Software) for letting me steal the art work for the cards.
Questions, comments and complaints should be directed at :
Jim Margarit Genie : J.Margarit
3015 Hillrise
Las Cruces, NM 88001
Good luck and remember that the team facing the same direction as the nearest toilet has the edge!
Oh yeah, this game is freeware, which means that it's mine but can be distributed freely. I would ask for shareware donations, but no one sends money anyway. If you would really like to send money, you can send a donation to my wife Susan, c/o Computer and Golf Widow's Fund at the same address.
