How Do You Play Double Deck Pinochle?
While a standard Pinochle deck consists of 48 cards, double deck Pinochle expands it to 80, allowing for greater melding possibilities. Double deck Pinochle is generally played in game variants using more than the four standard players, but can also be used to invigorate a normal four-player game. Know what constitutes a double Pinochle deck. While a standard Pinochle deck uses 2 copies of each card from 9 through Ace, a double Pinochle deck is stripped of the 9. Thus, there are 16 of each of the following card ranks: Jack, Queen, King, 10 and Ace, 4 of each suit. Remember, in Pinochle, the 10 outranks all cards except the Ace. Rankings then follow standard order. Sit opposite your partner. Determine which player will deal first. Twenty cards are dealt to each player. Begin the bidding process. In Pinochle, the “bid” is the part of the auction in which players attempt to secure the right to call trump by estimating the number of points their hand is worth. A player must either best the
