Pinochle Meld Chart: Every Meld and What It Scores

A meld is a group of cards you show after trump is named, for points. This chart lists every meld in single-deck pinochle, what it is made of and what it scores in our game. The values are on the modern scale, where a run is 15. Older tables multiply everything by 10, so the chart gives both.

This page prints as a one-page meld cheat sheet. Use your browser’s Print command.

The pinochle meld chart

“Two” means two copies of the whole meld: both jacks of diamonds and both queens of spades for a double pinochle, or all eight aces for double aces. The x10 column is Pagat’s single-deck partnership table, which matches ours times 10 (the double dix and double marriages are from Pagat’s three-hand table).

How to read the chart

There are three types of meld:

• Type I, runs and marriages. Everything built from the king and queen of a suit, plus the dix (the 9 of trump). Runs count only in trump.
• Type II, pinochles. The jack of diamonds with the queen of spades.
• Type III, arounds. One card of the same rank in each of the four suits.

A pinochle is the same meld whatever suit is trump. Runs, royal marriages and the dix depend on trump, so you can’t count them until trump is named.

A run with an extra king or queen scores 19, not 15 + 4. You need the full extra pair for a royal marriage on top of the run, and that combination has its own value, 23.

How melds combine

The rule that settles most meld arguments: a card can serve in melds of different types, but in only one meld of each type. Pagat, Bicycle and Foster (1914) all agree. Foster puts it simply: with three types, one card can be used three times.

Here are four hands, each counted by our game’s meld scorer.

Hand 1. Hearts are trump. You hold A♥ 10♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥, A♠ A♦ A♣, Q♠ K♠, J♦ and 9♣.

The A♥ is in the run (type I) and in aces around (type III). The Q♠ is in the pinochle (type II) and the spade marriage (type I). The 9♣ isn’t trump, so it scores nothing.

Hand 2. Diamonds are trump. You hold A♦ 10♦ K♦ Q♦ J♦, a second J♦, Q♠ Q♠ K♠, and A♠ A♥ A♣.

The J♦ in the run also counts in the double pinochle, because a run and a pinochle are different types.

Hand 3. Hearts are trump. You hold K♠ Q♠ Q♠, J♦ J♦, K♥ Q♥, K♦ Q♦, K♣ Q♣ and 9♥.

One king and two queens of spades make only one marriage. A queen can’t marry twice, because both marriages would be type I.

Hand 4. Hearts are trump and you hold A♥ 10♥ K♥ K♥ Q♥ Q♥ J♥. That is a run with an extra marriage: 23, not a run plus a royal marriage counted apart.

Answers to common meld questions

How much is a double marriage worth?

A double marriage is both kings and both queens of one suit. It scores 4 in a plain suit and 8 in trump. Pagat’s three-hand table gives 40 and 80 on the x10 scale. A king with two queens is still a single marriage.

How many points are four marriages, or “marriages around”?

None of our sources lists “four marriages” or “marriages around” as a meld with its own value, so tables at clubs differ. In our game, a marriage in each suit scores as four marriages: 4 for the one in trump and 2 for each of the others, 10 in all.

Those same eight cards also hold a king and a queen of every suit, which is kings around (8) and queens around (6). So a hand with a marriage in each suit melds 24. That combination has a name, the roundhouse.

What is a roundhouse (or round robin) worth?

A roundhouse is a king and a queen of each suit. Our game scores it as its parts:

Older tables, on the x10 scale:

• 240. Pagat’s three-hand pages say some players treat the roundhouse as a meld of 240. That is the same total as its parts. Hoyle (1926) calls it the “round trip” and says many places count it as 240 in auction with a widow.
• 220. Foster (1914) says four kings and four queens are worth only 220 in two-hand play, where you meld one combination per trick and must add a fresh card each time.
• With a run. Some groups score a roundhouse plus a run in trump as 390 and others as 350, because the trump king and queen are already in the run. Our game gives 35: run 15, kings 8, queens 6 and three marriages 6, with no royal marriage on top of the run.

What is a double pinochle worth?

30 in our game, which is 300 on the x10 scale, as in Pagat’s partnership and two-hand tables and in Bicycle’s rules. The classic table gives a double pinochle only 80 (see below).

What are double runs and double aces worth?

A double run (two of every card from ace to jack in trump) is 150. Double aces, all eight aces, are 100. On the x10 scale those are the “1,500 run” and the “1,000 aces” of Pagat’s partnership table.

The x10 scale

Pinochle is scored on two scales. Pagat’s partnership page notes that many players divide all scores by 10, so a pinochle is 4 and a run 15. Our game uses that smaller scale for melds and for trick points (1 for each ace, 10 and king). Pagat’s double-deck page passes on a player’s report that “100 aces” scoring is found east of the Hudson River and “10 aces” elsewhere.

The game plays the same on either scale. Only the numbers on the score sheet change.

Other meld tables

Pinochle has no single rule book, and tables differ most on doubles. Our game uses the first column. All the other columns are on the x10 scale, as their sources print them.

A few more differences you may meet at the table:

• No bonus for doubles. Pagat’s Brooklyn three-hand auction scores two pinochles as just 80 and double arounds as twice the single value. Pagat’s two-hand page counts a double run “twice” (300) but gives the double pinochle 300.
• No bonus for the extra king. Pagat’s partnership page says it is probably more usual to give nothing extra for a king or queen added to a run. A run with an extra marriage then scores run plus royal marriage (190).
• The three-hand trump sequence. Foster and Hoyle’s three-hand rules count the trump sequence as 190, while Hoyle’s auction rules count it as 150.

If your club plays one of these, agree on it before the first deal and write it at the top of the score sheet.

Double deck has its own table

Double-deck pinochle uses 80 cards with no nines, so there is no dix, and melds go up to quadruple. A triple run, for example, is worth 225. That table, with the NPA tournament values beside it, is on the double deck pinochle rules page.

Keep going

• Learn the rest of the game on the pinochle rules page.
• Melding isn’t keeping. In our game the other team must take at least one trick point for its meld to count. A meld that is only the dix counts anyway.
• Print the score sheet or the printable rules, or keep score with the score keeper.
• Play a hand and the game counts your meld for you.

Sources

• World of Card Games’ rules, which our game follows: the meld table, its double values and the run bonuses.
• Pagat: Single Deck Partnership Pinochle (the x10 table, tens around, the x10 and ÷10 scales).
• Pagat: Three player Pinochle and Auction Pinochle (double marriages, the roundhouse, no-bonus doubles).
• Pagat: Two-player Pinochle and Bicycle: Pinochle (double pinochle 300).
• Pagat: Double Deck Pinochle (one king and two queens make one marriage; the regional scales).
• R. F. Foster, Foster’s Complete Hoyle (1914), and Hoyle’s Games, revised by R. F. Foster (1926): the classic table.