Von'Voltz Pinochle

How to play Von'Voltz Pinochle

Four players in two teams; your partner sits across. The deck has 48 cards: two each of 9, 10, J, Q, K and A in every suit. Cards rank A, 10, K, Q, J, 9, so a ten beats a king. First team to 150 wins, or pick 250, 500, 1000 or any score from 50 to 5000 before you deal.

Bidding

• Everyone gets 12 cards. Bidding goes to the left, starting left of the dealer. The opening bid is 25.
• On your turn, pass or bid higher than the current bid: one more, or jump higher. Partners can outbid each other.
• Once you pass you are out of the bidding for that hand. The last bidder left wins the bid and names trump.
• If everyone passes, the same dealer reshuffles and deals again.

Passing

Every 4-hand game: after the bid winner names trump, the bid winner and their partner each pick 3 cards and press Pass. Nothing is traded until both have pressed Pass; then they swap at the same time. Neither sees the incoming cards before choosing. The other team does not pass. After the swap, each partner is shown the 3 cards they received, large and glowing, labeled From their partner. Only the receiver sees those cards. The window stays up until you tap Got it or tap outside it; the game does not continue until you dismiss it. The new cards stay highlighted in your hand for a few seconds, then meld is scored. (3-hand has no partner pass, so there is no received-cards reveal.)

Meld

Jacks around (one of each suit)	4	Double jacks around	40
Queens around	6	Double queens	60
Kings around	8	Double kings	80
Aces around	10	Double aces	100
Run in trump (A 10 K Q J)	15	Double run	150
Pinochle (Q♠ + J♦)	4	Double pinochle	30
Marriage (K + Q, same suit)	2	In trump (royal)	4
Each 9 of trump (dix)	1	Roundhouse (K + Q of every suit)	24

A card can count in different kinds of meld, but the K and Q of a run don’t also count as a royal marriage.

The host picks Meld: Auto (the default) or Pick your own in table setup, before the deal. Auto lays every legal meld, as before. Pick your own: during the meld phase, each person taps the cards they want to lay; the game validates them and shows each meld’s name and points live (for example Pinochle 4, Run 15). Press Done to lock it in. If you run out of time, the best legal meld is laid for you. Robots always auto-meld.

Playing

• The bid winner leads. Follow suit, and beat the best card so far if you can.
• On your turn, tap a highlighted legal card once to play it. In Settings, Confirm before playing a card is off by default (saved on this device). Turn it on only if you want the first tap to lift the card and a second tap to play it.
• If you can’t follow suit, play a trump (and beat a trump already played if you can). Only with neither can you play anything.
• Highest trump wins, else the highest card of the suit led. If two identical cards are played, the first one wins.

Show ’Em (claim the rest)

• Sometimes every card in your hand is sure to win. The game checks this for you.
• When it is your turn to lead and nobody can beat any of your cards, a gold Show ’Em button shows up.
• Tap it. Your cards flip up for everyone to see, and you take every trick that is left, plus the last-trick point in 4-hand.
• The hand ends right away, and the next shuffle starts. The score is the same as playing every card.
• Robots do it too: when a robot can win every trick left, it shows its cards and takes them.
• It is on to start with. Turn it off before you deal, or any time in Settings (the gear). Robot games only for now.

3-hand

Three players, each for themselves. The other two play together against the bid. The dealer sets aside a 3-card widow that is not dealt; each player gets 15 cards from the rest of the 48-card deck. The opening bid is 15 (4-hand stays 25). If everyone passes, the same dealer reshuffles, deals a new widow, and redeals.

• After winning the bid, the bid winner names trump first, then taps Pick up widow to take the three widow cards into their hand, then buries any 3 cards face down (confirm with Bury these 3).
• Meld is scored after the bury. Buried cards can never be used for meld.
• The buried cards stay hidden from everyone until the trick count at the end of the hand. Then they are revealed and added as the bid winner’s trick points. They count only toward trick points, never toward meld.
• In 3-hand, only A, 10 and K count 1 each. There is no last-trick bonus. That is 24 in all (including the buried counters). 4-hand is unchanged: the last trick still counts 1 more, 25 in all.

Scoring

• During play, a Bid | Meld | Points | Total | Need table stays on the screen (Us and Them in 4-hand, one row per player in 3-hand). When a trick is taken, a +N pops up next to the winner (N is that trick’s counters: A, 10 and K count 1 each, plus the last-trick bonus in 4-hand only). Points are those counters, not the number of tricks. Trick count is a small line under Points (of 12 in 4-hand, of 15 in 3-hand). The bidding side shows Need 22 more until the bid is reached, then a green Made it!. In 3-hand, buried counters are added at the end-of-hand reveal, not during play.
• During play, tap Last trick to see only the most recent completed trick: each card with the player’s name, who won it, and the points. The view is replaced when the next trick is taken, and the button is disabled before the first trick.
• Once trump is named, a large badge on the table shows the trump suit (with the word Trump) and the bid, for example Bid 27 · Tommy Bot & You. It stays visible for the whole hand.
• At the end of each hand, the score screen reminds everyone of the bid: who bid, how much, meld + tricks (and in 3-hand the buried points), and whether they MADE it or were SET, for example Tommy Bot & You bid 27: Meld 18 + Tricks 12 = 30, MADE (+30) or SET: −27. Below that are this hand’s points, the running game totals, and the play-to target.
• In 4-hand, every A, 10 and K you take counts 1. The last trick counts 1 more: 25 in all. (In 3-hand, only the 24 A, 10 and K counters count — there is no last-trick bonus; see 3-hand above.)
• If the bidding team’s meld plus counts reaches the bid, they score it all. If not, they are set and lose the bid.
• The other team scores its counts, and its meld if it took at least one trick.

Robots and friends

Tommy Bot, Pinky Bot and DJ Shuffle play from skill 1 (beginner) to 100 (near perfect). Tap Invite friends to play your nephew or your Crew by link or 6-letter code; robots fill any empty seats.

In an invite room, every bid, play and trick appears on everyone’s screen automatically, with a short pause so you can read it (a finished trick stays up about a second and a half). There is no Next button to tap through — not even when robots fill empty seats. In solo practice against robots, they also play on their own at a readable pace. If you want to pause after each robot move, turn on Pause after each robot move (Next button) in Settings (off by default; saved on this device). A legal card plays on one tap; Confirm before playing a card in Settings is also off by default. After trump is named, the bid winner and their partner both pick their 3 cards to pass at the same time; the swap happens once they have both pressed Pass. Each then sees the 3 cards they received (From their partner). That window stays up until you tap Got it or tap outside it, in both invite rooms and solo practice with a robot partner.