Bill's Pinochle Game

Fun card game played online by 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 players.

You can play Single Deck Pinochle, Double Deck Pinochle, 5 Card Pinochle, 6 Card Pinochle, or 7 Card Pinochle. Play partners (4 or 6 players required) or Cut-Throat (non-partners). Supports choices such as single bid vs auction style bidding; pass cards to partner (or kitty) vs no pass; bid or bunch; choice of how to handle going set or folding; and whether or not to allow shooting the moon. You decide how many points each different type of meld is worth; how many points are awarded for each counter taken in a trick; and more.

Guests always play FREE. Guests are players who have been invited to play by the Table Host.

Who pays? Table hosts pay $48 for a full year to host a table. Host then invites 1-6 guests to play online. Try 2 weeks for only $2 to see if you like the game. Host fee allows you to host 1 table, which can be used to play any of our games ( Hand and Foot, Pinochle, 6 Card Golf, Up and Down the River, Lucky Paw, TallyHo the Marble game, and Route 66 ). Only 1 game of any type can be played at a time. Contact HostaGame @ northwestpages.com for details.

Game supports many options for each phase of play:

• What kind of game do you want to play:
  • Single Deck or Double Deck.
  • 5 Card, 6 Card, 7 Card, or ALL cards dealt
  • Partners or Cut-Throat
  • Whether to include 9's in Single Deck or not.
  • Game target (xx points or xx rounds).
• Bidding:
  • Minimum opening bid.
  • Bid increments (1 or 10).
  • 1 time bidding or auction style bidding. With 1 time bidding each player gets exactly 1 bid. With auction style bidding, bidding will continue until all but one player has passed. Once a player passes they will not be able to bid again.
  • What happens if all players pass (1st player takes lead with minimum bid or redeal cards and start round again).
  • Bid or Bunch? If enabled, players have the option to agree to redeal a new hand. If any player chooses to bid or pass (rather then "Bunching") then players who bunched will have a chance to bid or pass.
• Passing cards:
  • How many cards (if any) to pass between bid winning partners, or between high bidder and Kitty.
• Melding:
  • How many points for each meld possibility, including single, double, triple and quadruple melds.
  • Whether or not to allow extra King (or Queen) in Royal Marriages
  • Whether or not to allow the King and Queen used in a Run to also count as a Royal Marriage
• Playing, Folding, or Shooting the Moon:
  • Whether bidder must have a King and Queen in trump suit.
  • Whether first trick played must be led with a trump.
  • Whether to allow "shooting the moon" (with bonus points for achieving it, and penalty points for failing to do it).
• Playing tricks:
  • Whether players must follow suit if possible.
  • Whether players must play trump if unable to follow suit
  • Whether players must win trick if possible
• Scoring:
  • How to handle bidder going set (bid is subtracted from bidder's score or added to other players/team score).
  • Whether player/team must take 1 trick or 1 counter(point) to keep meld (or whether they always keep meld).
  • Points for counters (including which cards count as counters).
  • Points for taking last trick.
  • Bonus points for shooting the moon (if enabled).

Take all remaining cards. If the player starting a new trick has only trump cards and aces in their hand AND if none of the other players have any trump cards in their hands - THEN the player will have the option to take all remaining cards. The player can choose to play the hand out one trick at a time if they wish.

Melding. Players can choose to select the cards they want to meld themselves, or they can choose to have the game automatically choose the melds for them.

Mistakes. If a player tries to make an illegal move, the game will display an error message to them. Other players will not see the error message.

Play on almost any device. Requires online internet connection and a browser (Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, Firefox, Samsung Internet, Chrome, etc.) The browser needs to have Javascript enabled on it (this should be a browser setting). We have played this game using desktops and laptops, Chromebooks, iPads, tablets, iPhones, and Smartphones but we recommend using devices with a minimum of 8 inch screens to avoid too much scrolling. We have found that a 10 inch tablet/iPad display screen works quite well. Some users have reported that very old devices are not able to play Bill's games. Generally if your device can still be updated then you should have no problem playing the game.

What's missing, different, or difficult?

1. The game does not support round robin partners nor tournaments (where partners move from table to table depending on winners and losers). Players keep the same partners each game.
2. The game does not support redeal due to too many 9's in a player's hand.
3. Each player should have their own device (PC, laptop, tablet, iPad, etc), and that device MUST have an online internet connection (no solitair or stand-alone play).
4. The game does not include any form of chatting, texting or messaging between players. Players need to use a separate audio connection (such as phone, facetime, discord, zoom, etc) to chat with other players.

No ads. And there are no ads, pop-up or otherwise.

To learn how to play this Pinochle game, check out the Game Help.