NOTICE: This post was originally posted on Medium, but has later been moved to the official World Of Card Games blog to consolidate all posts.
A few months ago, I received an email from a Double Deck Pinochle player, “Tigre”, who plays the game at World of Card Games. He’d had a fun game to report. I asked him if it would be okay to share it, and he said yes… so here it is.
This game was a rated (or ranked) game, so there was probably an extra touch of pressure on everyone involved! 😃
It sounded like my favorite sort of game. There was a struggle in which one team would pull ahead, and then fall behind, back and forth, throughout the game.
In the next to last hand, the score had gotten to 499–460, with Tigre’s team at 460. Every single point that had been made counted. If the opponents had taken just one extra point anywhere during the game, it would have been over by now. As fate would have it, an extra hand would be played to decide the winners.
In the last hand, the initial bid was made by Tigre’s right-hand opponent. That person started the bid at 50. In Double Deck Pinochle, a bid of 50 is a “captaincy” bid or “take” bid. It tells the teammate, “I want to declare the trump suit (aka make trump). Let me know if you have any good meld.”
Tigre must have been disappointed with having to pass. His hand was not strong enough to make a bid. His opponent on the left bid 51, a pretty clear signal that this person wanted to make trump. It was not looking good — both opponents must have had good hands with a decent chance of winning the game if they were able to call the trump suit.
Tigre’s teammate responded with a bid of 65! Was she bluffing? No way to tell. The next opponent would have to bid 70 to challenge this bid, but that did not happen. Tigre’s teammate made trump! When meld was displayed, it turned out that she had a double run (see the screenshot above), meaning a very strong hand with great meld — 162 meld, in fact, just fantastic! To make things even more interesting, one of the opponents also had a run in the trump suit.
Tigre wrote me that even with that fantastic meld for his team, he knew that the game wasn’t decided until the hand had progressed. In the end, though, his team did win the game!
The games I love the most are the ones where there’s a huge battle and you never know what will happen until the last card is played. What do you think? Would you prefer an easy win, or do you love the struggle too?
For anyone who is curious to know even more details of that last hand, here’s the hand history. You’ll need to visit Power Pinochle’s hand animator tool, and copy and paste the hand history into their form to see each round of cards as it was played. Have fun with it!
This hand history for Double Deck Pinochle can be replayed using the Power Pinochle hand animator - http://www.powerpinochle.com/forum/handanimator.php Copy and paste the text below into their form and follow the instructions.
% Format "PPN 1.0"
% Site "worldofcardgames.com"
% Date "2022.01.15"
% ID "164229406412410"
% Players "N-Ju E-mr S-TH W-Ti"
% tableid "61f623d4-4177-4960-bc0b-a0c00ecc1d9d"
[GameScores "499:460"]
[Deal "E:CTTTQDKKQQJSTKKKQHAATKQJ CAKDAKQJSAAAJHAATTKKQQJJ CAKKQJJDAATTKQSATQQJJHTQ CAATKQQJJDATTJJSTTKQJHKJ"]
[Auction "S:50 51 53 65 Pass Pass Pass"]
[Contract "E 65 H"]
[Melds "31:CQDKKQQJSKQHATKQJ 162:CADAKQSAHAATTKKQQJJ 10:CKQDKQSQHQ 12:CKQJDJSKQJHJ"]
[Play "E"]
AC JC KC QC E2
AD QD TD JD E2
KC AC JC TC S3
AS JS KS JS S2
AD JD KD JD S2
AD JD KD QD S2
JC TC TC JH E2
KD TD AD QD W3
TD QD JH KD E2
AH QH KH JH E2
AH TH JH QH E2
QH KC JC KH N2
KS AS JS KS E3
QH TD QC TH N2
AH KH KC QC N3
AH KH TS QS N3
QS AS JS TS E2
[MeldScores "41:174"]
[PlayScores "19:31"]
[Result "SAVED"]
[HandScores "0:205"]