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Pinochle


Game awards	Trumpet Rank 10 - 150 pinochles Saxophone Rank 20 - 400 pinochles Bass Rank 30 - 1,400 pinochles Piano Rank 40 - 3,400 pinochles Clarinet Rank 50 - 5,500 pinochles Intermediate 1501+ rating Advanced 1601+ rating Expert 1751+ rating Master 2001+ rating

Challenge badges	Mrs. Diamond's Badge (12/1/04) Create 10 Pinochles (Queen of spades & Jack of diamonds) Six Sax (2/2/05) Earn six jackpot spins Royal Duet (5/11/05) Create 20 Royal Marriages (King & Queen in the trump suit) Jazzy Moon (6/29/05) Win 8 hands with a bid of 55 or more Blue Night (11/16/05) Earn 2,000 tokens (includes spins) French Quarter (5/31/06) Create three Runs in Trump (Ace, 10, King, Queen & Jack in trump suit) River Boat (12/13/06) Earn 10 jackpot spins Jazz Festival (4/18/07) Win the bid and the hand 12 times Bass Note (1/30/08) Win 5,000 tokens (not including spins) Royal Marriages (7/23/08) Create 12 Royal Marriages (King & Queen in the trump suit) Saxophone Hero (7/8/09) Win 3,000 tokens

Premium badges	Gopher Jazz EXPIRED (animated) Card Masters book Win 6 hands with a bid of 60 or more
Mix & Match	Saxophone Envy EXPIRED Mix & Match (thru 4/15/08) Earn five jackpot spins Pinochle Melody EXPIRED (animated) Mix & Match (thru 6/17/08) Win your bid 50 times Makin' Music EXPIRED Mix & Match (thru 7/14/09) Create 25 Runs in Trump (Ace, 10, King, Queen & Jack in trump suit) Grand Piano Mix & Match (thru 7/7/10) Create 15 Pinochles

Badge tips

You don't actually "create" Pinochles, Runs or Royal Marriages - you get credit for them when they're dealt to you. If you're playing with Pogobots or friend(s) or cooperative partner(s) and don't get what you need on the first deal of a game, consider starting a New Game for these badges.

You can earn spins for Six Sax, River Boat or Saxophone Envy by winning a game, and also if you finish a game with more points than the table's set for, even if you lose. Set table options to 100 points for spin badges for faster games.

For Jazzy Moon, Jazz Festival or Gopher Jazz, be sure to bid the amount required! For Pinochle Melody, make the lowest bid possible. Note that you can't place a successful bid unless you have one Royal Marriage (King & Queen of the same suit).

Friends or cooperative players can take turns winning/losing for easier badges.

It isn't hard for two people playing as a team to beat Pogobots in this game, nor for one person playing alone with a Pogobot partner.

For game win or token badges, refer to Game tips.

Game tips

ALWAYS read a game's How to Play, and also check for a Hints or Tips tab and/or Tutorial. They do help! Click to watch the Pinochle tutorial.

If two people are losing against two Pogobots, they can stand one at a time and take the bots' places for the win.

If Pogobots make a bid they won't raise it, so don't bid more than 1 higher than a bot's bid.

Human players often have multiple rounds of bidding. Some high rated players take the game very seriously so if you want to play rated, let people at the table know if you're a novice.

Sometimes you're better off playing out low cards early, especially if you have a lot of trump cards and Aces, especially when playing against Pogobots.

More about Pinochle

Game play is similar to Euchre, Spades, Hearts and Bridge. Each game has unique differences as far as high/low cards, bidding and scoring, but all are 4-player games consisting of 4-card rounds ("tricks") with a designated high "trump" suit for each round. If you can play any of these games you can easily learn the others, with the possible exception of Bridge due to its complex bidding system.

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