Card Games Similar to Pinochle

The history of card games is filled with people looking for variations of their favorites, such as Bridge players bunting for games similar to Bridge. Pinochle is a complex and beloved game with high replayability, but sometimes, you want something different that scratches the same itch. Euchre, Rook, and Spades, are all similar to Pinochle, but different enough to give players a unique experience.

Now that card games are available on the internet, players can play any card game, such as Hearts, online for free. Once you check out these variations of Pinochle, you can hop in an online game right away.

Euchre

In Euchre, each player is dealt five cards. The remaining cards are placed face-down next to the dealer and make up what is known as the ‘kitty.’ The top card is flipped face-up. The suit of that card is the first possible trump.

Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player can either choose that card as a suit or pass. If a player agrees to it being the trump card, the dealer picks up the card, and replaces the top card of the kitty with a card face-down from their hand. If all players pass, the player to the dealer’s left announces which suit is trump.

Once the trump suit is established, the player to the dealer’s left goes first. They can play any card face-up. The next player must play a card in that suit. If they can’t, they may play a card in any suit. Whoever wins plays the lead card for the next trick.

Once everyone is out of cards, the teams add up their score according to Euchre scoring.

Rook

Another trick-taking game, Rook, also uses an adjusted deck. While you can purchase decks designed specifically for Rook, you can also play with a standard deck by removing the twos, threes, and fours, and adding one joker card. There are two teams of two, and all cards are dealt to all players until there is one card left face-down in the middle of the table.

Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player bids how many points they think they will win. Players can either pass or increase the standing bid by five points.

Bidding continues until every player except for one has passed or until the bid reaches 200. The player with the highest bid decides the trump suit for that round. They also have the option of swapping one of their cards with the one in the middle of the table. Players then choose three cards in their hand and pass them face-down to the player to their right.

Going clockwise, players play cards face-up. They must play in the leading suit. If they can’t, they may play a card of any suit. The highest-ranking card wins, unless the trump suit has been played, in which case the highest-ranking trump suit wins. The joker beats every other card in the game.

Once every card has been played, players add up their points and combine it with their teammate’s according to the scoring of Rook. The game is over when a team reaches 1,000 points.

Spades

Spades is also played by two teams of two, but the goal of the game is more centered around correctly predicting how many points you and your teammate will win. Unlike the above games, the suit of Spades is always the trump suit in Spades.

Each player is dealt thirteen cards, and they study their hands to predict how many tricks they think they will win this round. The player to the dealer’s left starts, playing a card of any suit other than Spades.

Each consecutive player must follow suit. If they aren’t holding any cards that match the leading suit, they may play a card of any suit. The player who wins keeps the stack of cards and leads the next trick. Scoring is completed by players counting the tricks they won, adding points until they exceed their bid, then being penalized.

Final Thoughts

If you love one card game, it’s often easy to find something similar that you’ll love just as much–such as Spades players falling in love with Hearts! If you want to find some other fun gaming pastimes, check out our post on games to kill time that you can play in your browser.