3-Handed Pinochle Rules (Cutthroat Pinochle)

Three-handed pinochle, also called cutthroat pinochle, is played with one 48-card deck and no partners: each player plays for themselves, and the two players who did not win the bid team up against the bidder for that hand. Please note: our online game is four-handed partnership pinochle only. You cannot play 3-handed here, but you can play the classic 4-player game free against the computer.

Play 4-player pinochle Pinochle rules

Players and cards

Three players, each scoring alone. The deck has 48 cards: two each of the ace, ten, king, queen, jack and nine in each suit. Cards rank from high to low: A, 10, K, Q, J, 9. When two identical cards are played to the same trick, the one played first wins.

The deal and the widow

The dealer gives each player 15 cards, usually in packets of three, and deals 3 cards face down to the middle. These 3 cards are the widow (some players call it the kitty). The deal moves to the left after each hand.

Bidding

Starting with the player to the dealer's left, each player bids or passes. The minimum bid is usually 250 (some groups use 300), and each bid must be at least 10 higher. A player who passes is out of the bidding for that hand. If all three pass, most groups throw the hand in and the next player deals; some make the dealer take it at the minimum.

Bidding is riskier than in partnership pinochle: there is no partner's meld to count on, only the 3 cards in the widow.

More bidding tips in our pinochle strategy guide.

Widow, trump and meld

1. The high bidder turns the widow face up so everyone can see it, then adds the 3 cards to their hand.
2. The bidder names trump.
3. All three players lay down their meld. Meld values are the same as in the four-handed game; see the meld chart.
4. The bidder then lays aside 3 cards face down (called burying, or the discard) to get back to 15 cards. Most groups do not allow burying a card that was shown in meld, and many do not allow burying trump. Any aces, tens or kings buried count for the bidder at the end of the hand.

Conceding the hand

After seeing the widow and the meld, the bidder may concede instead of playing. The bidder loses the amount of the bid, and each opponent scores their own meld. House rules differ here: some groups also give each opponent a set amount for the tricks.

Playing the tricks

The bidder leads to the first trick, and the winner of each trick leads to the next. The play follows the same strict rules as partnership pinochle:

• Follow suit if you can.
• Beat the trick if you can when following suit.
• Trump if you cannot follow suit, and overtrump if you can.
• Only if you can neither follow suit nor trump may you play any card.

There are 15 tricks. The two opponents play together against the bidder, but each keeps the tricks they win.

Counting and scoring

• Counters: every ace, ten and king won is 10 points, and the last trick is 10 more. There are 250 points in every hand, including the counters the bidder buried.
• The bidder adds meld and counters. If the total reaches the bid, the bidder scores it. If not, the bidder goes set and loses the amount of the bid.
• Each opponent scores their own meld, if they won points in tricks, plus their own counters. Nines of trump always count.

Example: you bid 300 and the widow completes a run (150); with a pinochle (40) you have 190 in meld, so you need 110 in counters. You take 120, including 20 you buried: 190 + 120 = 310, so you score 310. If you had taken only 100, you would go set and lose 300.

Winning the game

The first player to reach 1500 wins (some groups play to 1000 or 2000). If more than one player passes the target in the same hand, the bidder wins if they made the bid; otherwise the higher score wins. A pinochle score sheet with three columns, one per player, works for keeping score.

Common variations

• Minimum bid of 300, or bids in steps of 20 or 50 above a certain level.
• A 4-card widow with 14 cards each, or a larger kitty in some groups.
• Bidder scores the bid amount, not the full total, when the bid is made.
• Opponents score only their counters, or nothing, when the bidder concedes.

Questions