Terry Tales

Playing Cards

In the 1900's people would often gather and sit together at table for entertainment as well as food. Rectangular slips of heavy paper would be randomly distributed to guests who would sort them by color and numeric value. Then they would compete to lay them down again in an orderly pile. This was called 'playing cards'. It often went on late into the night, accompanied by social drinking, laughter, and even the exchange of considerable sums of money.

Pinochle was a popular card game among middle-class families of modest means. Both my parents and my in-laws were fond of playing it. I learned the game early and was often pressed into service when there weren't enough adult players to make up a four-person game. I took pinochle cards to college with me and taught my roommate to play. Later, my wife and I spent many evenings ignoring the TV background noise as we teamed up against her parents.

A standard deck has 52 cards, but a pinochle deck has only 48. It uses the sequence of nine through ace in four suits, but there are two of each card. That means there are 8 nines, 8 tens, 8 jacks, and so on. Scoring is done both with card combinations in one's hand, and by taking tricks during play. Each hand begins with a round of bidding to determine which team will lead off the playing of tricks. If the player who wins the bid fails to make that many points while playing the hand, then the bid is subtracted from their score.

The winning bidder selects a trump suit and then their partner passes them four cards to improve their hand before play begins. Any trump card beats all other suits and is beaten only by higher trump cards. A trick without a trump card is simply won by the highest card. A typical hand might score 300 to 400 points and the first team to 1500 wins the game.

The ace is the highest ranked card in a pinochle deck and nine is the lowest. One of the most rare and valuable hands is the collection of all eight aces. It's worth one thousand points and pretty much assures a win in any particular game. More common is a run of five cards in the same suit from ten through ace. That counts for 150 points. It's difficult to make one's bid without a run.

I was watching a game in the dorm one day when an unusual situation arose. My friend Mark and his partner Steve were bidding against each other. That's considered a breach of etiquette as well as a poor strategy for making the bid. It turned out that Steve was dealt a run of spades and understandably felt compelled to win the bid. Mark had the other seven aces in his hand, and he was determined to go for eight. He figured his odds were one in three that Steve would have the eighth ace. And he would probably never have that good a chance again.

Mark eventually won the bid and Steve was puzzled when Mark called spades as trump. What to do? He couldn't pass a five-card run. Four cards were exchanged, and Mark assumed an 'oh well' expression. He still had a pretty good hand, after all. He decided to be theatrical and led with six aces, saving the trump suit for last. He was flabbergasted when Steve played his only remaining spade, the ace, to Mark's lead.

"You had the ace!" Mark shouted. "Why didn't you pass it?"

"Well, only an idiot would bid without an ace of trump," Steve replied.

Mark struggled, red-faced, to find adequate words to express the extent of his frustrated rage. Finally, he threw the rest of his cards at Steve and stormed out of the room, followed by gales of laughter from the onlookers.

Game over.