Pinochle is the original pinochle game, while partnership, auction, and all other variants are derived from it. It is the game most similar to the original Bèzique game, whence pinochle was derived, via the German game of Binokel. The only significant difference in its rules from Bèzique is the scoring. The original version of pinochle involves a partial deal of twelve cards to both players in packets of four, leaving a stock of 24 cards. A player can score one meld after each trick won of the first 12 tricks. Melded cards can even be used to win tricks. After each
Pinochle be used in only one meld of each type. Thus, a queen can be used in one marriage with one king, regardless of if the player has the other king of the same suit. However, a queen can be used to score a marriage and a pinochle if the player also has the correct jack. After the melds are displayed, the points are counted and each player totals their individual meld scores. Because all of these values are multiples of ten, one can arrive at simplified values by removing the trailing zero from each point total. For instance, a pinochle