I’d heard about it off and on for a few years, but a few weeks ago I finally got my chance to learn and play Settlers of Catan!

Settlers is a board game that combines luck and skill in proper amounts, and is guaranteed to be different every time, because the game board looks different every time, being constructed at random with a few dozen hexagonal squares. You probably won’t find it at any old toy store; you’ll have to find a “specialty games” store, or buy it online. From the outside, it looks like one of those complicated strategy games that have a loyal following, but not broad appeal; in actuality, Settlers is a great game for any and all ages, with rules that are easy enough for a 7-year-old.

I wasn’t sure when I’d get the chance to play again, until Julie surprised me with it on our wedding anniversary! I got to play it with my family for the first time today, and we had a great time. We played a “three-player” game; Sarah (7-year-old daughter) figured out the rules fairly well, Bethany (5-year-old daughter) rolled the dice for Julie, and Rebecca (almost-2-year-old daughter) sat on my lap and looked longingly at the little game pieces. We decided to stop at 8 points instead of 10, as the sunny outdoors were calling, and the natives were getting restless.

I look forward to playing again, and will be happy to teach anyone that stops by! Hopefully we’ll start playing it enough that I’ll have to start saving for the expansion packs…

The highlight of my Christmas holiday was having my parents at our house. I particularly enjoyed playing a lot of Pinochle. Euchre is fun, but I wanted to play something a little more challenging, and Pinochle definitely fit the bill.

So, I’ll bet you’re wondering how you play Pinochle. (No? Well, move along, then.) You can certainly find rules on the Internet, but, like many card games, there’s no telling what your “house rules” are going to be. So, I thought I’d teach you how to play our family’s rules for Pinochle.

Pinochle is a typical four-player partnership game, where players on the same team sit across from each other. It is a “trump” card game – that is, the winner of a trick is the highest card of the suit of the first card played, unless a card of the trump suit has been played, in which case the highest trump card wins. Each player must follow the suit of the first card played, unless he doesn’t have a card of that suit, in which case he can play any card in his hand (but see below).

The game is played with 48 cards of two standard decks – the Nine, Jack, Queen, King, Ten, and Ace of each suit from each deck. You’ll note the odd position of the Ten – that’s because the Ten ranks higher than the King, though not as high as the Ace.

There are thus two cards of any given rank and suit, which adds a twist to the standard rules for who wins a trick – if the card that would win a trick is played by two players, the first player to play the card wins the trick.

One other item of note – in Pinochle, if you can legally play a card that beats the other cards on the table, you are required to do so, even if your partner is already winning the trick. If you have a choice of cards that will beat the other cards, you can play any of them. If none of your playable cards will beat the cards on the table, you can make any legal play.

The Aces, Tens, and Kings are the point cards – each is worth one point for the partnership that won that card in a trick. The winner of the last trick gets one additional point, which adds up to 25 possible points.

At the beginning of each round of play, the cards are shuffled by the dealer, cut by the player to his right, and then dealt to each player, traditionally three cards at a time. Each player looks at his hand, and the player to the left of the dealer starts the bidding. The minimum bid is 15; each player must either bid higher than the previous player or pass. When all but one player has passed, that player wins the bid. If no player is willing to bid, the cards are reshuffled for the next dealer.

The winner of the bid declares trump. He then must exchange exactly three cards with his partner. Neither partner gets to see his three new cards before deciding which three of his own to pass. Finally, the winner of the bid plays the first card of the first trick. The round is over when all 12 tricks have been played.

If the partnership that won the bid scores at least as many points as they bid, the number of points that they scored is added to their total. If they don’t reach their bid, their total score is decreased by their bid. The other partnership gets whatever points they manage to take. The first team to score 150 or more points wins the game; if both teams reach 150 points after the same round, the bidding team wins.

Now, that would be a perfectly fun game right there, but it’s the meld that makes Pinochle interesting. I omitted a step in the description above. After the team that won the bid exchanges cards, but before the first card of the first trick is played, all four players lay down their meld, which are combinations of cards that are worth bonus points:

A Run is the Ace, Ten, King, Queen, and Jack in the trump suit, and is worth 15 points. A Double Run is two Runs – that is, all of the non-Nine trump cards – and is worth 150 points.

A Royal Marriage is the King and Queen of trump, worth 4 points, or 8 if you have double. (If you have a Run, you don’t get a Royal Marriage for the King and Queen participating in the Run, but you get 4 points for each additional King or Queen.)

A Marriage is the King and Queen of the same non-trump suit. Each Marriage is worth 2 points; double is worth 4 points. (A “run” in a non-trump suit isn’t worth anything but the 2 points for its Marriage.)

A Pinochle consists of the Jack of Diamonds and the Queen of Spades, and is worth 4 points. A Double Pinochle consists of both Jacks of Diamonds and both Queens of Spades, and is worth 30 points.

Aces Around – an Ace in each suit – is worth 10 points. Double Aces Around – every single Ace – is worth 100 points.

Kings Around is worth 8 (double gets 80). Queens Around is worth 6 (double gets 60). Jacks Around is worth 4 (double gets 40). But strangely enough, Tens Around isn’t worth a thing in meld, single or double.

Each Nine of Trump is worth 1 point. (Nines Around doesn’t give you any extra meld.)

The same card can participate in multiple types of meld. (For example, you can use the same Jack to score both Pinochle and Jacks Around.)

Points from meld count toward the bid, which explains why bidding generally exceeds the 25 points that could be earned from the tricks alone. One other thing: The non-bidding team gets to add the points from their meld to their score – as long as they take at least one trick.

So, that’s the game of Pinochle. I’ll give you a few basic strategy tips before I go:

When bidding, pay close attention to your meld, and don’t forget that your partner will be passing you three cards. Choosing trump is critical to making your Run a meld.

When your partner wins the bid, you want to pass him cards that he may need to complete a Run. Often, this will be all of your trump cards. If he called Spades or Diamonds, be sure to pass him your Jacks of Diamonds and Queens of Spades. Beyond that, you’ll want to give him Aces. If you don’t have any of those things, you can give him non-point cards. (You’re keeping the point cards to play when you know he’ll be taking a trick; you don’t want to risk passing him a point card that he’ll end up losing.)

When you win the bid, you want to pass your partner any non-trump point cards for which you don’t have sufficient coverage. If you called Hearts or Clubs, you should pass him your Jacks of Diamonds and Queens of Spades.

When you lead after winning the bid, you should generally play all of your winning trump cards (stop if your opponents run out of trump), followed by all of your winning non-trump cards. You certainly don’t want to lose the lead before playing all of your non-trump Aces, because a leading Ace beats a following Ace.

If you need that extra point to make your bid, be sure to save a trump for that last trick! Have fun!