Pinochle Card Ranking

This is the single most common “wait, what?” moment for new Pinochle players: the 10 outranks the King.

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The Ranking Order (Highest to Lowest)

For both trump and non-trump suits, the order is:

Ace → 10 → King → Queen → Jack → 9

That’s it — six ranks per suit, two copies of each (48 cards total). There’s no 2 through 8 in a Pinochle deck at all.

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Why Does 10 Beat King?

There’s no deep logic to memorize here — it’s simply the rule Pinochle uses, inherited from its European card-game ancestors (Pinochle descends from the French game Bezique and the German game Binokel, which rank the 10 the same way). The best way to internalize it is repetition: A-10-K-Q-J-9, said as one phrase, a few times before you sit down to play.

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Trump vs. Non-Trump

The ranking order above applies within every suit. The difference is that any trump card beats any non-trump card, regardless of rank. A 9 of trump beats an Ace of a non-trump suit. Full mechanics of how this plays out in a trick are on Pinochle Trick-Taking Rules.

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Why the Ranking Matters for Melding

Card ranking isn’t just for winning tricks — it also determines which cards form valid melds. The run (A-10-K-Q-J of trump) and the marriages (K-Q of a suit) are both built directly from this ranking order. See Pinochle Meld Scoring for the full list.

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Point Value vs. Rank — Don’t Confuse Them

Card rank (who wins the trick) is different from card point value (what a captured card is worth). Only Aces, 10s and Kings score in tricks — they’re called counters and are worth 10 points each. Queens, Jacks and 9s score nothing, even though a Queen or Jack can still win a trick. Full point values are on Pinochle Trick-Taking Rules.

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Quick Reference

Rank (high to low)	Trick-taking power
Ace	Highest
10	2nd highest
King	3rd
Queen	4th
Jack	5th
9	Lowest

Keep this next to you while you play — or grab the free printable cheat sheet, which includes this table plus meld values and scoring on one page.