“Who’s deal?”

“Mine,” Harpy scoops up all the cards and organizes them into a stack. He begins to shuffle.

It’s the third round of pinochle, of which the first round Harpy had five nines and threw in. In the second round I had a mediocre hand, scoring eight points. Harpy's still beating me and Sootie. Now I hope that I can make a comeback. 

I’ve been playing pinochle for a few months now, and I’ve quickly taken a liking to it. It’s like a sport, full of competition and luck and strategy. We could play it for hours, Sootie, Harpy, and I. They introduced me to the game, delighted that they could finally have a recurring third player. They showed me other card games as well, but pinochle is the one we play the most.   

Harpy’s in the lead with sixteen points, I have eight, and Sootie has seven. Harpy begins to pass out cards, occasionally throwing one in the kitty. Each of us gets fifteen cards, and three unknown cards go in the kitty. The highest bidder takes the kitty, which might have a needed card in it. I start picking up my cards. Queen of hearts, jack of diamonds, king of spades . . . until I’ve picked up all fifteen cards. I quickly calculate my meld, my eyes swiftly gazing over the cards. I see a fully formed run in diamonds; Ace, ten, king, queen, and jack of the same suit. Plus a nine in diamonds as well, which would be an extra point assuming that I take the bid. I also see a marriage in hearts, so that’s two extra points in addition to the sixteen point run. 

I smile to myself. “Harpy should deal more often.” You’re technically not supposed to chat in pinochle, but we always do it anyway. 

“No, he shouldn’t,” Sootie grumbles.

“What, you have bad cards?” I ask.

“I’m not disclosing anything.”

I grin and turn back to my own cards, analyzing them one more time. I notice two other aces, one in spades and one in hearts. If I can get one in clubs, I would have all four aces. That would be an extra ten points. I glance at the kitty, wondering what the odds of the ace of clubs being in it are. 

“Alright, I start,” Sootie says once Harpy’s picked up his cards. “Twenty-one.”

“Twenty-two,” I say. 

“Twenty-three,” Harpy adds.

Sootie bites his lip, contemplating. Then he sighs, “Pass.”

“Twenty-four,” I bid. It’s down to me and Harpy now. 

“Twenty-five.”

“Twenty-six.”

Harpy looks at me, strife in his gaze. I hold my cards close so he can’t see them. He says, “Twenty-seven.”

I can’t decide if he’s bidding me up or if he has something good. Either way, I continue the bid. “Twenty-eight.”

“I hate this. Pass,” He huffs, rapping his knuckles on the table to signify his decision. 

I triumphantly sweep the three cards of the kitty in my direction. I flip them over one by one on the table so they can see what they are. The first one is a queen of clubs. It’s not bad, because now I have a marriage in clubs. The second card is an ace of clubs, the very card I needed to complete my set of four aces. 

Apparently Harpy needs it too, because I hear him mutter, “Dang it.”

The last card is a king of hearts. I don’t really need it, so I’m indifferent. I place the cards in my hand and discard three cards; a nine of spades, a nine of hearts, and the king from the kitty. 

We all lay out meld. I place down my run, calling diamonds as trump. Then I put the four aces, followed by two marriages. It’s basically my whole hand, totaling twenty-eight points. It’s the exact number I bid. 

Sootie has a jack in each suit, worth four points. He also has a marriage in trump, which adds four more points of meld. Eight total.

Harpy has two marriages and a nine of trump, totaling five points. Sootie asks each of us how much we have and scribbles the numbers down on the score sheet. “How much is that, Whim? Twenty-eight? Lucky.”

“I guess so.” I grin tauntingly at Harpy. 

The next part of the game begins. I toss my ace of trump in the middle, always the best card to lead with. Nobody can go over it or trump it, so it’s a guaranteed trick for me. For the next three turns, I lead with my other aces, taking every trick. Now it gets harder. I choose to throw a queen of diamonds out in an attempt to draw out everyone else’s trump. They have to go over the queen and follow suit unless they don’t have the cards to do so. Sootie throws a ten, but Harpy throws an ace and successfully takes it. 

Harpy leads with an ace of hearts. I lay out a queen of hearts, and Sootie throws a jack of hearts. Harpy also takes the next trick, but then proceeds to throw off with a queen of spades, which I trump.

I take the next trick, but then Sootie plays an ace of clubs when I make the mistake of leading with a ten of clubs. 

Sootie leads with a king of diamonds, and he takes the trick. Then he leads with a ten of clubs, knowing both aces are gone and probably hoping that I won’t trump it. He takes that trick. Then he throws off with a queen of hearts, which Harpy takes.

Harpy leads with a king of spades, which I trump.

I take the last trick.

We count up our points, flicking through the piles and counting ever ten, ace, and king as one point. I get eleven points, plus one for getting last trick. Twelve total. Sootie gets six, and Harpy gets seven. Sootie writes down the points, adding up previous points to our scores. 

“So I have twenty-one, Harpy has twenty-eight, and Whim is in the lead with forty-eight,” He says begrudgingly. 

“I can’t believe this. You had way too many points in that hand,” Harpy accuses. 

“Well, you dealt them,” I counter, leaning back in my chair smugly. 

“That doesn’t mean anything. You just got way too lucky,” Sootie says bitterly, straightening the deck. “My deal.”