Bidding and melding in pinochle. I'm lost!?

Question

So I'm new to pinochle. Here's my question. I bid 57. Between me and my partner our melds equaled 47. It said we still needed 20 to make our bid. I'm just confused! Shouldn't we only need 10? Why do we need 20?

Answer 1

they are cheating

Answer 2

One of the options that can be declared in pinochle is minimum of 20 points to save meld.  This occurs online as well as in real life games.  

In your sitution you and your partner had 47 meld and needed to pull the 20 minimum.  If you and your partner had only melded 36 points then you would still need 21 to mak your bid.  A 20/20 game  ( minimum 20 points in meld to lay down meld and minimum 20 points to save your meld) eliminates the quick games were a team is relying on meld alone and not on the number of tricks they pull