"Pickleball Scoring Cheat Sheet"

Keeping score is the one part of pickleball that trips up new players, even after the rest of the game clicks. This page is the short version — print it, screenshot it, or keep it open courtside. For the full walkthrough of how the game is played, see our basic rules of pickleball. For a step-by-step beginner’s path, try pickleball for beginners: rules and scoring.

The two rules everything else hangs on

1. Only the serving side can score. Win a rally on your serve and you earn a point. Win a rally while receiving and you don’t get a point — you get the serve (or part of the way toward it). This is called traditional or side-out scoring, and it’s still the official method used in most recreational and USA Pickleball tournament play.
2. Games go to 11, win by 2. You can’t win 11–10; you have to lead by two. Some tournaments play to 15 or 21, but 11 is standard.

The doubles call: three numbers

In doubles you announce the score as three numbers, in this order:

Position	Number	Meaning
First	Your team’s score	Points for the serving team
Second	Their team’s score	Points for the receiving team
Third	1 or 2	Which server you are — first or second

So “6–3–2” means: serving team has 6, receiving team has 3, and the second server is up.

That third number is the part people forget. Each player on a team gets a turn to serve before the serve passes to the opponents — but there’s one exception at the very start of the game.

The second-server rule and “side out”

• When your team gets the serve, Server 1 serves first. Every time the serving team wins a rally, the same player keeps serving and the team scores a point — they just switch sides of the court each point.
• When Server 1 loses a rally (a fault), the serve passes to Server 2, the partner.
• When Server 2 also loses a rally, the serve goes to the other team. That handoff is called a side out.
• The one exception: at the very start of the game, the first serving team gets only one server before the side out. That’s why the game begins at 0–0–2 — the starting team is treated as if it’s already on its second server, so it gives up the serve after one fault. This keeps the team that serves first from getting a head start.

Even or odd: which side do you serve from?

Your score tells you where to stand:

• Even score (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10): the player who served first that game serves from the right side.
• Odd score (1, 3, 5, 7, 9): that same player serves from the left side.

A quick self-check: if you’ve lost track of who’s who, look at the first server’s position relative to the score. When your team’s score is even, the first server should be on the right. If they’re not, someone’s on the wrong side.

A worked example (doubles)

Teams are A (Ann & Al) and B (Bea & Bo). Ann serves first.

1. Score is 0–0–2. Ann serves from the right. Team A wins the rally → 1–0–2, Ann moves to the left and serves again.
2. Ann serves, Team A faults. Because A is already on its second server to start, it’s a side out — serve goes to Team B. Bea is Server 1 for B. Score is now called from B’s side: 0–1–1.
3. Bea serves, Team B wins → 1–1–1, Bea switches sides and serves again.
4. Bea serves, B faults → serve passes to Bo (Server 2). Score: 1–1–2.
5. Bo serves, B faults again → side out, serve back to Team A. Ann (Server 1) serves; score called from A’s side: 1–1–1.

From here on, both partners on a team serve before each side out — the single-server start only happens once, at the very beginning.

Rally scoring (the quick note)

You may run into rally scoring, where a point is awarded on every rally regardless of who served. It’s faster, the call is usually just two numbers, and games often go to 15 or 21, still win by 2. USA Pickleball has only provisionally recognized it, and most recreational play still uses traditional side-out scoring — so the three-number system above is the one to learn first.

Keep it handy

Bookmark our full pickleball rules page for the kitchen, the two-bounce rule, and faults, and check the pickleball glossary when a term on the court stumps you.

The fastest way to make the scoring second nature is simply to play more games — ideally without waiting on the weather or an open public court. That’s exactly what an indoor court at Pickler House is for: heated, air-conditioned, and lit, with paddles and balls provided, so your group can run game after game until calling “6–3–2” feels automatic.