Rummy

Goal

Arrange your hand into melds and get rid of every card. A meld is either a set of three or four cards of the same rank, or a run of three or more cards in sequence in one suit.

Setup

Deal ten cards each with two players, seven each with three or four, six each with five or six. Place the rest face down as the stock and turn one card face up beside it to start the discard pile.

A turn

1. Draw one card, either the top of the stock or the top of the discard pile.
2. Meld if you can. Lay any sets or runs face up in front of you. This is optional; many players hold everything back to avoid helping opponents.
3. Lay off if you want: add a card to a meld already on the table, yours or anyone else’s.
4. Discard one card face up to end your turn.

What counts as a meld

A set is three or four of a rank: three Queens, four Sevens. A run is three or more consecutive cards of one suit: 4-5-6 of hearts.

The ace is low by default, so A-2-3 is a run and Q-K-A is not. Plenty of houses play the ace as either high or low, but never both at once, so a run cannot turn the corner from King through Ace to Two.

Going out

You go out when you melds or discard your last card. The hand ends immediately. If you meld your entire hand in one turn without having melded before, that is rummy, and most houses double your score for the hand.

Scoring

The winner scores the value of the cards still held by everyone else. Number cards are face value, picture cards are ten, aces are one when low and eleven when played high.

Play to an agreed total, usually 100 for a short game or 500 for an evening.

Questions