Rummy

Objective:

Rummy is a card matching game and the object of the game is to score the most points. The goal of each hand is to be the first player to play all of their cards. There are three methods to play cards including: to meld, to lay off, and to discard.

• Melding - to make sets or runs and lay them on the table, face up, in front of you. A set consists of 3 or more cards of the same value, such as the 4 of hearts, 4 of clubs, and the 4 of spades. A run is 3 or more cards of the same suit, in consecutive order, such as the 6 of clubs, 7 of clubs, and 8 of clubs.
• Laying-off - adding a card or cards from your hand to a meld already on the table your melds and other players melds. For example, adding the 4 of diamonds to the first example above or adding the 5 and/or 9 and 10 of clubs to the second example. Again the cards each player plays are laid on the table, face up, in front of them. Players may lay-off as many cards as they like each turn.
• Discarding - laying a card on the discard pile face up to end each players turn.

Dealing:

At the beginning of the game the dealer is randomly selected and during the game the deal goes around the table clockwise.

Rummy uses a standard 52-card deck for 4 players. Seven cards are dealt to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down on the table to form the draw from pile (DFP). The top card of the DFP is placed, face up, right next to the draw from pile to start the discard pile (DP).

Game Play:

The player to the immediate left of the designated dealer always plays first and the play proceeds clockwise around the table.

• The first player, either draws one card from the draw from pile and adds it to their hand without showing it to the other players or picks up the card in the discard pile.
• To meld a player must have either 3 of a kind or 3 consecutive cards of the same suit. (See Melding above).
• Players may lay off on their opponents books (see Laying Off above). Players may lay-off as many cards as they wish per turn.
• The first player to play or discard their last card wins the hand, known as going out, and play stops. All other players score for the cards remaining in their hands.
• When there are no cards available in the DFP and the player whose turn it is does not wish to pick up the top card on the discard pile then the discard pile is shuffled by the computer and placed face down in the center of the table. This becomes the new draw from pile and the top card is laid faceup next to the new DFP and this is the new discard pile. Play continues just like before starting with the player whose turn it was when creating a new draw from pile became necessary.
• Recycling the dicard pile into a new draw from pile will take place one more time, if no player is able to go out. After the second reshuffle of the discard pile, the hand ends.
• Play stops and everyone adds the score for the cards remaining in their hands. The winner of the hand is the one with the least points. The points of the losing hands are added together and the points from the winners hand are deducted to calculate the score of the winner for the hand.

Scoring:

• Face cards = 10 points
• Aces = 1 point and can be melded as 3 or more aces
• All other cards are scored at face value (for example a 5 = 5 points, a 9 = 9 points, and so on)

Winning:

• The total value of all the cards in the hands of the non-winning players is added to the winner of each hands score.
• The game continues until a player reaches 250 points.

Other Rules:

• Players may lay-off as many cards as they like during their turn
• Aces only play as low
• A discard is not required to go out

Modified on 10/26/16 from Wikipedia