Overview

Rummy is a type of card game played with 4 people. It involves a full deck of 52 cards with the order of the cards being A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A. Normally you play until the first person gets 500 points, but you can play to whatever point you want to.

Rules of the Game

The dealer shuffles and deals seven cards to the four players and places the remaining cards face down in a stack in the middle of the group. The dealer then flips over the top card in the middle stack and starts a new stack. The person to the left of the dealer starts first and can either take a card in either stack and to finish their turn they must discard. To lay down cards a player must have three of a kind or a run of the same suit. This rotation continues until a player is out of cards.

 

Actual Gameplay

Player 1 shuffles and deals to the other three players and himself:

The dealer then creates two stacks in the middle by flipping top card up.

The player to the dealers left goes first by drawing one card from either stack and then discarding a card if he can not lay down points.

After a few rounds of playing players have been able to lay points down.

When a player discards a card that could have been laid down as points the others player can slap the deck and yell “RUMMY!!!” to be able to pick that card up and play it for points.

Once a player goes out everyone must count their points they laid down. The scoring system is this: 2-9=5 points, 10-King=10 points, Ace when played as a three of a kind=15 points, Ace when played in a run of A,2,3,etc.=5 points, and Ace when played in a run of A,K,Q,etc.=10 points.

The players who have cards left in hand after a player goes out must subtract points using the same point system, except Ace’s are always worth 15 when subtracting.

Write down the totals on a note pad and then begin a new hand with the person left of the dealer dealing the next hand.

After the winner has reached the final point total the game is over. In this example game we played to 250.

Final thoughts

I love this card game. Usually when I go to a family event, like over the holidays or reunion, we bring out the cards and play this. It is easy to learn and kids from 10 years of age to adults can play and have a good time with it.