Rummy Rules
Rummy is designed for 2 to 4 players like most other games in the Rummy family (Kalooki, Gin Rummy and Rummy500). Every game uses 104 cards - 2 standard decks without the Jokers. Both decks contain 4 complete suits each with 13 cards, where the value of each card (in penalty points) is equal to its number. Special points are awarded for royalty cards - each is worth 10 points - the Ace which is worth 11 points and can be used either as 1 (before a 2 card) and 11 (after the King).
| The four suits |
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| The cards and their values |
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1 point 2 points 3 points 4 points 5 points
6 points 7 points 8 points 9 points 10 points
10 points 10 points 10 points
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The official winner is the first player to have no cards in hand, except for the last card which is thrown to the discard pile at the end of the turn. Players can get rid of cards by creating sets and runs, or by building - adding cards to melds that were already laid down onto the meld area.
| A set consists of 3 or more cards of the same rank |
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OR
| A run consists of 3 or more consecutive cards of the same suit |
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OR
The course of the game
According to the rummy rules every player starts the game with ten cards. Remaining cards are shuffled and used as a stock pile. The top card of the deck is placed facing up and is used as the discard pile. When the deck runs out of cards, the discard pile is reshuffled and forms the new stock pile.
The actions in a standard turn can be divided into three: start, middle and end. The middle action is optional.
* Start - the player draws a card, either from the deck or the top of the discard pile.
* Middle - melds are placed onto the meld area. It is possible to lay down melds such as the ones seen below, or to add cards to melds that were laid down previously by any one of the players.
For example -
if the following original meld appears on the meld area- 
Every
player will be allowed to add any of these cards to this meld: 
,or 
, 
or 
.
* End - a card is thrown to the discard pile.
Every turn must start with a draw and end with a discard, but laying down melds is optional and players can choose whether or not to lay down melds according to the strategy they chose. Check out our Traditional Rummy strategies page.
Game ending
Rummy ends when a player manages to lay down every card in his or her hand, except for one last card which is thrown to the discard pile at the end of the turn.
There are two types of wins in Rummy:
* Gradual - players lay down various melds onto the meld area until one player has no more cards left.
When a game ends in this way, all players except for the winner are penalized according to the total value of the cards in their hand.
* Hunt - when a player wins by laying down every card in his or her hand in only one turn.
When a game ends in this way, according to the rummy rules, all players except for the winner are penalized according to the total value of the cards in their hand, in addition to an extra 25 penalty points.
Rummy Prize Distribution
When the game ends the pool prize is divided between the players according to their acheivements. The winner will get at least 75% of the pot. The remaining portion of the pot will be divided between the players relative to the points they accumulated, as long as they have less than 80 points more than the winner.
