Rummy Card Game

Rummy is the best known of all card games played in the United States. Its popularity is due partly to the fact that it is so simple. Any person with a knowledge of the basic game can easily learn any form of it.

From this popular form of Rummy have been developed the new game of Canasta and several other variants. The distinctive feature of 500 Rum is that each player scores the value of the sets he melds, in addition to the usual points going out and for cards caught in other players' hands.
Seven cards are dealt to each player except in two-hand game, in which each player receives thirteen cards.

The object of the game is to score points by laying down and laying off cards as in regular Rummy (in groups of three or four of a kind, and in sequences of three or more cards of the same suit).

The undealt portion of the cards, face down, is the stock; its top card is placed beside it to start the discard pile. Each player in turn, beginning with the eldest hand, may draw the top card of the stock; or may draw any card from the discard pile provided he takes with it all cards on the discard pile above it, and also provided that he at once uses the card so drawn, either by laying it down in a set or by laying it off on a set already on the table. Cards taken with the top discard may be melded in the same turn. Each player in turn, after drawing and before discarding, may lay down any matched set on the table in front of him, or may lay off any card which matches a set already on the table; but such cards laid off are also kept on the table in front of the player. Sequences may not "go around the corner"-A, K, Q, or A, 2, 3 may be melded, but not K, A, 2.

When any player gets rid of all his cards, play immediately ends. Each player's score is then figured as follows: He is credited with the point value of all cards he has'shown on the table; from this figure is subtracted the point value of all cards remaining in his hand. The difference is added to or subtracted from his score, as the case may be.
The first player whose score reaches +500 wins the game and collects from each other player the difference between their final scores. If two or more players reach 500 on the same hand, the one with the highest score is the winner.

The rules are as in regular Rummy except:

Each player in turn may draw the top card of the stock; or, before drawing that card, he may take the top card of the discard pile and then either the next card of the discard pile or the top card of the stock.

A player in turn may discard only one card. Play does not end until a player can lay down his entire hand at one time.

An ace counts either high or low in a sequence, and sequences may go around the corner as in 3, 2, A, K, Q.

In the settlement, a player pays only for cards in his hand which do not form matched sets; he may pay either one point for every, unmatched card in his hand, or pip value of all unmatched cards (ace counting 11), as agreed.

This has become the most popular two-handed variant of the Rummy family. It is the favorite among all games with the motion picture, radio, and theatrical world.
Dealer gives the cards, one at a time, face down, alternately to his opponent and to himself until each has ten cards; the next card, called the upcard, is placed face up in the center of the table, and the remaining cards, called the stock, are placed face down beside it.

The object of play is to form matched sets, consisting of three or four of a kind, or of sequences of three or more cards of consecutive rank in the same suit.

Non-dealer plays first, and the turn to play alternates thereafter. In each turn, a player must draw either the upcard (top card of the discard pile) or the top card of the stock, and then must discard one card (which may not be an upcard he has drawn in the same turn) face up on the discard pile.

On the first play, if non-dealer does not wish to take the upcard he must so announce and dealer may have the first turn by drawing the upcard; if dealer does not wish the upcard, non-dealer draws the top card of the stock and play proceeds.

Each hand begins when a legal deal is completed and ends when either player knocks. A player may knock in any turn, after drawing and before discarding, if the value of the unmatched cards in his hand (after he discards) will be 10 points or less. He need not knock when able to do so. Having knocked, he discards one card face down and spreads his hand, arranged into matched sets and unmatched cards. The opponent then spreads his hand, removes from it any unmatched sets, and lays off whatever cards- he has that match the knocker's matched sets.

The point values of the two players' unmatched cards are then compared, and the result of the hand is scored (see Scoring, below).

Neither of the last two cards in the stock may be drawn; if the player who draws the fiftieth card discards without knocking, his opponent may not take the discard and the hand is a draw. The same dealer deals again.

If the knocker's count is less than his opponent's, the knocker wins the hand; the difference in counts is scored to his credit. If the opponent ties or beats the knocker, he has undercut him; he wins the hand, and scores 25 points plus the difference in counts, if any. However, if the knocker has a count of zero (has all ten of his cards matched in sets) he is gin; his opponent may not lay off, and the knocker wins the hand even if the opponent can reduce his own count to zero, and the knocker receives 25 points plus the difference in counts, if any.

A running total of each player's score is kept, with a line drawn under his score every time he wins a hand. Example. A player wins the first hand by 1 1 points; he scores II and draws a line under it. The same player wins the next hand by 14 points; he writes down 25 and draws another line.

The player first scoring 100 points or more wins the game. He adds to his score 100 points game bonus. If his opponent has not won a hand during the game, he doubles his entire score, including the game bonus. Each player then adds to his score 25 points for every hand he has won (called a line or box bonus). The two players' total scores are then determined and the player with the higher score wins the difference between his score and his opponent's.

Some players score only 10 points for undercut, and only 20 points for gin bonus or box bonus, and permit a player to lay off when his opponent goes gin. These variants can be chosen in the Game Settings.

Two play, but each hand is scored as though they were playing three different games. The result of the first hand won by each player is scored once, being credited toward Game 1. The result of the second hand won by a player who has already scored in Game 1 is scored twice, being credited to him as a second score in Game 1 and his first score in Game 2. The result of the third hand won by a player who has already scored in Games 1 and 2 is scored to his credit in all three games. Each subsequent hand won by that player is scored to his credit in all three games.
When a player reaches 100 points in any game, he wins that game but play continues until all three games have been decided and subsequent scores are entered only in the remaining game or games.

Each game is scored independently and each player receives all bonuses to which he is entitled in that game. A player who was shut out in one game enters his first score in the first game still uncompleted.

Drawing and discarding proceed as in Rummy, but there is no laying down or laying off. Any player, after drawing but before discarding, may knock, ending the hand. He then discards, separates his matched sets from his unmatched cards, and announces the count of his unmatched cards. Each other player then separates his matched sets from his unmatched cards and announces his count.
The hand with the low count wins the difference in counts from each other player plus 25 points if he goes rum. If any other player ties the knocker for low count, he wins instead of the knocker. If the knocker does not have the low count, he pays a penalty of ten points plus the difference in counts to the player with the low count, who wins the hand.

In Oklahoma Gin the rank of the upcard fixes the maximum number of points with which a player may knock in that deal. Thus, if the upcard is a five, the knocker must have 5 points or less. Face cards count 10. Some play that an ace calls for a gin hand, not merely a count of 1. A usual added rule is that when the upcard is a spade all scores accruing from the deal are doubled.

Four play, two against two as partners, partners facing each other across the table. The rules are exactly as in 500 Rum, except that partners scores are added together at the end of the hand. When any player goes out, play ends and the score of each partnership is figured as a unit. The game is over when either side reaches 500.

The rules are as in regular Rummy, with seven cards dealt to each player, with the following special rules:
A player may not meld until he can go rummy. When he goes out he may meld seven or eight cards; he need not discard.

The winner collects the point value of his own hand from each other player (not the value of this opponents' hands, and not double).

Dealer gives one card at a time, face down, to each player in rotation to the left, until the player has: ten cards, when two play; seven cards, when three or four play; six cards, when five or six play. The remaining cards are placed face down in the center of the table, forming the stock. The top card of the stock is turned face up and placed beside the stock to found the discard pile.

The object of play is to form in one's hand matched sets consisting of:
groups of three or four of a kind, or sequences of three or more cards of the same suit. In a sequence an ace may count only as low card.

Each player in turn, beginning with the eldest hand, must draw one card--either the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile--and add it to his hand; he may then meld, or lay down on the table, face up, any matched set. He must then discard one card, face up, on top of the discard pile. If he drew the top card of the discard pile, he may not discard it in the same turn.

A player in turn may add one or more matching cards from his hand to any matched set already shown on the table; thus, if threes are showing, he may add the fourth three; if 10, 9, 8 of Diamonds are showing, he may add the JD, JD and QD, 7D, or the 6D and 7D. .

When in this fashion a player gets rid of all his cards, he wins the game. If all his remaining cards are matched, he may lay them down without discarding on his last turn.
In some circles each player's turn must end with a discard, so the game ends only when a player, having drawn, can lay down or lay off all cards but one remaining in his hand, then discards that card.)
If the last card of the stock has been drawn and no player has gone out, the next player in turn may either take the top of the discard pile, or may turn the discard pile to form a new stock (without shuffling it) and draw the top card, after which play proceeds.
In a game sometimes called Block Rummy, play ends when the stock is exhausted and when any player refuses to take the last previous discard. All hands are shown and the player with the lowest count wins from each other player the difference in their counts; if two or more players tie for low count, they divide the winnings equally.) This is an option in the Game Settings.
Each player in the game pays to the winner the pip value of the cards remaining in his hand, whether they form matched sets or not; face cards count 10 each, aces 1 each, every other card its pip value.
A player goes rummy when he gets rid of all cards in his hand in one turn, without previously having laid down or laid off any cards; in this event every other player pays him double.


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