How to play Rummy
Rummy is a card game where you draw and discard to build sets of the same number and runs in a row of one suit. The first player to get rid of all their cards wins the hand.
- Ages 8+
- 2 to 6 players
- About 30 minutes
- You need: a deck of 52 cards, paper and a pencil for scores
Easy rules, to read aloud
- Everyone gets seven cards.
- On your turn, take one card from the pile.
- Look for three of the same number, or three in a row of the same suit.
- Lay them down on the table.
- Then put one card face up on the throw-away pile.
- The first one with no cards left wins.
The full rules
- Deal 10 cards each for two players, 7 each for three or four, or 6 each for five or six. Put the rest face down as the stock and turn its top card up to start the discard pile.
- Start each turn by taking one card: the top of the stock or the top of the discard pile.
- A meld is three or four cards of the same rank, like three nines, or three or more cards in a row in one suit, like the four, five and six of hearts. Aces are low, so ace, two, three is a run.
- After drawing, you may lay one meld face up in front of you.
- You may also add cards to any meld on the table, yours or anyone else's. This is called laying off.
- End every turn by placing one card face up on the discard pile. You cannot throw back the card you just took from it.
- If the stock runs out, turn the discard pile over, without shuffling, to make a new stock.
- When someone gets rid of their last card, the hand stops right away.
How to win: The player who goes out scores the cards left in everyone else's hands: 10 for each king, queen or jack, 1 for each ace, and face value for the rest. The first to an agreed total, such as 100, wins.
Tips
- Sort your hand by suit and number so runs and sets jump out.
- Throw away big cards you cannot use; they count for others if someone goes out.
- Watch the discard pile to see what other players are collecting.
What it practises
sorting and grouping, counting in order, adding scores, planning ahead.
Other ways to play
- Going rummy. If you lay down your whole hand in one turn without having melded before, your score for that hand counts double.
- Aces high or low. An ace can sit above the king (queen, king, ace) as well as below the two, but not both in the same run.
About the game
Rummy games first appeared in the early 1900s and probably grew out of a Mexican game called Conquian.
The age is our own suggestion: Peabody's suggestion (holding six to ten cards and spotting runs and sets). Sources we read: Wikipedia: Rummy, pagat.com: Rummy. Every word here is Peabody's own. Checked .