Rummy is basically a card game where each player is given 7 cards and he has to shed all his cards by melding them into valid combinations. He can make either a run or a set. As the name describes, a run is a pack of three or four cards of the same suit in serial order, while a set is a pack of three or four cards of the same rank but different suits. If a player arranges his cards accordingly and forms one of these then it is called a meld, and the player scores points for all the cards that he has melded.
About Aces
Aces or A can be categorized as low or high. By low, we mean that an ace will replace the number one (1) in a pack of cards, which means that in case of a run one can form a run of A-2-3-4. By high, we mean that ace will be considered as the highest card. In this case, the points allocated to an ace will be 15 which mean that a run will be formed if a player uses J-Q-K-A. In some games, as per the “round the corner” rule, K-A-2 is also considered as a valid sequence.
In the case of “round the corner” rule, the players need to decide before starting the game whether the score of an ace will be 1 or 15.
Scoring an Ace
Scoring an ace can be done at high or low depending on the way it was used in the game. A round is over as soon as any one of the players is able to shed all his cards in hand. Once this is done, the points of all the other players are counted. There can be many ways of deciding how to score an ace. One can decide at the beginning of the game whether the ace will be used as a high or a low. Another option is to leave it up to the winner. If the winner has an ace, then the scoring of an ace is done according to the way the winner has used it in the game else it will be given a score of one.
