How To Play Rummy

Learn How to Play 13 Card Rummy

Don't hesitate to play Online Rummy game even if its your first time. Here, you will find all the information on how to play rummy games online. Once you've read the basic rummy rules mentioned here, you will no more be a stranger to online Rummy.

PLAYERS

Number of players in a rummy game ranges from two to six.

DECK(s)

For each Rummy game, the number of decks depends upon the number of players:

  • 2 decks are used for Points & Pool games (not dependent upon no. of players).
  • 3 decks are used for 21 Cards games (not dependent upon no. of players).
  • 3 decks are used for 13 Cards games (not dependent upon no. of players)

Note: No Paper Jokers used for 13 Cards Marriage games

Each deck is a regular pack of 52 cards with 2 jokers(wild cards).

The DEAL

At the beginning of every Rummy game, each player receives 13 cards.

The undealt pack of cards is placed face down, forming the Closed deck.

The next card in the pack is placed face up forming a new Discard pile.

OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME

The objective of 13 card rummy game is to arrange all the cards in your hands to form at least two sequences, one of which has to be a pure sequence. The remaining cards can be arranged into valid sets or sequences.

VALIDATION RULES

To play rummy, be it traditional or online, one should know the validation rules. Please find below the list of validation rules in rummy:

  • Out of 13 cards in hand, you need to form at least one pure sequence. It is a sequence of cards of the same suit. A Pure Sequence cannot use a Joker card. (However, a Joker can sometimes be used in a pure sequence if it is not substituted as any other card)
    ace heart king heart queen heart OR 7 spade 8 spade 9 spade 10 spade
  • Out of 13 cards in hand, you need to have another sequence, pure or impure. An impure has to have cards of the same suit, but is allowed to have jokers.
    9 diamond paper joker Jack diamond OR Paper joker joker king of heart ace of heart
  • Remaining cards can be arranged into valid sets or sequences. They can either be a pure or an impure sequence or a set of the same face value cards. In the below example, 8 of spade is the cut joker.
    9 diamond 8 spade 9 club OR queen heart queen diamond queen spade queen club

As explained earlier the following is not permitted in a Rummy game.

4 spade4 spade4 club

The above set is not allowed in Rummy Game.

JOKER

After distributing 13 cards to each player, at the start of the play, the next card from the deck is opened up, which becomes the joker for the game. The rest of the deck is positioned face down and becomes the common stack of cards or the Closed deck.

All cards of the same rank as that of Joker's, in any suit, are also considered jokers. These are referred as Cut Joker.

A joker card in rummy game can be used as substitute for any card to form a set, except Pure Sequence. Number of Cut Jokers per deck is 4. There are also two Paper Jokers in each deck of rummy. These have the image of a joker drawn on them. They don't have any face value, but like a declared joker, they can also be used as a substitute for any card, to form a set.

jokerjoker

GAME PLAY

Once you learn rummy game rules then game play is simple. The player must begin by drawing a card; either the top most card from the Closed deck or the last discarded card from the Discard Pile.

Now, the player temporarily has 14 cards and thus, must end his turn by placing one card from his hand face up on the Discard Pile.

The chance moves to the next player.

The game progresses in a turn wise manner until a player completes his 4 sets and declares.

The points for other players are calculated on the basis of their cards.

WINNING HAND

One set of a Pure sequence is compulsory in the game of rummy. Another set of a straight sequence with or without a Joker is also necessary in the game. The other two sets could be sequence or cards of the same face value.

DECLARE/ SHOW

If all the 13 cards of the hand can be clubbed into 4 correct sets, then the player should Declare in the game. At the time of declaring in Rummy Game, the player needs to select the combination of sets for declaring. After declaring, the player needs to Meld the cards, that is put the 13 cards into 4 sets and send them for Validation.

The player has limited time to meld the cards that will be shown on the screen. The player, who declares, wins the game, if his cards are authenticated according to the validation rules.

If the melded sets do not comply with the criteria, he gets 80 points penalty for invalid declare. Winner has to pay zero penalty but gets the points of all other players as a winning.

When a player declares, the remaining rummy players also need to select their combination of sets so that a winner is chosen and the points is distributed accordingly.

Player whose declaration is correct wins the game.

In Points Rummy, all the players get points according to their melded hands. If a player has 2 correct & 2 incorrect hands, then he will get 0 points each for his correct hand while he will get points for his incorrect hands based on the Rummy points system.

The player with the correct declaration gets the sum of points of all opponents.

DROP

A player can always drop out of the rummy game to save his points.

If a player drops out, he will be allocated some penalty points based on Game variants special rules.

A drop may turn out to be a rummy strategy in case the cards are particularly bad for a rummy player.

The points allotted on a drop also vary according to the time of the drop. If the drop has been done right at the beginning of the play, lesser points are given than if it has been done in the middle.

Now that you have learned the basic rules of online Rummy, you are now ready to play the game.

New Rules

  • In case of Declaration in the first round, players who did not get the chance for their first turn will have Maximum of Middle Drop deduction in 13 cards rummy.
  • Player exits the Room without dropping his hand (after the cards are distributed),Full Hand here will be deducted for that particular player.
  • It should be: A set can consist of minimum 3 cards or maximum of 4 cards of different suits.
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