How to play Rummy
The rules of Rummy, and a game played out one move at a time.
The rules are below, and there are not many of them. If you would rather watch than read, press play: we deal a short round on the real table and stop on every move to say what happened, what you could do instead, and which rule did it.
Press play and we deal a short game of Rummy on the real table. It stops on every move and says what just happened and what you could do next.
The deal
One standard pack, no jokers, for two, three or four of you. At two you each get ten cards. At three or four it is seven each. One card is turned face up to start the discard pile, and what is left sits face down as the stock.
The player after the dealer goes first, and the deal moves one seat along every round.
A turn
Take one card. Either the blind top of the stock or the face-up top of the discard pile. The pile is the better deal when you can see the card helps you, because nobody else gets it.
Then lay down what you can, as many melds as you like. A set is three or four cards of one number, all different suits. A run is three or more in a row in one suit. The ace is low and only low: ace, two, three is a run, queen, king, ace is not.
End the turn by putting one card on the discard pile. Just not the card you took off it this turn. You can meld it, you just cannot throw it straight back.
Melds are for everybody
A meld goes face up in the middle and stops being yours. On your turn you can lay single cards off onto any meld on the table, yours or somebody else's. The missing suit on a set, the next card at either end of a run.
So lay down early. A card sitting in your hand is a card you can lose points on, and a meld held back in your hand is one nobody else can lay off onto.
Going out and the score
The round ends the moment somebody empties their hand. That can be the last discard, or laying down or laying off your last card with no discard at all.
Whoever went out scores what is left in every other hand. An ace is one, a picture card is ten, the rest are their number. If the stock runs out before anyone is out, the lowest hand takes the difference against each of the others, and a tie for lowest scores nothing. First to a hundred wins the match.