Rummy Rules
Sets and runs, and going out with your whole hand
Rummy is playable, and it's in beta Beta
Rummy is in the lobby now. Start a table for 2 to 6 players and you'll be seated with computer players. The host chooses the house rules before the deal; they're listed at the bottom of this page.
Beta means it's new, not that it's broken. The whole game plays, start to finish, and somebody wins at the end of it; it just hasn't been played through by a person yet. If something looks wrong, report it as a bug.
Objective
Build sets and runs out of your hand, and be the first to go out, which means getting rid of everything you're holding. Going out scores you the total value of every card still sitting in everybody else's hand; nobody else scores anything that hand. A match runs to a target score (100 unless the host changes it), one hand at a time, with the deal moving one seat left after each.
The Table and the Deal
- 2 to 6 players, one 52-card deck.
- 10 cards each heads-up, 7 each at three or four seats, and 6 each at five or six. The host can choose ten each for four players or fewer instead.
- The rest of the deck is the stock, face down. One card is turned face up beside it to start the discard pile.
Two players works, but it is the hardest table for anybody to go out at: with only two of you there are few melds on the table to lay cards off on. A new table seats four unless the host chooses otherwise.
Your Turn
A turn is three separate steps, in this order, and the table won't let them happen out of order:
- Draw exactly one card, from the top of the stock, or from the top of the discard pile.
- Meld and lay off as much as you like. This step is optional; you can do nothing here and still take your turn.
- Discard exactly one card, face up, ending your turn.
Laying off puts one card from your hand onto a meld already on the table, including a meld another player laid down. It's only legal if the group it makes, with your card added, is itself a legal meld.
How You Play It Here
Everything is done by dragging a card, with a finger or with the mouse:
- To draw, drag a card from the stock or the discard pile into your hand.
- To lay down a meld, drag its cards one at a time into the box marked Your new meld, then press Lay it down. Drag a card into the box again, or press Take back, to change your mind.
- To lay a card off, drag it onto the meld it goes with, yours or anybody's.
- To discard, drag one card onto the discard pile. That ends your turn.
The table never decides for you whether cards make a meld: it sends what you chose, and if the rules say no, it tells you why and the cards come back to your hand.
Going Out
You go out on the discard: you meld and lay off down to one card left, then discard it. You may not meld your very last card away; one has to be kept back to throw (unless the host turns that rule off).
Going rummy (laying your entire hand down in a single turn, having melded or laid off nothing in any earlier turn of that hand) doubles the points you score unless the host turns that off.
Scoring
| Card | Value |
|---|---|
| Each Ace | 1 (a host playing aces high may make it 11 or 15) |
| Each Jack, Queen or King | 10 |
| Everything else | Its face value, so a seven is 7 |
Melded cards and cards laid off are already out of a hand and count for nothing either way, for anybody. Only what's still in hand when somebody goes out counts.
The other way to score, if the host chooses it: instead of the winner scoring everybody else's cards, everybody else counts their own cards as points against them. The match ends when somebody reaches the target, and the lowest total wins.
When the Stock Runs Out
The discard pile gets shuffled back into a new stock, everything except its own top card, which stays face up to be drawn. Play carries straight on.
The top of the discard pile can always be drawn, even if the stock and the rest of the discard pile are both empty, so a hand of this game can never reach a point where no legal move exists at all.
A stuck hand is scored. A hand that goes round and round with nobody able to go out ends after a long while (200 turns between you). It is scored as if the player with the lowest count left in their hand had gone out, counting only the difference between each other player's count and theirs: at 7 against 12 and 18, they score 5 + 11 = 16. At a table playing the other way to score, the lowest count takes nothing and everybody else counts their difference against them (5 and 11). If two or more tie for the lowest count, nobody scores that hand, unless the host has chosen, at a table playing the other way, that the tied players count nothing and everybody above them counts their difference (at 7, 7 and 12, the 12 counts 5). A stuck hand never counts double. A host can choose the old way instead, where nobody scores a stuck hand.
The House Rules
Every table plays these the usual way unless its host chooses otherwise before the deal. The settings box offers exactly these, in these words:
| Setting | What it does | Unless changed |
|---|---|---|
| Playing to | The match is played one hand at a time until somebody's total reaches this. One hand only plays a single hand. | 100 points |
| How a hand is scored | The usual way: whoever goes out scores the cards left in everybody else's hand, and the first to the target wins. The other way: everybody else counts their own cards as points against them, the match ends when somebody reaches the target, and the lowest total wins. | The player who goes out scores everybody else's cards (highest total wins) |
| Cards dealt | The standard deal is ten cards each for two players, seven for three or four and six for five or six. Some tables deal ten each whenever there are four players or fewer. | Ten each for two players, seven for three or four, six for five or six |
| Aces in a run | Where the ace sits in a run. A run never goes round the corner, so K-A-2 is never a run whichever you choose. | Low: A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not |
| An ace left in your hand counts | Only read when aces can play high (the rule above is High or Either). Some tables count a high ace 11 or 15 because it is the more useful card. When aces are low an ace always counts 1. | 1 point |
| Going rummy doubles the score | Going rummy is laying your whole hand down in one turn, having melded or laid off nothing earlier in the hand. On: that hand scores double. Off: it scores as usual. | On |
| A stuck hand is scored | A hand where nobody can go out ends after 200 turns. On: it is scored as if the player with the lowest count left in their hand had gone out, counting only the difference between each other player's count and theirs. A tie for the lowest count scores nobody (when everybody counts their own cards, the next setting can change that). Off: nobody scores that hand. | On |
| A tie for the lowest count in a stuck hand | Only read when everybody counts their own cards against them and a stuck hand is scored. If two or more players tie for the lowest count, either nobody counts anything that hand, or the tied players count nothing and everybody with more counts the difference between their count and the tied count against themselves. | Nobody counts anything that hand |
| You must discard to go out | On: keep one card back and go out by discarding it. Off: you may go out by melding or laying off your last card. | On |
| Take from anywhere in the discard pile | Off: only the top card of the discard pile may be taken. On (the 500 Rummy rule): you may take any card in the pile, but you take every card above it too, and the card you reached for must go into a meld, or onto one, before you discard. | Off |
| You may throw back the card you took from the pile | Off: a card taken off the discard pile cannot be thrown straight back on the same turn. On: it can. | Off |
To join a game waiting for players, to start your own game, or simply spectate a public game in progress, request an invite.