Rummy Rules

1. Rummy Cup
2. Rummikub Joker Rules

First created in the 1930s and sold in hand-produced versions until the late 1970s. Similar to the Rummy that you play with cards - you try to get rid of all your tiles by forming numbers into runs of 3 tiles or more, or 3 to 4 of a kind. The colors of the numbers on the tiles are like card suits. With more than 55 million units sold, Rummikub is one of the world's best-selling and most-played games Players take turns placing numbered tiles in runs or groups, Rummy style - the first player to use all of their tiles wins Fast-paced, easy gameplay is ideal for people of different ages to play together. How to play rummy online. The aim of rummy is to get rid of all your cards before your opponent does. One standard deck of 52 cards is used for classic rummy. Rummikub is a group of rummy games played with tiles as opposed to cards. The game was introduced to the Western world by its inventor, Ephraim Hertzano. Tile Rummy was introduced in response to religious and legal sanctions on card games due to their association with gambling.

Rummy is a classic cardgame where the objective is to be the first to get rid of all your cards, by creating melds, which can either be sets, three or four cards of the same rank, e.g. H8 S8 D8, or runs, which are three or more cards of the same suit in a sequence, e.g. H1 H2 H3. Aces are low, and sequences can not wrap around. There are many, many variations of Rummy that exist, this particular implementation is Basic Rummy, or Traditional Rummy.

Gameplay

The game can have 2,3 or 4 players. If there are only two players they each get 10 cards, if there are three or four player then each player gets 7 cards. After the cards are dealt the deck is put facedown on the table, and one card face up next to it, to start the discard pile. The player to the left of the dealer starts the hand, and gameplay goes as follows:

1. Start your turn by drawing card from either the deck or the discard pile.
2. If possible, lay down a meld on the table. You are allowed to put down many melds in each round (in some versions only one meld per turn is allowed).
3. Lay off cards on existing melds. For example if there's H5 H6 H7 on the table, and you have the H8 you may lay it off on the meld. Who put the meld down in the first place doesn't matter, as soon as a meld is on the table it doesn't belong to anyone anymore, anyone can use it. You are allowed to lay off as many cards as you want, and you may always lay off, also when you haven't put down a meld in the round.
4. End your turn by discarding one card onto the discard pile. If you drew from the discard pile you can not discard that card in the same round. If you only have one card left to discard you put it face down on the discard pile and win the game.

The game continues like this until one player has finished all the cards from their hand. A player is not required to end the game by discarding a card onto the discard pile, if he can lay down all his cards in melds, or lay them off on existing melds the may do so, and will win the game.

If the deck is depleted before a player has won, then the discard pile is shuffled and used as a new deck. If the deck is depleted for a second time then the hand is considered a stalemate and finishes with no one getting any points.

Scoring

The scoring in Rummy is winner-takes-all. When a player has won a round, the cards his opponents still have in their hands are counted and the winner gets points based on them. Face cards are worth 10 points each, aces are 1 point, and other cards are worth their rank, e.g. an 8 is worth 8 points. The points for all the losers are added together and given to the winner. (In some variations each player gets his points as penalty points, but not in this version). The score needed to win the entire game varies based on how many players there are. For 2 players the score is 100 points, for 3 players it's 150 points and for four players the score is 200. When a player reaches the target score he has won the entire game. Since scoring is based on cards left in hand it makes sense to try to meld and lay off as early as possible.

Going Rummy (Rummy bonus)

If a player has not melded or laid off any cards during the game, but can get rid of all his cards in one turn earns a bonus, his points are doubled! This is called Going Rummy, and is a risky move, since you have a lot of cards for a long time, but can really pay off if you manage to do it successfully!

Stalemate

There are two cases where the game can end in a stalemate. One, as mentioned above, is when the stock has been depleted twice. The other is when the game detects that none of the players will be able to finish their hands. This can for example happen when all players have only one card left, and there are no possible lay offs on the melds on the table. When there's a stalemate all players get 0 points, and the game is considered a loss for all of them in the statistics. The way people handle this in real life varies greatly, but I've chosen this simple method here to avoid complications around two or more players having the same number of points etc.

Rummikub® Rules

Rummikub® is a commercially-available tile rummy game developed by Israeli games inventor Ephraim Hertzano in the early 1930s. Even though this game is played with tiles rather than cards, this is a true Rummy game,featuring many of the elements common to all Rummy games, including the goal of making melds of three or more of a kind.

Rummikub is also known under other names, such as 'Tile Rummy', 'Rummy Tiles', 'Rummy-O', 'RummyCube', 'Rummykub','Rummicub', 'Rummicube', and 'Rummycub'.

Here is an interesting theory about why tiles are used rather than cards:

Over the years, a number of different religious groups have associated playing cards with gambling, and have enforced a strict prohibition against all card games, regardless of whether they were gambling games or not. Rummikub arose as an alternative to this prejudice against playing cards. It is a purely numbered tile game with no images of kings & queens, or other royalty. Rummikub is considered by millions of lay men and women around the world, as socially relaxing and interactive play for all ages. Also clergymen and clergywomen of many denominations enjoy this peaceful and enjoyable game.

Rummikub Rules

Introduction:

All over the world people are discovering the joys of Rummikub® an exciting, fast-moving game which combines theelement of luck with strategic planning to provide hours of fascinating play Rummikub° btings together the most popularfeatures of a number of well-known pastimes including Mah-Jongg®, dominoes, rummy and even an element of chess, into amodern game which holds the attention, stimulates the imagination, challenges the wits and pleases the eye of today’sdemanding game players.

How to Play Rummikub®,
The Sabra Way

RULES

SABRA WAY is played by 2, 3, or 4 people. It is played very much like cards except you play with tiles.There are 106 tiles in the game including 2 jokers.

There are 4 different color tiles, black, red, orange, and blue numbering 1 through 13.

The object of the game is to be the first to eliminate all the tiles from your rack by forming them into sets of runs and groups,and then melding them onto the table.

Your objective, therefore, is to keep as few points in your hand as possible.

SETTING UP THE GAME

Mix the tiles thoroughly face downward on the table. Each player picks a tile to see who goes first. The one who selects thehighest tile is the first to play. The others follow going counterclockwise.

After you determine who plays first, all the players pick 14 tiles.

BEGINNING

In order to place tiles on the table each player must make an initial meld of 50 points in one or more sets. These points mustcome from tiles in the hand only and not from tiles already on the table. Each tile is worth the number of points as valued onthe tile. A joker may be substituted for any tile and its point value is the same as the tile it represents when melding, and worth 30points when held on your rack while another player wins.

RUNS

All runs must consist of at least 3 tiles of the same color -

EXAMPLES:4, 5, 6 red 1, 2, 3, 4 orange

GROUPS

Groups must consist of 3 or 4 tiles of different colors

EXAMPLE:#4 red, #4 blue, #4 black

Not acceptable: #4 orange, #4 orange, #4 red

MELDS

EXAMPLES:

PLAYING THE TABLE

Once you have placed your initial 50 points down, you are free to play on the table and manipulate and rearrange melds.

If you cannot add onto the other runs or groups of yours or opponents, you must pick a tile from the table. Then you mustwait until your next turn to play. You continue to pick tiles until you are able to play - you can never lay down once you havepulled a tile.

EXAMPLE:

are on the table. You can add the #4 blue. You are, therefore, able to take on one of the #4’s to use for another group or run.You must leave at least 3 tiles in order to make another meld.

are on the table. You can add either a #5 red or a #9 red. If you have a joker in your tiand you could make the following addition.

If there are more than 3 tiles in one group or run, you can take the excess to make a new group or run. Each set must contain atleast 3 tiles.

are on the table. You make take the #6 blue if you have a #5 and a #7 blue and make a new run. Or, if you have a #6 red and a #6orange you can make a new group of #6’s. The same would apply to the #9 blue, you would still be leaving 3 tiles if you tookeither the 6 or the 9.

are on the table. You can take one of the 5’s and add it with a #4 and a #6 of the same color and make a run. Or if you had twomore #5’s in your hand you could take a different color #5 and make another group.

are on the table. If you have an 8 blue and 10 blue in your hand you can move the 9 orange over to the group of 9’s and then takethe 9 blue for your run. Therefore, you are still leaving 3 in each set.

are on the table. If you have a #4 black in your hand and a #1 black you can use them to make the following groups.

THE JOKER

A Joker may be substituted for any tile when you make a meld. You can add a tile to a meld containing a Joker, either the fourthtile in a group or to either end of a run. You may not take a tile away from a meld which includes a Joker. You may take a Jokerfrom a run or group in exchange for a tile of the same vaue from your hand. You must use the Joker immediately with 2 moretiles from your hand to make another meld onto the table. You may not hold the Joker to use ata later time. Under tournamentrules, a Joker taken from a group of three tiles must be replaced with both missing tiles.

EXAMPLES:

A meld containing a Joker may not be manipulated. After a Joker has been taken from a meld as shown above, the meldmay be manipulated.

TIME LIMIT

Two minutes per turn - per player.

SCORING

Each loser adds up the value of the tiles left on his rack, counting 30 points for a joker and face value for all other tiles, andscores this as a minus (negative) amount.

The sum of all the losers’ scores is credited to the winner as a plus amount. At the end of the session, each player’s final scoreis totalled for the final results. The total of the plus scores should equal the total of the minus scores if all the arithmetichas been done correctly.

In the rare case that all the tiles are used up before anyone goes Rummikub®, the player with the lowest count remaining on hisrack is considered the winner. Each of the losers adds up his total remaining tile value, subtracts the winner's total andscores the result as a minus amount, and the winner gets a plus score by totalling the losers’ scores.

PENALTIES

A player who plays past the two-minute time limit must draw one tile from the pool.

A player who manipulates the tiles unsuccessfuUy and leaves incomplete melds on the table, must replace the tiles in theiroriginal positions, take back the tiles he has melded, and draw three additional tiles from the pool.

© E. Hertzano, Israel, © 1985 Pressman Toy Corp., N.Y., N.Y.

Other Rummikub Rule Links

Other Rummy Tile Games

John McLeod has rules for several other related games, including the Turkish game Okey,Romanian Tile Rummy, and the Rummikub variationsAmerican Rummikub and International Rummikub.

Rummikub Card and Board Games

Rummy Cup

Rummikub Software

Rummikub® is a registered trademark of Pressman Toy Corporation. The Rummikub rules were OCR'd from a vintage rule sheet, and are provided as an educational resource forRummy players, researchers, and students of the game. Any grammatical or typographical errors are an artifact of thisprocess, and should not be attributed to the original source.

Rummikub Joker Rules

Additional Information