This card game requires a standard 52 card deck and at least you and two friends or family members to play. It’s easy to learn and very fun play. It requires nothing but a pen, a pad of paper, and some free time to enjoy yourself. Great for a small group of friends to play, it is a social card game. This article will walk you through how to set up and play this simple yet fascinating game.
Scoring – Points are awarded to players who have cards that are laid down in front of them and points are taken away for the cards remaining in the players hand. You get to place cards down when you have three of a kind, a run of three or more cards of the same suit, or a matching card that goes with someone else’s three of a kind or run. Each card has a certain amount of points that are awarded for it. This small chart will show you how many points you earn for each card.
For example, you can lay down an Ace Two and Three of the same suit or Three Fours or Three Fives. Also, if someone else has a run laid down like Five Six Seven of the same suit, then another person can place down the eight of that same suit. The ace can be high or low, but it can not be used as both. You can not lay down King Ace Two of any suit because the Ace can only be used as the high or low card.
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 —–Face Value (2 for a two, 3 for a three, etc.)
Jack, Queen, King —–10 points each
Ace —–15 points each
At the end of each game, the cards that were laid down in front of the player are counted as positive points and the cards left in the players hand are negative points. Added together, this will give each player a score. The first person to five hundred points wins he game!
Game Play – Each player will receive seven cards from the dealer. The dealer must make sure to start dealing to his left then after each game the person to the left of the dealer becomes the new dealer. After each person has seven cards, you take the remaining cards and put them in the middle of the table for use of the drawing deck. The top card of the drawing deck is flipped over and placed in the discard pile that will be made right next to the drawing deck. After this, the players can start their turns.
Player Turns – At the start of the players turn, he or she must first draw a card from either the discard pile or the drawing deck. If you draw from the discard pile, you must either take the first card that is showing a card under the first card that is showing. If you pick up a card under the top card, you will need to pick up every card on top of the card you want. Also, you must use the card that you picked up first from under the top discard pile. If you pick the first card, you are not required to lay that card down for points this turn.
After the player draws a card, he or she gets a chance to place cards down for points. This is the second part of the turn. A person must always wait until his or her turn to place cards down for points. For information on which cards you can lay down, review the scoring section of this article.
The last part of the Turn is the discard. After the player draws a card or cards and takes a chance to place cards down for points, he or she must discard a single card onto the discard pile. The card he or she places down can then be picked up by the person to the left of the player. This loop will continue until the end of the game.
The only way for a player to end the game is for he or she to discard the final card in their hand onto the discard pile. This card has to be a dead card as in it can not be played anywhere on the table.
Calling Rummy – This happens when a person discards his or her card into the discard pile and, because of this card, there is a group of cards ready to be placed down as points with no other cards needed laying in the discard pile. When this happens then any player can call rummy and take the cards from the last card needed to make the group up to the card the player just laid down. The only player who can not call rummy is the player who just placed the card down on the discard pile. After the rummy was called, the playing resumes but it resumes at the person who called rummy and continues left of that person like normal.
Floating – In order to go out and end the game, you must have one last card to place down on the discard pile that can not be laid down for points. When a person does not have a card to discard or when a person discards a card that someone calls rummy on, then this player is floating. The game continues to go around the table without this person discarding. When it comes back to this player, he or she plays as if they weren’t floating. This process can repeat until a player can discard and end the game.
