Rummy isa game of skills against the popular opinion that it is purely based on luck. Although the game is traditionally played in offline mode, with the advent of a new technological era, playing Rummy is much easier and more accessible now, both online and offline.
The online mode is usually preferred more by the people because of the obvious reasons – accessibility being the major one. There is so much excitement about the game which might compel you to find out – how to play Rummy?
First of all, the point to remember is – Rummy may seem a bit complicated at first but when you are with the right guide and know the basic rules, learning to play Rummy is not at all troublesome.
Here are some of the basic rules and instructions about how to play Rummy –
- Rummy can be played among 2 to 6 people at a time with one or two decks of cards, depending on the game type and number of players.
- Equal cards are distributed among the players.At the beginning of the game, a designated dealer distributes the cards randomly to all players.
- The undealt cards are then kept in the middle as ‘the stock’, commonly known as the ‘closed deck’ in Online Rummy. The uppermost card of the pile is turned upward and kept at the side as the starting card of the ‘discarded pile’ of cards.
- Now the player at the left of the dealer will play the first move by choosing a card from the stock and discarding an unwanted card.The discarded card is the one that the player does not find useful in making of a set or sequence.In this way, each player gets his/ her turn.
- The game continues in the clockwise direction.
- When the cards in the closed deck are all utilised, the discarded cards can be reshuffled and reused.
- The points or the value of the cards are as follows – King, Queen, Jack and Ace have 10 points each. Other cards have points as per their face values like a four of any suit will have 4 points, etc. A Joker has zero points in the rummy game.
- A sequence or run can be understood as consecutive cards, like – Ace, 2, 3, 4, etc. which belong to the same suit. For example – 5 club, 6 club, 7 club, 8 club. It can be of three or four cards.
- A set can be understood as cards with same face value but compulsorily different suits, like – 8 of hearts, 8 of clubs, 8 of spades etc.
- Joker cards – Wild Joker and Printed Joker, can be used in place of other cards to form a valid sequence or set. A wild joker is determined by selecting a random card from the closed deck after dealing the 13 cards to each player. For example, if the 4 of hearts has been chosen, all other 4’s belonging to different suits are treated as wild card jokers for that particular deal.
- A pure sequence is the sequence of cards without a Joker card. An impure sequence is the sequence of cards with a joker card.
- At the end of the game, one needs to declare or ‘show’ the game to win. A valid declaration is one which fulfils the following criteria – two valid sets, two valid sequences and at least one pure sequence.
Thus, we can see that Rummy is easy to learn and with the right tactics and regular practice, you can surely master the game. Now, that you know how to play Rummy, you can surely start participating in online Rummy platforms. Who knows with little practice, you might find a disguised Rummy champion in you!
