Rummy Rules

Rummy Rules

1. What is Rummy?

Rummy is a popular card game that is one of a larger number of Draw and Discard games. The basic objective of Rummy is to improve one's Hand, that is, whatever cards one has, by drawing and discarding cards and forming sets. Certain rules, described later, have to be followed while making these sets.

According to the Honorable Supreme Court of India, Rummy is a game of skill and not a game of chance and absolutely legal to play.

2. What is Draw and Discard?

In all Rummy games, each player is dealt a hand of cards. Additionally, there are 2 stacks from which each player can select cards, thereby drawing a card. Once a player draws a card, he has to get rid of one card - in Rummy, this is called discarding. A player can draw from either the closed un-dealt cards or the open discarded pile.

3. What is Indigo Rummy?

Indigo Rummy (13 card rummy) is a variant of Rummy popular in India that involves making valid sets out of 13 cards. Each player is dealt 13 cards initially; each has to draw and discard cards by turns till one player melds his/her cards with valid sets that meet the Rummy validation rules.

4. What is a Table?

A Table is where a Game of rummy is played. Typically, one Game of rummy is played on one Table.

5. What is Meld and Show?

For a particular Rummy Hand, each player is provided with 13 cards. The objective of Rummy is to arrange these cards into 4 groups of 3, 3, 3 and 4 cards. These groups can be either Life or Set. A minimum of 2 Lives are required to have a valid arrangement. Once the player has made these groups, he has to submit the cards in groups for validation. This action of submitting the cards is called Show. However, to have a successful Show in Rummy, the player has to arrange the cards into Lives or Sets. This action of arranging the cards in groups is called Meld or Melding.

6. What is a Round?

A Round is part of a Game that starts with dealing the cards to each player and ends with a player making a successful Show or the prize being Split.

7. What is dealing?

To start playing a Round, the cards have to be given to all the players. The act of giving the card to all the players is termed as Dealing.

8. What is a Deck of cards?

A complete set of cards is called a Deck of cards. A Deck of cards consists of the following cards:

• 52 cards
• 4 Suits with 13 cards each
• 1 joker - A joker can be used in place of any card

9. What is a Joker and how does it help?

One card from the rest of the deck (remainder after dealing the cards to the players) is randomly selected and becomes a Joker for that particular game. All cards of the exact rank in any suit similar to the joker in Rummy are considered as Jokers. In addition, there will be two extra cards which contain the symbol of a Joker.

A Joker is allowed to be used in place of any cards when forming a set. However, the player has to ensure that he has a sequence without a Joker card to be eligible to use the Joker in Rummy as stated above.

10. What is a Drop?

Players can choose not to play a particular Round before drawing the first card. This action is termed as Drop.

• If a player Drops in 101 Pool, the score is 20.
• If a player Drops in 201 Pool, the score is 25.
• A player cannot Drop in Best of 3.

11. What is a Middle Drop?

Players can choose not to play after a Round starts by neither drawing nor discarding any cards. This action is termed as Middle Drop.

• If a player does a Middle Drop in 101 Pool, the score is 40.
• If a player does a Middle Drop in 201 Pool, the score is 50.
• A player cannot make a Middle Drop in Best of 3.

12. What is a Full Count?

A Full Count is the maximum possible score for one Round. For all types of games in Rummy, the Full Count is 80.

13. Validation Rules

To make a successful show, a player must have at least 1 Pure Life and 1 Life with/without jokers as described below.

14. What is a Life?

A Life is a sequence of at least 3 cards of the same suit. To make a successful Show, a player must have at least 1 Pure Life (Straight sequence with no jokers).

15. What is a Set?

A Set is a group of 3 or 4 cards with the same Value or different Suits.

16. When do you win or what is a "Show"?

You win a game when you call for a "show". If there are 13 cards which can be displayed in particular sets and are in accordance with the rules of the game, the player can then call for a "show". To "show", a player must have 14 cards of which he chooses to close one card before calling for a "show". After the "show", the player should combine the 13 cards into sets and put it before the rest of the playing group for validation. The "show" is declared a winner if it meets the validation rules listed below:

• Life-1 should be the order of not less than three cards of the same suite. Life1 shouldn't have a Joker. However, the set can include a Joker if the Joker card is used as the card itself and not as a Joker.
• Life-2 must be a sequence of at least three cards of the same suite. Life 2 may or may not have a joker.
• SET1 and SET2 may be a sequence or a triplet, or four cards of equal value and different sets. SET1 may or may not contain a joker.

Note: Maximum/penalty points in a game like in case of wrong show: 80 validation rules. We do not allow multiple accounts and only one account is allowed per house hold.

17. What is "Rejoin" option?

A player can rejoin after he has been eliminated (reaching the maximum points limit) from a game.

18. When can a player "Rejoin" in the table?

A player can join by buying in for a second time and agreeing to rejoin the table provided if the next highest points on the table are not greater than "174 points" in case for the game 201 points and "79 points" in case of 101 points game.