Rummy and its numerous variations

The rummy game is one of the most popular games for over 200 years now. Rummy is actually a name of a group of games, which share similar play structure that is based on melding cards or tile into sets and runs, by drawing and discarding cards during the turns. This family of games includes many unique variations; Starting from the Chinese Mahjong through the classic American gin rummy and up to the colorful and up until exciting Rummikub (or Tile Rummy). This might be the reason for the amazing popularity of this group of games all over the globe, (e.g. in France it's called rami ) . It seems that it’s because every player can choose their favorite variant and enjoy hours of exciting and thrilling games. Rummy is a skilled based game and being successful in it depends mostly on the player’s alertness, tactics and strategic game play. Most Rummy games are meant for 2-4 players, each playing in turn, clockwise. Each turn consists of 3 major moves. The deck varies between the different Rummy games and may consist of 52-106 cards. The goal is to be the first player to meld down all the cards in their hand. The first move is drawing a card. Players can draw a card by picking it up from the stock pile (that consists of the remainder of the deck, located on the table, face down). Another option is to draw a card from the discard pile (Please see more information on the discard pile below). This rule varies or has certain limitations in the different Rummy variations, but is present in all of them. The second move of each turn is not mandatory for the game play but optional, depending on the cards tiles that each player has in their hand. This move is called melding cards tiles down on the table, in sets and/ or runs. A meld is a sequence of cards. There are two types of melds: Sets and Runs. A Set is a meld of 3-4 cards containing the same rank in the different suits. A Run is a meld of 3 or more cards consecutive in rank, all holding the same suit. The rules regarding this move change from game to game. Some enable a gradual lay-down of the melds during the game; some require it to be all at once. The third and last move of each turn is called “Discard”. Every player finishing a turn must then discard one card tile from their hand onto the discard pile. In most Rummy games there is only one discard pile, and each player may pick up the last card thrown there by their opponent, according to the game’s pick up rules. The next player may then choose whether to draw a card from the stock pile, or pick up the one from the discard pile. This will be done according to the player’s decision whether they need this card to complete a meld, (or a future one) or not. In most cases the game ends when one of the players lay down in melds all of the cards in their hand, onto the table. They still need to discard one last card onto the discard pile in order to do that.

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