The Book of Card Games: The Complete Rules to the Classics, Family Favorite and Forgotten Games (26 page)

If the stockpile runs out of cards, and the next player does not want to take the top card on the discard pile, the discard pile is turned over to form a new stockpile and play continues.

Play for that hand ends when the first player discards his last card by melding, laying off, or discarding his last card. The other players then add up the values of the cards still in their hand. Those points are added to the winner’s score. More hands are dealt until a player wins by reaching a specific number of points (agreed upon before play began) or until a specific number of hands have been played (agreed upon before play began). The player with the highest score at that time wins the game.

Once a player discards his final card and the game is over, you may not discard cards from your hand to get rid of penalty points, even if they are melds or if you can play the cards on existing melds on the table. Sorry, those are the rules!

There are many variations to the game of rummy. You may play more than one meld in a turn, but you may not lay off on your opponent’s melds until you have laid down a meld of your own. If you go out without having laid down any melds or without laying off cards to your opponent’s hands, you receive a bonus of ten points or your score for that hand is doubled, depending on how you and the other players have chosen to play the game.

In one variation, you must discard your final card to go out. If you lay down all of your cards in melds or on your opponent’s cards, you must wait until the next turn and draw a card from the stockpile. If you can play that card, you must do so and wait another turn. If you can discard that card, the game is over, and you win.

A scoring variation is that you receive points equal to the value of your hand when another player goes out. When the first person reaches 100 points, the player with the fewest points wins.

Conquian is actually the earliest known rummy game in the Western world. It is played with forty cards (remove the eights, nines, and tens from a standard pack of cards). The game is played with two players, who are each dealt ten cards. The first player can choose to take the initial discard or pass, allowing the dealer to take it. If the dealer passes, regular play begins. In each turn, you can pick up the card in the discard pile, but only if you can use it to make a meld on the table. If you cannot, you turn the discard face down in a second discard pile, pick up the first card in the stockpile, and turn it over on top of the initial discard pile. You may then pick up this card, but again, only if you can use it to make a meld on the table. If you cannot, you leave it for your opponent and your turn is over. If you pick up a card and make a meld, you may also play off other melds or add other melds that you have in your hand. You then discard, and your turn is over.

Gin rummy is more complicated than standard rummy because a player cannot lay down melds during play. You must hold your cards in your hand until you can go out, so you do not have the option of playing off your previous melds or your opponent’s melds to assist you in discarding your cards. Gin rummy is played with only two players using a standard pack of fifty-two cards. All face cards are worth ten points, and the numbered cards are worth their face value. An ace is worth one point. Each player tries to arrange the cards in his hand into melds to go out first.

A random dealer is chosen and deals out ten cards, one at a time, face down to each player. The dealer turns up the next card, face up, and this begins the discard pile. The remainder of the cards are placed face down next to the discard pile and become the stockpile. Deal continues to alternate after each game.

Play begins with the dealer’s opponent choosing to take the card in the discard pile or passing it. If he passes, the dealer has a chance to draw the card. If the dealer also passes on taking the card, the opponent starts a normal turn by drawing a card from the stockpile and discarding a card to the waste pile. From that point forward, on each turn you can choose to draw the top card on the discard pile or the top card of the stockpile. The advantage of taking from the discard pile is that because the card is face up, you know what card you are choosing. Of course, if that card does not work toward building a meld with any other cards in your hand, you are better off drawing from the stockpile. You add the card you drew to your hand. The next step is to discard a card. This card is placed face up on top of the discard pile. If you drew the top card from the discard pile, you may not discard that same card within the same turn.

Play ends when a player knocks on the table. Knocking can occur during any turn, immediately after the player picks up his card, if the player can form enough melds. Once you knock, you discard one card and spread the rest of your hand on the table, face up. You then arrange your cards into their various melds and deadwood.

Your opponent then turns over his cards, face up, and arranges them into melds if possible. If you did not go gin (by discarding all of your cards with no deadwoods), your opponent may play any of his deadwood cards off your melds. As an example, if you had a meld of 6♥ 7♥ 8♥, your opponent may play a 5♥ or 9♥ on your meld. If you did go gin, your opponent may lay down his melds, but may not play any deadwood cards on your melds.

You are not forced to knock, even if you are able. You may continue to play in the hopes of obtaining a better score. Play also ends if the stockpile is reduced to two cards. The hand is then over, and neither player scores points for that deal.

Each player adds up the value of his deadwood cards. If the knocker’s count is lower than his opponent’s, he scores the difference between the two hands. If the knocker did not go gin, and the count of their hands is equal, or if the knocker’s count is higher than his opponent’s, the knocker has been undercut. If this happens, the opponent scores the difference between the two hands and a bonus of ten points. If the knocker goes gin, he receives a bonus of twenty points.

The game continues with more hands until you or your opponent reaches 100 points. That player receives a bonus of 100 points. If the winner’s opponent did not score any points, he receives another bonus of 100 points (for a total of 200 bonus points). Each player also receives a “line bonus” of twenty points for each hand that he won. The player with the most points wins and is typically paid the difference between his points and his opponent’s points.

Also known as Kalookie, Kalooki, and Kaloochie, this game is played with two decks of cards and four jokers. Fifteen cards are dealt if there are two, three, or four players. Thirteen cards are dealt if there are five players, and eleven cards are dealt for six players. A meld may not contain duplicate cards (for example, a three-of-a-kind meld may not consist of 6♥ 6♥ 6♠). The ace can count in sequence with a king and queen. Until you lay down your own first meld, you may not play on others’ melds, and you may only pick up cards from the stockpile. The exception to this is if you are laying down your initial meld on that turn. You may remove a joker from the table, replace it with the card it represents, and add the joker to your hand for play at a later time. In scoring a hand, unplayed jokers count as twenty-five points, jokers on the table count as the card they represent, aces count as eleven points, and the rest of the cards are their normal numeric value.

Also known as Carousel, Shanghai, Rummi, or the tile game Rummikub, Manipulation Rummy allows a player to manipulate the cards on the table to form new melds so that he can play more cards from his hand. The objective of Manipulation Rummy is to try to meld all of your cards onto the table using the cards in your hand, your previous melds, and your opponent’s melds. The game requires three to five players and two standard decks of fifty-two cards. Aces are considered high and cannot be melded into a sequence with low cards.

The game starts by choosing a random dealer who shuffles the cards and deals seven cards, face down, one at a time to each player. The remaining cards are turned face down and placed in the middle of the table to form the stockpile. Play begins with the player to the left of the dealer. If you are able to meld any of your cards onto the table, you must do so. If you can’t meld any cards, you must draw cards from the stockpile until you can. A meld can be a sequence of three cards in the same suit, or a three-of-a-kind. There is no initial draw and no discard in the game of Manipulation Rummy.

Play continues clockwise around the table. After an initial meld has been laid down, you can manipulate the cards that have been melded on the table in order to create new melds using at least one card in your hand. For example, if there is a meld of 4♣ 5♣ 6♣ on the table and a meld of 7♣ 7♥ 7♠, you may lay down the 7♦ from your hand, move the 7♣ over to the sequence and add an 8♣ from your hand. The new melds would be 4♣ 5♣ 6♣ 7♣ 8♣ and 7♦ 7♥ 7♠. If you do rearrange the melds on the table, when you are finished each card on the table must still be part of a legal meld. The first player to get rid of all the cards in his hand wins that hand.