Rummy Rules

What you need

• One standard 52-card deck, no jokers
• Pencil and paper, or the free score keeper

Players and time

2 to 6 players (best with 2 to 4). About 10 to 15 minutes a hand.

The goal

Get rid of every card in your hand before anyone else does. You do it by laying down sets and runs, adding cards to melds already on the table, and discarding.

When a player goes out, they score the card points left in the other players' hands. Before the first deal, agree how the game ends: a target score or a set number of hands.

This page covers basic rummy, also called straight rummy. Rummy has many relatives, such as gin rummy, 500 rummy and canasta, that use different melding and scoring rules.

Setup

1. Pick the first dealer at random. In a two-player game the dealers take turns. With more players the deal passes to the left after each hand.
2. Shuffle and deal one card at a time, face down: 10 cards each for 2 players, 7 each for 3 or 4 players, and 6 each for 5 or 6 players.
3. Put the rest of the deck face down in the middle as the stock. Turn the top card face up beside it to start the discard pile.
4. In ranking order the cards run from ace (low), 2 up to 10, then jack, queen and king. Aces are low only unless your group agrees to the optional high-ace rule below.

A turn

1. The player to the dealer's left goes first. In a two-player game the player who did not deal goes first.
2. Draw: take the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile.
3. Meld (optional): lay one set or run face up on the table. Under the basic rules you may lay down only one new meld per turn.
4. Lay off (optional): add cards from your hand to any meld on the table, yours or another player's, as many as you like. Melds cannot be rearranged to make room.
5. Discard: put one card face up on the discard pile. You may not discard the same card you just took from the discard pile. A card drawn from the stock may be discarded straight away.
6. You go out when your hand is empty, whether by melding, laying off or discarding. Play stops at once. Nobody may meld or lay off after that.
7. If the stock runs out and the next player does not want the top discard, turn the discard pile over, without shuffling, to make a new stock.

Special cards and combinations

Set (also called a group or book)

Three or four cards of the same rank, such as three 8s or four queens. A set can never have more than four cards, because there are only four suits.

Run (also called a sequence)

Three or more consecutive cards of the same suit, such as 4-5-6 of hearts. Aces are low only, so A-2-3 is a run and Q-K-A is not.

Laying off

Adding a card to a meld on the table: the fourth card to a set, or the next or previous card to a run. You can lay off onto your own melds and onto other players' melds.

Going rummy (optional bonus)

Some groups reward going out in a single turn, without having melded or laid off in an earlier turn. The winner then scores double the usual total, or in some groups a flat 10 bonus. This is optional and off by default here.

Scoring

When a player goes out, every other player adds up the cards left in their hand. The winner of the hand scores the total of those hands. Keep a running total across hands.

Melded cards on the table score nothing in basic rummy. Only the cards still in hands count.

Keep score with the Rummy score keeper

How to win

Play hands until one player reaches the agreed target score, or until the agreed number of hands has been played. The player with the highest total then wins.

The score keeper uses a target of 100 points by default, and you can change it or turn it off in the settings. Neither of the two sources we use names a standard target, so 100 is the most common choice rather than an official one.

Common house rules

These are house rules. They are not part of the official rules, so agree on them before you start.

Aces high or low (optional rule) House rule

Some groups let an ace count as either the lowest or the highest card in a run, so Q-K-A is allowed. The ace is then worth 15 points instead of 1. Wrapping around, as in K-A-2, is unusual. It is not allowed in the basic game.

Several melds per turn (variation) House rule

Bicycle's description lets a player lay down all the melds they can in one turn. The basic version on Pagat allows one new meld per turn, and that is what this page uses.

Going rummy bonus (variation) House rule

Going out in one turn with no earlier meld or lay-off pays double (Bicycle) or double, or 10 extra (Pagat, as an option). To use it in the score keeper, enter double the card points for each hand.

Must end with a discard (variation) House rule

Some groups do not allow going out by melding or laying off your last card. You have to finish the turn by discarding.

Shuffled stock (variation) House rule

When the stock runs out, some groups shuffle the discard pile before reusing it. The basic rule turns it over without shuffling.

No one goes out (variation) House rule

In block rummy the discard pile is never reused. When the stock runs out and the next player will not take the discard, the hand ends and the player with the lowest hand total wins. They score the difference between that total and each other player's total.

Penalty scoring (variation) House rule

Instead of the winner collecting, each loser adds the points left in their hand to their own total. The game ends when someone reaches 100 or more, and the lowest total wins. The score keeper has a setting for losers losing their hand points, which is off by default.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Pagat: Basic Rummy (straight rummy) (Deal sizes, melds, turn, laying off, ace rule, card values, scoring and variations. It does not give a fixed target score.)
• Bicycle Cards: Rummy (Deal sizes, play, laying off, going out, stock exhaustion, card values, scoring and the rummy bonus. It does not give a target score.)