Many different variations of the basic rummy game exist, and each has a loyal following who often only play that variation of rummy. Some of the most popular ones are Gin Rummy, Liverpool Rummy, and Mah Jongg.
Gin Rummy is a two-player version of rummy. While basic rummy can be played with two players, it can also be played with up to six. Gin Rummy, however, can have no more than two players. The goal of Gin Rummy was to create a faster version of the basic rummy game.
There are some rules in Gin Rummy that are different from basic rummy rules. The ace can only be used as a low card players may not create a Queen, King, Ace sequence. Each player starts with ten cards and, like in basic rummy, draws one card or picks up the discard, may meld or lay off each hand, and then discards to end his/her turn.
Players also have the option of knocking. To do this, a player discards and then announces he/she is knocking. He/she does this by laying all cards down with the melds clearly separated from the deadwood cards. The other player can then lay off any cards onto the melds. If the player has no deadwood, however, then he/she has Gone Gin and the game is over. There are various rules regarding when a player can knock, and these rules often change depending on which version of Gin Rummy players are playing.
In Liverpool Rummy, more than one deck of cards is used. This allows players to have ten to twelve card hands. Even though more decks are used, generally only five or six players can play at a time. The main difference between Liverpool Rummy and other versions is that players must make specific books and runs for each round of play. During round one, for example, players cannot lay down their melds until they have two books. In round two, they must make one book and one run. By the seventh hand, they are looking to make four books or three runs and have no discard at the end. These specific rules, obviously, make Liverpool Rummy a longer and more challenging variant of Rummy.
Finally, although it may not seem like it, the original Chinese game of Mah Jongg is also a type of Rummy. It is important to note that the version of Mah Jongg that is a Rummy game is not the American Mah Jongg, the one-player tile matching game that has become quite popular as a computer game. The original Chinese version was played by four players using a set of tiles. The goal, like in Rummy, is to create melds and sequences. Mah Jongg includes many more tiles than Rummy, with some tile sets featuring 152 different tiles. This means players start out with larger hands they may have anywhere from 17 to 19 tiles. In addition to three suites of numbers, a Mah Jongg set may feature Wind, Dragon, Flower, and Season tiles, and each of these has specific rules regarding their use in the game.
In addition to these three versions of Rummy, many other variations exist. In fact, you can find entire books dedicated to describing the various versions at any bookstore.
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Gin rummy is one of the most popular variations on the standard rummy card game. Unlike some variations, gin rummy, or gin as it is sometimes called, can only be played by two players. This makes gin rummy a faster game than some of the other versions of rummy. The game is played using one standard deck of cards without the jokers. Aces can only be played as the low card.
To win a game of gin rummy, you must score the most points. To do this, you want to form melds while at the same time discarding as many deadwood cards as possible. A meld is either a book (cards of the same type, such as three 2s or three jacks) or a run (three or more cards of the same suit in sequence, like the 5, 6, and 7 of spades).
Deadwood cards are those that are not a part of a meld, and the deadwood count is the sum of the value of all the deadwood cards in a hand with aces as one point, face cards as ten points, and all other cards as their face value. As with most card games, a card can only be a part of one meld.
The dealer deals out ten cards to each player. Then the dealer flips one card over to create the discard pile and places the draw pile between the players. The other player then has the option of picking up the discarded card or drawing.
On his or her turn, the player either draws a card or takes the top card on the discard pile. He or she may also knock at the end of each turn before discarding one card. Players continue drawing and discarding until either one player knocks or the draw pile gets down to two cards.
Knocking is a special move a player can do at the end of his or her turn if he has 10 or fewer deadwood points. To knock, the player ends the turn by discarding, and then announces the knock. He/she lays out his/her hand, indicating all melds. The other player can then play off any deadwood cards that fit with the knocking players melds.
After this, the score is figured. The knocking player gets a score equal to the difference between his/her hand and the other players. If the knocking player has three deadwood points and the other player has seven, the knocking player has a score of four.
There are several different variations to gin rummy, including other ways of figuring the score. This, however, is the basic way the game is played.
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There are many different types of card games that fall under the generic rummy title, including Gin Rummy, Robbers Rummy, Liverpool Rummy, and Canasta. Each of these different card games is played slightly different, but most bear some resemblance to the basic rummy game.
To play rummy, you will need one deck of cards. Jokers are not used normally, although there are rules for playing with the jokers if you want to use them.
The game begins with each player drawing a card. Whoever draws the lowest card serves as dealer first. If there are two players, each gets ten cards; if there are three or four, each gets seven, and if there are five to six players, each one gets six cards. These cards are dealt face down. The rest of the deck becomes the draw pile and is placed in the middle of the table. The top card is flipped over and placed next to it as the discard pile.
The player to the dealers left plays first. On each players turn, he or she draws a card from the draw pile or picks up the top card from the discard pile. The player may then make a meld or lay off before discarding to end his/her turn.
Melding is the process of laying down a run (a sequence of three cards of the same suit 8, 9, 10 of hearts, for example) or a book (three cards of the same value, such as three 3s). You may meld up to four cards in a run or book but no more. The goal of basic rummy is to get rid of all of your cards by either melding them or laying them off.
Laying off is the term used when a player plays on an existing meld. For example, if a player has already melded three 3s and draws an additional 3, he/she may lay off that 3 onto the meld, making it a meld of four. Players may also lay off cards on other players melds. If someone else has melded the 8, 9, and 10 of hearts and a player has the 7, he/she can add it to the other players meld.
After melding or laying off, each player discards a single card to mark the end of their turn. The only rule is that a player cannot pick up the top card on the discard pile and then immediately discard it again they must keep it for at least one turn. If the player creates a run on the discard pile, any other player can pick up the run and place it before him/her as a meld.
When a player has melded or laid off all their cards, they win. Some rules insist the player must discard their last card to win, while other variations allow players to get rid of all of their cards via meld or laying off.
There is one other special way of winning: if a player can meld all of his/her cards at once, they can declare a Rummy. However, if they have melded or laid off any of their cards prior to this, they cannot Rummy.
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