peer2peergames

Rummy

Melds go face up on the table as you make them, and anyone can add to them. Draw one card, throw one away, and be the first to empty your hand. Whoever does scores whatever the other players are still holding, and the first to a hundred wins the match.

Play Rummy Leaderboard

The deal and the stock

  1. Two, three or four players from a standard pack. Two people play each other with no bot at the table; at three or four, an empty seat is filled by the bot and the game is not rated.
  2. Ten cards each at two players, seven cards each at three or four. One more card is turned face up to start the pile, and the rest of the pack is the stock, face down beside it.
  3. The player to the dealer's left goes first, and the deal moves left each hand.

Your turn

  1. Begin by taking one card: either the top of the stock, which you cannot see, or the top of the pile, which everybody can.
  2. Then lay down as many melds as you like, and add as many cards as you like to melds already on the table, your own or anybody else's.
  3. Then throw one card away, face up, which ends your turn. You may not throw back the card you have just taken from the pile, unless it is the only card you have left.

Melds

  1. A meld is three or more cards. A set is three or four of the same rank, such as three sevens. A run is three or more cards of the same suit in order, such as the four, five and six of hearts.
  2. The ace is low. Ace, two, three is a run; queen, king, ace is not.
  3. A card you add to a meld has to keep it a meld, and the cards already on the table are never rearranged to make room. If the two of spades is in a set of twos, the ace of spades cannot join a run of three, four and five of spades.
  4. Once a meld is on the table it stays there, and it belongs to whoever laid it even though anyone may add to it.

Going out

  1. You go out when your last card leaves your hand, whether you melded it, added it to a meld, or threw it away.
  2. Play stops the moment somebody goes out. Nobody else may lay anything down, however good their hand.

Scoring a hand

  1. The player who goes out scores the cards the others are still holding: ten for a king, queen or jack, one for an ace, and every other card its own number.
  2. Cards already melded on the table cost nobody anything. Only what is still in a hand is counted.
  3. Nobody else scores anything in that hand.

How a game ends

  1. Deals continue until somebody reaches a hundred points, and that player wins the match.
  2. The pile can be turned back into a stock twice in a hand. After that, a player who does not want the top of the pile may end the hand instead.
  3. A hand also ends if nobody draws from the stock for two rounds of the table, which stops two players passing the same cards back and forth for ever. That limit is this site's, not part of the traditional game.
  4. When a hand ends with nobody going out, the player holding the least scores the difference between their hand and each of the others. If two players tie for the least they share it.
  5. A resignation or a missed deadline ends the game against that player: their seat finishes last and the others are placed by their totals. Every move has the same deadline, chosen when the table is made.

Worth knowing before you start

  1. This is the basic game, not gin rummy: your melds go on the table as you make them and nobody knocks.
  2. It goes by other names elsewhere. It is Romme in Germany, Rami in France and Ramino in Italy, though all three add jokers and a minimum opening meld that this game does not have.
  3. A court card left in your hand costs ten. If somebody looks close to going out, it is worth throwing your big cards even when you would rather keep them.
  4. Laying a meld down early lets everyone else add to it, which helps them empty their hands. Holding it back keeps it off the table but risks the whole meld if somebody goes out first.
  5. A match to a hundred is a long game, often twenty deals or more, so it suits a slow time control as well as a fast one.

The deal, every draw and every reshuffle come from the seed, which is published when the game ends, so the whole match can be checked afterwards. Nobody ever sees another player's cards or the order of the stock.

Rummy terms

A meld
Three or more cards laid face up on the table: a set of one rank, or a run in one suit.
A set
Three or four cards of the same rank, such as three sevens.
A run
Three or more cards of one suit in order. The ace is low.
To lay off
To add a card from your hand to a meld already on the table, your own or anybody else's.
The stock
The face-down cards left after the deal, which you may draw the top of without seeing it.
The pile
The face-up cards thrown away so far. You may take its top card instead of drawing.
To go out
To get rid of your last card, which ends the hand and scores you what the others still hold.
To end the hand
What a player may do instead of taking the pile once the pile has been reused twice. Nobody goes out and the smallest hand scores.

Playing it here

  • Against a person or the bot. The bot needs no account and starts at once. To play a person, be rated and keep your games, you need an account: an email address and a password.
  • At your own pace. Every move has a deadline you both see, from one minute to a week. A game can take an evening or it can take a fortnight.
  • Nothing to buy and nothing to win. No stakes, no prizes, no boosts, no undo. The only thing on offer is a place on a leaderboard, and only if you want one.
  • Every game can be checked. Anything decided by chance comes from the game's seed, and the seed is published the moment the game ends, so any finished game can be replayed and verified by anyone. See fair play.