Short, exact answers to the questions people really ask about Rummy. Rummy has many house rules, so where tables differ the answer says so. Each answer has its own link, so you can send a friend straight to it.
Rummy is a draw-and-discard card game. The aim is to get rid of every card in your hand by laying down sets and runs, adding cards to sets and runs already on the table, and discarding. The first player to empty their hand wins the round and scores points from the cards the others still hold.
It depends on the number of players: 10 each for 2 players, 7 each for 3 or 4, and 6 each for 5 or 6. Deal one card at a time, turn the next card face up to start the discard pile, and put the rest face down as the stock (the pile you draw from).
Deal 10 cards each from one 52-card deck. The non-dealer goes first, and you take turns: draw one card, lay down any sets or runs you want to, then discard one card. The deal alternates between the two players after each round.
Not for basic Rummy: one standard 52-card deck is used for 2 to 6 players. Some groups use two decks shuffled together when four or more play, so that everyone can have 10 cards.
The player to the dealer's left goes first, and play goes clockwise. With two players, that simply means the player who did not deal.
Basic Rummy uses no jokers. Some families add jokers as wild cards: a wild card can stand in for any card you need to complete a set or run. In one variant described by Pagat (Wrotham Rummy), a player holding the real card may swap it for a joker that is on the table. Agree joker rules before you start.
Both are kinds of meld, a group of cards you lay face up on the table. A set (also called a group or book) is three or four cards of the same rank, like three 7s. A run (also called a sequence) is three or more cards in a row, all in the same suit, like the 4, 5 and 6 of hearts.
A set of three 7s and a run of 4, 5, 6 of hearts.
Yes. Every card in a run must be the same suit. A 4 of hearts, 5 of spades and 6 of clubs is not a run. Sets are the other way round: same rank, so with one deck the cards are always different suits.
Yes. A run is three or more cards, so 8, 9, 10, J of one suit is a single run, and it can keep growing as players add cards to it. A set stops at four cards, because a deck has only four of each rank.
A four-card run in spades.
No. A set needs at least three cards of the same rank, so a pair cannot be laid down. Keep a pair in your hand and hope to draw or pick up the third card.
In the standard game aces are low: A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not. Many tables let the ace be high or low, so Q-K-A also counts, and Pagat says the ace is then worth 15 points instead of 1. Agree which rule you use before you start.
Always a run. Q-K-A only counts if your table plays aces high.
Not in standard Rummy. A run cannot wrap from king through ace to 2. A few players allow these "round the corner" runs, but Pagat calls this unusual.
Three steps. Draw one card, from the top of the face-down stock or the top of the face-up discard pile. Then you may meld (lay down a set or run) and lay off (add cards to melds already on the table). Finally discard one card face up on the discard pile.
Not in basic Rummy: you may take only the top card. Taking several cards from the discard pile is a rule of other games, such as 500 Rum, which many people also call Rummy.
Not on the same turn. If you took the top card of the discard pile, you must throw away a different card. You may discard that card on a later turn, and a card drawn from the stock can be discarded straight away.
Yes, under the standard rules. Pagat and Bicycle put no limit on which card you discard, apart from the card you just took from the discard pile. Some home games let another player call "rummy" and grab a playable discard, but that is a house rule: neither Pagat nor Bicycle has it.
House rules differ. Pagat's standard rule is one set or run per turn, with any number of cards laid off, and lists laying down as many as you like as a common house rule. Bicycle and David Parlett's rules (on Wikipedia) let you lay down any number. Agree before you start.
Laying off is adding cards from your hand to a set or run already on the table, yours or anyone else's, as long as the result is still a valid set or run. To a 4, 5, 6 of a suit you could add the 3 or the 7 of that suit. You may not move cards between melds to make room.
The 7 of hearts laid off on a 4, 5, 6 of hearts.
Not in Pagat's or Bicycle's rules: any player may lay off at any turn. Some people play that you cannot lay off until you have put down a meld of your own, and David Parlett's rules (on Wikipedia) work this way.
When the stock is empty, the next player may take the top discard. If they don't want it, turn the discard pile over to make a new stock and carry on. Bicycle and Pagat's main rule do not shuffle it; Pagat notes most books now say to shuffle it first.
The standard rules just reuse the discard pile, so this rarely ends a round. Some players limit how often the pile is reused; in Block Rummy it is never reused. When play ends with nobody out, the player with the lowest card total wins and scores the difference from each other hand.
You go out by getting rid of your last card, whether by laying it down in a meld, laying it off, or discarding it. The round ends at once: nobody else may meld or lay off, even if they could.
No, under the standard rules. If every card left in your hand fits into sets, runs or lay-offs, you may put them all down with no final discard. Some people play that you must end by discarding your last card; agree this before you start.
Going rummy is going out in a single turn by laying down your whole hand, when you have not melded or laid off any cards earlier in the round. Under Bicycle's rules every other player then pays double. Pagat lists it as a common extra rule, worth double or a 10-point bonus.
When someone goes out, every other player adds up the cards still in their hand, whether they form sets or not, and the winner scores the total. Kings, queens and jacks are 10, aces are 1, and other cards are their number.
Left in a loser's hand: 10 + 9 + 3 = 22 points to the winner.
1 point in the standard game, where aces are low. If your table lets aces be high as well, Pagat values them at 15 points; Parlett's rules (on Wikipedia) say 11. A 10 is worth 10.
There is no fixed number: agree a target score, or a set number of deals, before you start. In a common variant the losers collect penalty points instead, and when someone reaches 100, the player with the lowest score wins.
No, though in North America people often say "rummy" for both. In Rummy you lay sets and runs on the table as you go, and 2 to 6 can play. Gin Rummy is for two: you keep your sets and runs hidden and end the hand by knocking when your unmatched cards are worth 10 or less.
Every answer on this page was checked against the sources below, and against our own step-by-step guide.
