Rummy - A great pastime

Rummy - A great pastime

Remember those days when you were a kid and played cards with your parents huddled p around the fireplace – well, that was rummy. One of the most popular card games till date, rummy has extensively been played across countries for ages.

What is rummy?

Rummy is actually a generic term for the game of gin rummy. It is just like any normal card game. In this game, each player is dealt 13 cards each and the remaining cards are placed at a central location, with one card facing up. After the cards are dealt, each player will assess his or her existing set of cards to analyze if they can make sets from it. Each player will check the face up card to see if it can be used for making any set. Since there are only 13 cards with each player, there will be 3 sets of 3 cards each and 1 set of 4 cards. In rummy a player can make a set in either of the following 2 ways: either by making a natural sequence of cards belonging to the same suit or make a set of cards having the same numerical value. For example, a natural sequence of cards will mean something like 4,5,6,7 of the same suit. A set of cards of the same numerical value can be 2, 2, 2, of hearts, diamonds and spades respectively.

When we talk of the ‘natural sequence’ of cards, it refers to the standard sequence in which one card needs to follow from the next. The sequence of cards is as follows in ascending order: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K,A – where J,Q,K,A stand for Jack, Queen, King, Ace respectively. Ace is the highest valued card and 2 is the lowest in value. The ultimate objective of rummy is to combine existing cards to make complete sets in the shortest time possible. Each player gets to trade existing cards for new ones – however at a time, he or she can only throw and pick one card. So for example, let’s say a player has made 2 sets and he realizes he has a redundant card of 4 of hearts.

In the next round of rummy, he will discard this card into the central deck of cards and pick a fresh card from it. Each round of rummy continues in this manner until a player declares that he’s completed 4 sets of cards. The player will usually signal his victory by placing the last card to be discarded face-down. This ends one game.

rummy

More about rummy strategies

Whether you regularly play rummy or not, one thing to keep a close watch on is to follow the type of cards being discarded by your opponents. This enables you to understand what sort of cards he or she has. For example, for two or three consecutive rounds, if players are discarding cards belonging to the hearts suit, it means they might already be on their way to victory (because they have good cards of spades, diamonds or clubs). Many players use this to their advantage in rummy by discarding cards that mislead other players as to the type of cards they have. Sometimes a player will get the Joker card which can be used as a full wildcard – that is, it takes on the role of any numerical value and any suit as desired. Jokers are extremely helpful in creating complete sets in rummy.

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