13-card rummy rules

Each player has 13 cards and tries to arrange all of them into groups, then show them. A show needs at least two sequences: one must be pure (the first life), and the other (the second life) may use jokers. The rest of your cards can be more sequences or sets. The first player to show correctly wins the deal, and everyone else counts the points left in their hand, so in rummy a low score is a good score. Keep score on our free rummy score sheet.

• A sequence is three or more cards of one suit in a row, such as 4♥ 5♥ 6♥. The ace can be low or high: A-2-3 and Q-K-A both count, but K-A-2 doesn't.
• A pure sequence has no joker standing in for a card. A wild card in its own natural place keeps it pure: if sevens are wild, 6♣ 7♣ 8♣ is still pure.
• An impure sequence uses a joker for a missing card: 9♠ 10♠ and a joker standing in for the J♠.
• A set is three or four cards of the same rank in different suits, such as 8♠ 8♥ 8♦. Jokers can fill a set too. Two cards of the same suit don't make a set, even with two packs in play.

Two to eight people can play. Up to six players use two packs shuffled together, and seven or eight use three. The player before the dealer cuts the pack and turns up a card: that is the cut joker, and every card of its rank, in every suit, is wild for the deal, along with the printed jokers. If a printed joker is turned up, Kerala tables make the aces wild instead.

The dealer gives one card at a time, starting with the player on the other side from the cutter, until everyone has 13. The next card goes face up to start the open pile, and the player dealt first plays first.

On your turn, take one card, either the top of the closed deck or the top card of the open pile, then throw one card face up onto the open pile. You always hold 13 between turns.

To show, take your card as usual, put your finishing card down, and lay out the other 13 in their groups. If the groups are right, you win the deal. If they aren't, it's a wrong show: at Kerala tables it costs 100 and that player sits out the rest of the deal while the others play on. If the closed deck runs out, the open pile is shuffled into a new one.

At the start of your turn you may give up the hand instead of playing it. That costs less than losing badly: at Kerala tables 25 points before you've picked up a card this deal and 50 after.

When someone shows, each other player counts the cards they couldn't group: aces and picture cards are 10, other cards their number, and jokers nothing. Cards in valid groups count nothing, as long as you have both a first and a second life.

Say sevens are wild and you hold a pure sequence 4♥ 5♥ 6♥, a second life 9♠ 10♠ 7♣ (the 7♣ standing in for the J♠), and seven loose cards: K♣ Q♦ A♠ 8♦ 3♣ 2♥ 5♠. You count 10 + 10 + 10 + 8 + 3 + 2 + 5 = 48.

Now say the 9♠ 10♠ 7♣ weren't together, so you have no second life. At a Kerala table you count a flat 100, the full count. In the common online way, every card except the pure sequence counts: 9 + 10 + 0 for the joker, plus the 48, makes 67. With no pure sequence at all, every card counts there: 82, held to the full count of 80.

Two smaller rules. At Kerala tables, a player whose 13 cards were already a complete show, but who didn't get the turn to show it, counts just 2 (3 when twos are wild). And in the online way, a show before everyone has had a turn halves what the others count.

Pool 250, the Kerala way: each player's points add up from deal to deal. A player on 250 still plays, and reaching 251 puts you out. The last player left wins. A player who is out may come back between deals, starting at the highest total still in plus one, until everyone still in is too close to the limit to give up a hand. That's called being in compel, and in Pool 250 it starts at 226, because giving up would cost 25 and reach 251.

Points, the common online way: each deal is scored on its own, and the table plays as many deals as it likes. The lowest total at the end wins.

Agree on these before the first deal; most arguments at a rummy table are about one of them.

• Kerala Association: Tournament sheets: Pool 250 with two rejoins; without both lives every card counts (up to 100); a complete losing hand counts 2.
• Pool 101 and Pool 201: Out at 101 or 201. A player who is out may rejoin while the top score still in is 79 or less (Pool 101) or 174 or less (Pool 201). Full count 80.
• Deals: A set number of deals, often two. Everyone starts with 80 points for each deal; each deal’s winner collects what the others count, and the most points after the last deal wins. A tie plays one more deal. No giving up.
• Maharashtra home games: No cap on a losing hand. If a printed joker is cut, only printed jokers are wild. Jokers may be picked up. Giving up costs 10 or 40.
• North Indian club rules: At most one joker in a group, one of the two sequences must have four or more cards, and a flat 80 without both lives.

First life

The pure sequence every show needs.

Second life

A second sequence, pure or with jokers.

Pure sequence

Three or more cards of one suit in a row with no joker standing in.

Set

Three or four cards of one rank in different suits.

Cut joker

The card turned up at the cut; every card of its rank is wild that deal.

Printed joker

The jester cards in a full pack; always wild.

Closed deck and open pile

The face-down cards you draw from, and the face-up pile of thrown cards.

Show

Going out: grouping all 13 cards correctly after your last draw. Also called declaring.

Giving up

Sitting out a deal for a fixed cost. Also called dropping, packing or scooting.

Full count

The most a losing hand can count in one deal.

Compel

In a pool game, being so close to the limit that giving up a hand would put you out.

Thennaali

Three of the very same card, possible with three packs; a pure sequence at Kerala tables.

Our free rummy score sheet adds up each deal for up to eight players, shows who is out in a pool game and the total a player would rejoin at, and prints a clean sheet for the table.