Rummy is one of the most popular games in Indian households. Any house party with your friends or sleepovers with your cousins, rummy has to be played. If you’re looking for easy ways to learn to play the rummy card game, then you’re in the right place.
Here, we are presenting the ultimate guide for playing Indian rummy online. Are you all set?
Let’s start with the basics then.
- Rummy is essentially played with two decks of cards with a total of two Jokers between 2-6 players.
- Each player is dealt 13 cards and a random card is selected as a wild joker. This joker can act as per the desired card in the sequences.
- One pile is a closed deck, where each player picks the card without seeing in his turn and another is an open deck that comprises the cards discarded by the players.
- Each player will draw and discard cards from these decks to form sequences and sets to win this game.
- The idea with this drawing and discarding is to arrange all the 13 cards in different valid sets.
- To win the game, the players need to make a minimum of 02 sequences, out of which one essentially has to be a pure sequence. The rest can be any valid sequence or sets.
- A player who makes a valid declaration has to have a valid sequence mandatorily.
- Each card carries points equal to their face value. For example, a 5 numbered card carries 5 points. Ace, Jack, Queen, and King carry 10 points each. Jokers and wild cards carry 0 points.
- The sequence from low to high in Rummy goes from Ace to the King.
Sets and Sequences
Since we are here to learn Rummy rules for free, why not also learn about sets and sequences.
How to form sequences?
A sequence is ideally a group of three or more consecutive cards of the same suit in this card game. There are two types:
- Pure Sequence- Pure sequence is basically consecutive cards from the same suit without using the wild joker.
- Impure Sequence- Impure Sequence is consecutive cards in the same suit but with the usage of one or more wild jokers.
How to form sets?
In Rummy, a set is basically three or more cards of the same value but from different suits. Wild jokers can be used here to form sets. 3 aces, 4 Queens, 3 Kings with one wild joker are all examples of how sets are formed in Rummy.
Some Tips and Tricks to win the Rummy Game
- Always start with forming a pure sequence because without a pure sequence you cannot make a valid declaration.
- Always discard cards with higher points like Ace, Jack, Queen, and King and replace them with Joker or Wild Cards. This is ideal to reduce the point load in case you lose the game.
- Avoid picking cards from the discard pile as much as you can because it gives away the hand that you’re trying to form.
- Jokers are incredibly important in Rummy so use them wisely.
Some Important Terms of the Rummy Game
By now you know what jokers, wild cards, high-rated cards, sequences, and sets are. You now know almost everything about the way Rummy is played. However, here are a few terms that might help you know and play the game better.
- Drop- If a player decides to leave the game at the start or mid-way, it’s called a drop. This is how the pointer structure is. The first drop=20 points; the middle drop= 40 points and the last drop and maximum point loss is 80 points.
- Invalid Declaration- This happens when a player claims to have made a declaration but his sequences or sets do not qualify for a valid declaration. Therefore, this player loses the game and the competitor automatically is deemed to be the winner. A wrong declaration adds 80 points to the player’s bucket.
After you’ve known all of this, you are now ready to play and slay in this excellent game, Rummy. All the best!