The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (166 page)

‘Kaluki’ by going out without having previously made any meld.

If playing for soft score, those who did not go out are penalized

by the total face value of cards left in hand, Jokers counting 25. The

overal winner is the player with the lowest penalty score when

someone loses by reaching an agreed target, such as 150.

Variant Whoever goes out scores the valueofal cards

leftinopponents’ hands. Play up to an agreed target score.

Contract Rummy

3-8 players, 2 or 3 × 52 cards

Less a single game than a variety of games based on a single idea –

namely, a game consists of several deals, typical y seven, each

imposing a specific pat ern of melds (the contract) to enable a

player to go out.

The earliest (Zioncheck) dates from the 1930s. Other names, each

denoting a more or less trivial variant, include Hol ywood Rummy,

Joker Rummy, Liverpool Rummy, May I?, Seven-deal Rummy and

Shanghai Rummy. Enthusiasts continue to invent variations on the

underlying pat ern, often giving them names either knowingly or

unwit ingly used for obsolete forerunners, making it impossible to

keep track of who means what by which.

Preliminaries Three or four players use two packs shuf led together,

with one Joker. Five to eight use three such packs and two Jokers.

By agreement, Deuces may be declared wild.

Deal Deal ten cards each in the first four deals, twelve each in the

last three, stack the rest face down and turn the next to start a

discard pile. If the stock is emptied before anyone goes out, shuf le

the discards and start a new one.

Object To be the first to go out by melding and laying of al one’s

cards. But no one may start melding until they can exactly match

the pat ern of melds required for that deal, which varies as fol ows

(#3 denotes three cards of the same rank; $3 denotes a suit-

sequence of three cards. In sequences, cards rank

A23456789TJQKA, Ace counting high or low but not both at once):

1. meld 6/10 cards as #3 #3

2. meld 7/10 cards as #3 $4

3. meld 8/10 cards as $4 $4

4. meld 9/10 cards as #3 #3 #3

5. meld 10/12 cards as #3 #3 $4

6. meld 11/12 cards as #3 $4 $4

7. meld all 12 cards as $4 $4 $4

Two or more requisite sequences may be of the same suit, and

may overlap, but they must not be consecutive. For example,

2345 4567 or 2345 6789 are valid, but not 2345 6789.

Having melded, a player goes out by subsequently laying of any

cards remaining in hand. In this case it is legal to extend suit-

sequences, which may contain up to 14 cards (running from Ace

low to Ace high).

Play The procedure dif ers from that of basic Rummy. On your turn

you must first either take the upcard or else ask if anyone else

wants it. If you of er it, the right to take it passes to each player in

rotation until someones takes it or everyone passes. If anyone takes

it, they must also draw the top card of stock, but may not discard.

This increases their hand as a penalty for gaining a wanted card out

of turn.

If you take the upcard, you need not meld it immediately but

may add it to your hand. If not, and when everyone has had a

chance to take that upcard, you continue by drawing the top card of

stock.

Whether or not you meld or lay of , you complete your turn by

Whether or not you meld or lay of , you complete your turn by

making a final discard, which must dif er from the upcard if that is

what you took.

Melding You don’t meld anything until you can meld the required

pat ern of melds for the deal, and you may not meld more than the

basic requirement on that turn.

Laying of Having once melded, you may, on subsequent turns, lay

of one or more cards to your own or other players’ melds, but may

not open any new ones.

Wild cards No initial meld may contain more than one wild card.

The only wild card you may take in exchange for a natural card is a

Joker, and then only when it is being used in a sequence. However,