The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (167 page)

when you hold a natural card that is being represented by a wild

card in a sequence, you may add it to the sequence and move the

wild card to either end. For example, holding 7, you can lay it of

to 6W89, making the W either 5 or T. (W = wild card.)

Ending and Scoring Play ceases when someone either lays of or

discards the last card from their hand. Everyone else scores

penalties for deadwood at the rate 15 for Aces and wild cards, 10

for courts, and numerals at face value. The player with fewest

penalties at the end of seven deals wins.

Zioncheck

(2–6p, 2 × 52c) The earliest form of Contract Rummy, credited to

Ruth Armson. Five deals of ten cards each, contract requirements as

in deals 1 to 5 above. (From Sifakis.)

King Rummy

(4p, 2 × 52c + 4ik) Four deals often cards each. Contract

requirements: (1) #3 $4, (2) #3 #3 #3, (3) $4 $4, (4) #3 #3 $4.

You may make more than the minimum requirement when you

first meld, and may lay of single cards on the same turn. As soon as

a Joker is melded, the first player in rotation able to take it in

exchange for the natural card it represents may do so, and the

person who melded does not discard until this has happened or

everyone has passed. Jokers 25, Aces 15, courts 10, numerals face

value. (From Sifakis.)

Progressive Rummy

(2–6p, 2 × 52c, Deuces wild) Precursor of Contract Rummy. Seven

deals of ten cards each. The contract requirements may be met with

sets or sequences or one of each. Meld (1) three cards, (2) four

cards, (3) five cards, (4) two threes, (5) three and four, (6) three and

five, (7) two fours. Sets of three must be of three dif erent suits; sets

of four or more must include al four suits. You can go out only

with a discard. Deuces 15, Aces 11, courts 10, numerals face value.

Players drop out upon reaching 100 penalty points. (From Phil ips.)

Liverpool Rummy

Same as Contract, but the player at dealer’s right cuts the pack and

Same as Contract, but the player at dealer’s right cuts the pack and

deducts 50 from his penalty points if he manages to cut exactly the

number of cards required for the complete deal plus one upcard.

(From Paul Welty, via Pagat website.)

Carioca

is the Argentine name for a game similar to one played in Central

America under the name Loba (which in Argentina is a dif erent

Rummy). The dif erences from Contract Rummy (above) are too

slight and probably too variable to justify separate description.

(Details on Pagat website.)

Czech Rummy

(2–5p, 104c + 4ik) This interesting variation on a theme of

contract was the ‘default’ Rummy played in Prague in the 1960s

(source: Mike Arnautov). Deal twelve each, stack the rest face down,

and turn an upcard. At each turn draw from stock or take the

upcard, optional y meld or lay cards of to melds (your own only),

and discard one. You may also steal a Joker from any meld on the

table if you can replace it with the card it represents. A meld is

three or more cards of the same rank, or three or more cards in suit

and sequence (Ace low). In the first deal, the first meld each player

makes must be worth at least 15, counting Ace 1, numerals face

value, Jack 11, Queen 12, King 13. In subsequent deals, the

minimum required value of an initial meld depends on one’s

current score. That of the leading player must count at least 15, of

the second player 20, the third 25, and so on up in fives. If two

players have the same score, the minimum required of the next

players have the same score, the minimum required of the next

player down wil be 10 more than that of the tied players. When

someone goes out, everyone else counts their unmelded cards as

deadwood, even if meldable. Players drop out upon reaching 300

in total. The winner is the last left in, or the player with the lowest

score if al pass 300 simultaneously.

Buy Rummy

(2-6p, 52 or 104c) Use one or two packs, depending on the number

of players. Deal five each. Play as Basic Rummy but: On your turn

to play, either draw the top card of stock or, if you want the

upcard, bid for it by stating how many additional cards you wil

also draw from stock, up to a maximum of six. For example, if you

bid ‘One’, and no one overcal s, you wil take the upcard plus one

card from stock. But any other player may make a higher bid, and

whoever bids highest takes the upcard plus the same number from

stock. That player continues by melding, if possible, or, having once

melded, by laying a card or cards of to any meld on the table. His

turn ends with a discard and passes to his left. First out of cards

wins 1 point or stake for each card remaining in other players’

hands.

Variant Cards to the number bid are drawn not from stock but from

the discard pile, in succession from the upcard downwards, and the

maximum bid isthe numberofcards available. The bidder may

continue by melding and laying of , but does not discard.

Push

4 players (2 × 2),108 cards

A partnership version of Contract Rummy with an unusual method

of play. This description is based on one by Paul Welty (via the

Pagat website).

Preliminaries Four players sit ing crosswiseinpartnerships

useadouble 52-card pack plus four Jokers. Al Jokers and Deuces

are wild.

Deal There are five deals. The first dealer is chosen at random and

the turn to deal passes to the left. The number of cards dealt and

the initial meld requirement for each deal are as fol ows:

deal hand

initial meld

1

6

2 sets of three

2

7

1 set of three, 1 run of four

3

8

2 runs of four

4

9

3 sets of three

5

10 2 runs of five

Deal the appropriate number of cards in ones, turn the next to

start a discard pile, and stack the rest face down. If the turn-up is a

wild card, bury it in the pack and turn the next instead.

Object In each deal, to meld al your cards, or as many as possible.

Melds A meld is a run of three or more cards in suit and sequence,

or a set of three or four cards of the same rank and dif erent in suit.

A set may not contain duplicate cards, but any player or side may

meld two sets of the same rank.

In a run, Ace counts high or low but not both, and wild cards

may count as Twos (permit ing A-2-3… or… Q-K-A but not… K-A-

2…). You may meld two separate runs in the same suit, for

example 4-5-6-7 and 8-9-T-J, or could meld al these together as a

run of eight. Once melded, however, runs cannot be split up or

joined together, only extended.