A year or two ago, I learned how to play Rummy. I’d heard that it was like Mahjong but with cards instead of tiles, so I decided it would be fun to teach my wife how to play, since she loves Mahjong. I took these notes to help myself learn and remember the rules to the game so I could teach her. The game is simple to learn but challenging to master. I hope it’s helpful for you to learn how to play, too!

See this this Dummies article for how to play.

Rummy Rulebook’s page on Standard Rummy is helpful, too.

Starting the game

The dealer shuffles the cards and deals the cards face down to each player.

Then, the dealer puts the rest of the deck in the middle of the table, takes the top card off, and places it face up next to the deck. This card begins the discard pile. When each player ends their turn, they put their card on top of the discard pile.

Playing your turn

The player to the left of the dealer starts. When it’s your turn, do this:

1. Draw a card from either the stock or top of the discard pile.
2. Play your melds. See Types of card combinations below.
3. Lay off zero or more cards. See Laying off below.
4. Discard a card. If you took a card from the discard pile, you can’t return it in the same turn.

For wildcard rules, see section on wildcards below.

Players can’t look through the discard pile. If they want to know what cards have been discarded, they must pay close attention and remember.

Types of card combinations

There are two types of card combinations, or melds: sets and runs.

Meld

A combination of cards. A meld has at least three cards.

Set

Same value, different suits.

Run

Sequential, same suit. For example, [Ace, 2, 3] of spades 🂡🂢🂣

Laying off

If there is a meld on the table, you can add to that meld using cards in your hand. You can lay off zero or more per turn at your discretion. You can lay off a card to any kind of meld on the table, but the meld must remain legal. According to Rummy Rulebook, to lay off, you must play a meld of your own first.

End of hand

Go out by discarding your final card. For standard Rummy, you cannot use all your remaining cards in a meld — you have to have one card to discard to finish your hand. A common variation, though, is to allow foregoing the discard step when going out.

To go out, you must make at least one pure run. A pure run is a run with no wildcards.

Determining the score

When a player goes out, the other players count the value of the cards in their hands and these points go to the winner of the hand. The game ends when a predetermined score is met, for example 150, 300, or (number of players – 1) × 100.

Aces are 1, faces are 10, the rest are face value. A common variation is aces can be high or low, scored as 15. If wildcards are used, they are worth 25.

Wildcards

Jokers can take the place of any card.

During a player’s turn, if their hand has a card that is represented by a wildcard on the table, they can replace the wildcard with the card in their hand and use the wildcard themselves.