How to Play Rummy Card Game: Learn 13 Card Game Rules

Rummy is a popular card game played with sets of playing cards. This is one of the most popular Indian 13 card game under the category of draw and discard games. Among this discard & draw game, Indian rummy game is most played game across.

The basic objective in every card game is to improve your hand by dealing sets of cards and forming a particular sequence or set adhering to certain rummy rules of the game.

Rummy in India is usually played between 2 to 6 players where each player has to draw and discard one card until the 13 cards form a sequence and sets. On this site, you will find as many as 9 rummy game variants.

Rummy Game Rules:

• Indian Rummy is usually played with two pack of cards with two jokers.
• Cards in each category rank from low to high: Sai, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen and King.
• Sai can be used as 1 or a face card when forming the sets.
• Card values are as follows: Face cards, (K, Q, J) - 10 points, Sai - 10 points.

Is Rummy Legal in India?

In contrast to a game of luck, online rummy has been declared as a game of skill by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in August 2015. That has moved the game to being legal because it offers an equal chance of winning using your skills rather than chance. Learn more about online rummy legality.

Rank of Cards

Before starting the game, you need to check out the order of cards or the rank of each card in the deck. Make sure you know which the highest card in a deck is and which card will help you score more. Knowing the value of the cards is essential before the game commences.

Objectives of The Game

There are different variants in Indian Rummy with different rules and objectives. It is important to know which variant you are playing. The Indian rummy rules differ for each variant; therefore, know the objectives of the game before you start to get the best outcome.

Start of Play

Before you start to play, make sure you know the entire set of rules of playing Sai Rummy. There are different Rummy sets and multiple Rummy variants with distinct rummy rules. Study them thoroughly if you wish to win and earn some extra money. Always play Rummy with the right tactics.

Laying Off

Laying off is an important part of Sai Rummy that could take you to a huge score. When you know the right rules and the technique of laying off in Sai Rummy, the chances of winning the game rises. Rummy rules vary, and so is rummy scoring. Know your game carefully before you play.

Going Out

The game ceases when someone declares 'rummy' and goes out. You cannot simply declare 'rummy' at any point of the game, instead only when you have melded all of your cards at once. Don't be too quick in going out, and make sure you know when and how you can declare 'rummy' and go out.

In each turn, a player draws either the top card (face-up) from the open deck or the card from the closed deck, and discards a card from his/her hand in to the open deck, or shows his hand by closing the card and showing the rest of the 13 cards in sets that are in accordance with the online rummy rules of the game.

You can choose to drop a particular game if you think that the dealt cards to you are not good.

When to drop in Rummy

You can drop the game when your turn comes and before you draw a card. Some pools do allow the player(s) to drop the game in the middle but the penalty is usually higher than what a player would pay for dropping at the start of the game before picking their first card.

For a game of 101 Points:

• Drop points before picking a card (first Drop): 20
• Drop points if player had picked a card in that game (Middle Drop): 40

For a game of 201 Points:

• Drop points before picking a card (first Drop): 25
• Drop points if player had picked a card in that game (Middle Drop): 50

One card from the rest of the deck (remainder after dealing the cards to the players) is randomly selected and becomes a Joker for that particular game. All cards of the exact rank in any suit similar to the joker are considered as Jokers. In addition, there will be two extra cards which contain the symbol of a Joker.

A Joker is allowed to be used in place of any cards when forming a set. However, the player has to ensure that he has a sequence without a Joker card to be eligible to use the Joker as stated above. You can take a look at the best use of joker in online rummy card games.

If face joker card came as joker while playing rummy, Sai card "A", can be considered as Joker card. Read more about joker card in rummy game.

You win a game when you call for a SHOW. If there are 13 cards which can be displayed in particular sets and are in accordance with the rules of the game, the player can then call for a SHOW.

To place SHOW, a player must have 14 cards of which he/she chooses to close one card before calling for a SHOW. After the SHOW is called, the player should combine the 13 cards into valid sequences & sets and put it before the rest of the playing group for validation.

The SHOW is declared a winner if it meets the validation rummy rules below:

• Life 1 should be the order of not less than three cards of the same suit. Life 1 shouldn't have a joker. However, the set can include a joker if the joker card is used as the card itself and not as a joker.
• Life 2 must be a sequence of at least three cards of the same suit. Life 2 may or may not have a joker.
• SET1 and SET2 may be a sequence or a triplet, or four cards of equal value and different sets. SET1 may or may not contain a joker.

In case during the course of a game you have melded a pure sequence and a second sequence with or without joker and the third hand consists of two elements of a triplet or set.

You could use the jokers in hand to complete the set with the help of maximum two jokers as a set cannot have more than 4 cards.

In case you are still left with a joker in hand, then leave the joker separate while making a show instead of melding a set with 5 cards as this is not acceptable.

You have a natural & pure sequence of 10, J, Q, K of hearts.

The second sequence is A, 2, 3, 4 of spades.

The remaining cards in hand consist of a 10 of spades and a 10 of diamonds along with two picture jokers and one game joker.

In this case you can make a show by melding the 10 of spades and 10 of diamonds along with the two jokers, natural / pure sequence of 10, J, Q, K of hearts, second sequence of A, 2, 3, 4 of spades and keep the joker separate to make the show. This will be accepted as a valid show.

• What is "Rejoin" option?

  A player can rejoin after he has been eliminated (reaching the maximum points limit) from a game.

• When can a player "Rejoin" in the table?

  A player can join by buying in for a second time and agreeing to rejoin the table provided if the next highest point on the table are not greater than "174 points" in case of the 201 points game and "79 points" in case of 101 points game.

Auto Play Rules:

• Dread getting disconnected at the middle of the game? Not anymore! Play even when you are offline!
• We know that getting disconnected in the middle of a winning match is a horrible experience and you never want to have that.
• Sai Rummy brings you 'Auto Play' option! Now, your game would keep on going even if your Internet is disconnected.
• The moment you go offline during a round of play, the Auto Play option would be activated for the remaining round of that play. That means, your game would get completed, even if you are not technically available to play it.
• The "Auto Play" would pull a deck card and discard the same card, giving you an opportunity to join back in the game, the moment you are reconnected thus avoiding any unwanted counts.
• Also, if a Show is placed during Auto Play by any of your fellow players, you will get full count. If you remain disconnected even after the Show is placed and next round has started, you'll be automatically dropped, unless comes a deal show, happening which you will get full count on hand.
• Auto Play option would get activated when the player has picked at least one deck or open card, before going offline.

Note:

* Maximum/penalty points in a game like in case of wrong show: 80 points

* We do not allow multiple accounts and only one account is allowed per house hold.