The origin of Rummy is fairly vague, and rumour has it that Gin Rummy would have been the first game of Rummy, invented in the year 1909 in Brooklyn. Rummy is therefore a card game of American origin in which the objective is to make combinations of cards with 2, 3 or 4 players.
Rummy is played with two decks of 52 cards and 4 Jokers, which is one of the reasons that the game of Rummy is often represented by a Joker. The objective of the game is to get rid of all your cards by creating combinations. The cards not played by the player(s) are added up.
The aim of the game is to have the least penalty points possible.
Each player receives 13 cards, and can sort their cards in two ways: cards of the same value or cards of the same suit. Therefore players can more easily see the combinations they are able to make in order to play their cards in the centre of the table.
The player who draws the highest value card starts the game, and may choose between the card in the discard pile or the card in the stock pile. They may then discard one of their cards, passing play to their opponent.
The opponents will then play their turn until one of them is able to play one or more combinations. Be careful: if a player plays their 12 cards and discards their last card, they have achieved "Rummy", and the penalty points awarded to their opponent(s) are then doubled.
JokaFun offers two type of Rummy online, Rummy 30 and Rummy 51. Rummy 30 is ideal for people who want to learn to play Rummy. To play your cards in Rummy 30, players do not need to have a sequence and only need to have 30 points.
However in Rummy 50, it is necessary to play a sequence of a suit without using the Joker. Also, the total of the cards must make up a minimum of 50 points. This variant of Rummy is preferred by experts as less is left to chance.
Rummy is an excellent game to exercise your memory, as you must try to remember the cards of you and your opponent, and which cards you are going to discard.
In Rummy, playing all your cards at once allows you to double the penalty points taken by your opponent.
Many players play only parts of their cards however this allows your opponents to add on cards to your combinations and therefore to more easily create Rummy. Therefore, make playing a Rummy your priority.
If you plan to play your cards on the table, try to keep smaller cards in your hand. Smaller cards will cause you to have less penalty points if you lose the game. A trick to consider: try to keep 24 or less points in your hand, in case your opponent manages to achieve Rummy during the first deal, you wont lose the game as you will not have 50 penalty points.