Rummy

As a kid growing up my family didn’t have a lot of board games. Most of the games we played were card games. My Grandfather was actually a card shark in the Western Texas and Eastern New Mexico area. Maybe that is something I shouldn’t brag about but it is one of the few things I remember about my Grandfather because he died before I was six. One of the things I remember him teaching us was how to shuffle cards like a pro. I was so excited when I learned to do a bridge shuffle. You know the one where you do the first part of the shuffle and then bow it up and allow them to fall. I thought I was so talented when I learned to do it.

Now my mom and dad played cards a lot. One of their favourite games was Rummy. My dad was so good at it and my mom was no slouch either. I honestly don’t know who won more games when they played, I think they were pretty evenly matched. My dad taught me how to play and man he was so good. I am not sure if I ever won against him or not but I always enjoyed playing with him.

Dad taught me to shuffle the cards and deal out ten cards to each of us. The remainder of the cards were put in the centre and the top card was placed face up and this was the discard pile. Since I was the one that dealt, dad got to go first (I played with lots of other people but dad was the best).

The idea of the game was to make melds or groupings of cards. The groupings had to be three or four of a kind or a run of three or more cards of the same suit. Three or four of a kind could be anything from Ace through King you just had to have three or four of each card. Now a run simply means sequential cards of the same suit. For example, Ace, two, three of hearts would be a run. A run can be as long as you want but it has to be no less than three cards.

Once gameplay started, dad could either pick up the top card on the discard (which was the only card at that point) or he could draw a fresh card off the stack of cards on the table. At that point he could hold the card he chose or drew but he had to discard another card. If he drew a card and didn’t like it, he had the option of discarding the card he drew.

Now unlike Gin, Rummy allows you to make a line of your discarded cards instead of stacking the discards one on top of the other. This allows you to pick up as much of the discard stack as you want but, you have to play the card that you picked up to. As an example, If you have the two of hearts, three of spades, eight of diamonds and Jack of clubs in the row of discarded cards, and you pick up to the three of spades then you have to immediately lay down on the table the meld that would contain the three of spades.

Dad was really good at picking up the stack and playing the card. So he could play the rest of the cards in his hand or he could put the remaining 2 cards in his hands. He could discard one of the cards he picked up or discard a card from his hand. As the game went on, we would both take turns picking cards, laying down melds and discarding. The game would end when one of us had played all of the cards in our hand and still had a card to discard. In the event that there was no discard, whoever didn’t go out has another play.

I was told the reason the game is called Rummy is that you can call Rummy on your partner. This is done when your partner lays down a card on the discard pile that would have played on a meld on the table. So to backtrack a little, when your partner plays three on the table then when either of you find the fourth, three you can play it on the corresponding meld on the table and get the points. Say now that your partner has the fourth, three and lays it down as a discard. You can grab that card, call Rummy and play it on the board. You can not call Rummy and hold the card in your hand, that card must be played as part of the Rummy.

Dad was good at seeing Rummy’s and he would play on my melds so often. As I grew older of course I improved but I was never as good as he was. He would also play other cards from his hand on my melds and I would do the same with him. So, if he had the two, three, four of clubs and played that as a meld, then I could play the ace or the four of clubs then I could lay it on the board to add to his meld.

So the scoring is pretty easy as well. It went as follows:

Two through Nine = 5 points

Ten through King = 10 points

Aces were valued with the cards they accompanied.

So if you play ace, two, three of clubs then the ace has a value of 5 points.

If it is played Queen, King, Ace then it was worth 10 points.

If you played three or four Aces then they are valued at 15 points each.

If you lay out all of your melds at the same time you get a bonus of 50 points.

Counting the points is always fun. Everyone counts the points they have laid out in their melds. Once that is done, you count any remaining points that you had in your hand and subtract that from your meld total and that was your score.

We never played for money although that wouldn’t have surprised me. My dad’s family loved to gamble.

It was a great game and it was a way for my father and I to connect. Card games are a great way to spend time with family and friends. I even used to carry a deck in my purse as you can play cards almost anywhere and most people know some form of a card game. So if you haven’t played cards or haven’t played in a while, break out that deck of cards and play a well loved game or learn a new one from someone you love.