13 card rummy practice

How 13 card rummy works

Indian rummy is a draw and discard game. Each player gets 13 cards, and the goal is to sort every one of them into sequences and sets, then show your hand before anyone else does.

• A sequence is three or more cards in a row in one suit, like 4, 5, 6 of hearts. The ace can be low or high, but a run can't wrap from King to Ace to 2.
• A pure sequence has no joker in it. A sequence that uses a joker is impure.
• A set is three or four cards of one rank in different suits.
• To show, you need at least two sequences, and at least one must be pure. Every other card has to be in a sequence or a set.

Each turn you draw one card, from the closed deck or the open pile, then throw one card onto the open pile. You can't throw back the card you just picked up from the open pile.

Jokers

After the deal one card is turned up and tucked under the closed deck. Every card of that rank is a joker for the hand, and printed jokers are always jokers. A joker can stand in for any missing card in a sequence or a set.

One detail trips people up: a joker card used as itself keeps a sequence pure. If 5s are jokers, 4, 5, 6 of hearts is still a pure sequence. In Monsoon Rummy every joker wears a small violet star so you never miss one.

How the points count

When someone shows, everyone else counts the cards that don't fit. Lower is better, and points here are only a score.

• No pure sequence: every card in your hand counts.
• A pure sequence but no second sequence: everything except the pure sequence counts.
• No hand ever counts more than 80.
• Dropping (folding) before your first draw counts 20, and later counts 40.

We arrange each losing hand in its best possible way before counting, and we check every show before it counts, so a slip of the finger never costs you.

Three formats to practice

Tables seat 2 to 6 players. Two players share one deck with one printed joker, and three or more play with two decks.

Practice against fair computer players

Your fellow passengers come in three strengths. Easy ones hold the wrong cards now and then, steady ones play solid rummy, and sharp ones watch what the next player picks up. They only see their own cards and what the whole table can see, and every deal is a plain shuffle.

The Monsoon Line is a 36 station journey of short games, and the Daily Deal gives everyone the same hand each day with a daily leaderboard. Arrange finds the best groups for you, and a bar above your hand shows whether you have your pure sequence yet. Our full Monsoon Rummy guide has every rule, control and format in detail.

13 card rummy tips

• Build the pure sequence first. Without it every card counts against you.
• Throw high loose cards early. A lonely King is 10 points waiting to hurt you.
• Save jokers for sequences, where they often finish your second one.
• Middle cards are flexible. A 6 fits three different runs, an ace or King only one.
• Watch the open pile, and don't feed the next player the card they just showed interest in.
• Drop a hopeless hand early. A first drop counts half as much as a middle drop.

More rummy games

Gin Garden is a quick two-player rummy where you knock or go gin, and Canasta Casita is the big partnership meld game (our Canasta online page explains it). Cribbage Cabin is another classic for two.

Questions