To acquire Rummy a hand of seven cards arranged into one three-card meld and one four card meld. A meld may be three or four cards of the same rank or three or four in sequence, all from the same suit.
The Cards:
A regular pack of 52 cards is used. Aces are low.
How To Play:
Deal seven cards to each player, one at a time. Place the rest of the pack face down to form the stock. Player begins by drawing the top card from the stock and discarding any card, this starts a face-up discard pile.
Dealer then picks up the discard or draws the top card from the stock and then discards. The two players continue alternately, taking the top discard if it fits in with the cards in their hand or drawing a card from the stock, and then discard. Play goes on until one player says Rummy, or until two cards remain in the stock. Save cards that bring your hand closer to a meld hand, discard those that don’t.
Scoring:
If you go Rummy, you score the total count of unmatched cards opponent holds. Cards score the number of their spots; face cards score in unmelded cards wins the point difference. Game may be played to 50 points or to any other agreed to number.
Tips:
Don’t hang on to a high-scoring card if you have nothing to go with it.
In going for a three-card meld, look for card combinations that can be used in the most ways. For example, only one card fills 4, 6, 5, only two cards can fill 4, 6, 8, but any of four cards can turn 4, 5, 5, into a meld.
Remember the cards your opponent picks up from the discard pile. Try not to discard another card for the same meld. Keep track of all the cards played. This will allow you to make safer discards and stop you from going for a meld requiring cards already in play.