- Rummy can be played with between two and six players. To play the game, the only equipment needed is a standard deck of 52 playing cards and a pen or pencil and paper to keep score. The number of cards dealt to start the game depends on the number of players. With two players, each player starts with 10 cards. Seven cards are dealt with three or four players, and six cards are dealt with five or six players. After each player receives their cards, flip the top card of the draw deck face up next to the draw deck, forming the discard pile.
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There are four components of players' turns in the game of Rummy: two are required and two are optional. The first action a player takes on his turn is to either draw the top card from the draw deck or any card from the discard pile. If a player takes a card from the discard pile that is not on the top, though, she must take every card on top of that card as well.
The second step is to play any melds a player has. There are two different types of melds: runs and sets. A run is three cards in numerical sequence (with Aces being permitted to be either higher than the King or lower than the two, or both) in the same suit. A set is three cards of the same rank in different suits. The player places any melds directly in front of him face up on the table.
The third stage of a player's turn allows them to play single cards on any other player's meld that is already on the table. To do this, the player announces he is playing a card onto a specific meld but places that card face up directly in front of her, instead of with the other cards in the meld. Melds can be built on by any player at the table, it does not have to be their own meld.
Both melding and playing onto another player's meld are optional portions of the player's turn. Ending the turn requires a player to place a card on the top of the discard pile though. This means a player's turn can be anywhere from two to four steps. - A hand of Rummy ends when a player plays his last card from his hand to the discard pile. A player can not play her last card as either part of a meld or by playing it on another player's meld. Instead, he must have a card to play to the discard pile. If she can not do this, she is not permitted to play her cards and must discard to end her turn.
- In standard Rummy scoring, the player that ends the hand is the only player that scores for each hand of Rummy. That player receives points based on the cards remaining in his opponent's hands. Aces are worth one point, cards from two through nine are worth their face values, and tens and face cards are each worth 10 points. To win a game of Rummy, a player must score at least 100 points. If none of the players at the table have 100 points after the hand is scored, the player sitting to the left of the dealer becomes the next dealer and a new hand is dealt.
- There are several scoring variations that can be used when playing Rummy, if you don't want to use the traditional scoring. One includes a 25-point bonus for the player that ends the hand. This version allows all the players to score points, though. Each player scores points for each card she melded or played on another player's meld. Aces are worth 15 points, face cards worth 10 points, and all other cards are worth their face value. Players with cards remaining in their hand score the cards remaining in their hand the same way and deduct that score from their meld points. First player to score 500 points in this version is the winner.
