08/01/2010, Game rules
The Rummy Game is one of the best-known and one of the most popular card games in the world. It is fun and easy to learn, but it also requires strategy and experience in order to improve your chances of winning.

Some of the most popular varieties of Rummy are: Gin Rummy, Canasta, Kaluki (Kalooki), Oklahoma Rummy and Traditional Rummy.

Our article will focus on the basic rules of the Traditional Rummy because, once you learn the basic rules of the traditional rummy, you can easily understand and apply your knowledge to other rummy variations.

The Traditional Rummy Game is played by two to four players and it uses a standard 52 card deck. The main objective is to be the first who gets rid of all cards from your hand by picking up and then discarding cards and forming the cards from your hand into melds.

A meld consists in minimum three cards with the same value, or a group of consecutive cards with the same suit.
For example:
Set = at least three cards with the same value from different suits (5, 5, 5 OR 10 10 10 10);
Run = at least three consecutive cards from the same suit (3, 4, 5 OR 6, 7, 8, 9).

When picking up, each card is arranged according to what melds you are planning to form.
When getting rid of the cards, you must form sets or runs, then you must lay them down into the meld area, but you must also keep a card which could complete the turn at the end of the game in your hand.

The first player who gets rid of all of his cards, wins the game. The other players are penalized according to the accumulated value of the cards which are left in their hands.
The winner gets at least 75% of the pot. The rest of the pot will be divided between his opponents according to the number of the points that he accumulated, but always with 80 points less than the winner.

It is very important that you try to memorize the cards and to deduce what is in your opponent's hand. This will help you not to give up any good cards away or to keep cards for an unlikely meld.
The seven is the most important card in the deck because it can be used to make melds in more ways than any other card.