Rummy is one of the most popular card games in the world. The ease with which it can be learnt and played by players of all ages makes it more popular. And now, adding to its already immense popularity, are the websites which offer rummy as an online game. This game can be played in a small group of two to six players and deck used for this is the normal 52-card one.
The game starts with the dealer dealing cards to all the players. These players then start picking cards from either the deck or the pile of discarded cards one by one. All of the players try to make their melds before others. A meld is a group of cards which may contain 3-4 cards of either the same rank with different suits or progressive cards of the same suit. The player who makes the melds first, wins. But the details of the procedure have changed over time to give birth to different variants of this game.
Let have a look at 3 most popular versions of the game:
1- Gin Rummy:
This game is played by two to four players, with the normal deck of 52 cards. As the players continue with the rounds of picking and discarding, they have to make melds out of the 10 cards dealt to them. Even if a player completes two melds, he cannot declare his win in gin rummy. He has to wait until he has deadwood cards of value lower than 10. Deadwood cards are those cards which are not used in any of the melds. A player can complete the ‘Gin’ when he has no deadwood cards at all and all the cards that were dealt to him have been used in making the melds. As the number of cards dealt to a player is 10, it’s not possible to accommodate more than 4 players.
2- Canasta:
As against the Gin version, more players can play canasta. The extra space for players is made by playing with 2 decks, both with 54 cards which include 2 jokers each. The number of cards dealt to each player, various according to the number of players. For instance, if there are only 2 players, then 15 cards each, if 6 players then 11 cards each. Canasta, in this game is said to be achieved when a players makes a meld consisting of 7 cards. Only when one of the players makes canasta, does the game end.
3- Oklahoma:
In this version, on 2 players can play and the winner is the one who has the up-card of the maximum value. The basic concept of the oklahoma game is similar to the others but the securing of points in this one is mostly by judging the up-card.
The Author is an expert Online Rummy Game player and has explored many websites for Free rummy games online. He loves to share tips, best tricks and basic info about various rummy games like Gin Rummy, Oklahoma Rummy, Kalooki-51 etc.
