Rummy 500

How to play

The scoring cousin of Rummy: EVERY card you put on the table earns points, so you play for the melds, not just to go out. Two to seven can play.

You're dealt thirteen cards in the two-player game — a table may shorten that to seven or ten — and seven cards each with three or more; from five players up, two decks are shuffled together.

Each turn: draw the face-down stock, or take the top of the discard pile — either is always allowed. Or DIG: take any card further down the discard pile, provided you also take every card above it and meld the card you dug for at once — the rest join your hand.

Then lay down SETS (3–4 of a rank, each a different suit) and RUNS (3+ in a suit in sequence — an ace plays low or high, A-2-3 or Q-K-A, but never round the corner), and lay cards off onto any table meld, yours or an opponent's.

Finish by discarding one card, or go out by emptying your hand. The card you just took off the discard pile cannot go straight back the same turn, unless it is the only one left in your hand.

When the round ends, each player scores the value of the cards THEY tabled (Ace 15 — but only 1 in an A-2-3 run, faces and tens 10, others face value) minus the value of the cards left in their hand — a round can go negative.

First to the cumulative target — 500 by default, or the 250 or 1000 a table picks — ends the game; the highest total wins.

If the stock runs out, the discard pile, all but its top card, is shuffled into a new stock — at most twice a round; the third time, the round ends and is scored as usual.

A table may also add two JOKERS (54 cards): a joker is wild and stands for whichever card you name when you lay it down — that choice is fixed for the rest of the round — and it scores 15 wherever it lies.

Ways to play

• 🤖
  Against the computerPlay on one device against a computer opponent.
• 👪
  Play together, nearbyWith family and friends in the same room: up to 7 players, each on their own phone or tablet. No Wi-Fi or internet needed. In the Jambolaya app.
• 🎓
  Learn by playingA guided lesson on the real game teaches you the rules one step at a time.