Origin | United States |
---|---|
Type | Matching |
Family | Going out |
Players | 3-8 |
Skills | Strategy |
Cards | 52 cards (104-156) |
Deck | French |
Play | Clockwise |
Playing time | 20-30 min. |
Chance | Easy |
Related games | |
Canasta |
Liverpool rummy is a multi-player, multi-round card game similar to other variants of rummy that adds features like buying and going out. It is played the same as Contract rummy, except that if a player manages to cut the exact number of cards required to deal the hand and leave a face-up card, then the cutting player's score is reduced by 50 points. [1]
The game consists of seven deals of the cards. The objective is to be holding the lowest valued cards at the end of each deal. At the end of each deal the score for each player is written down, and the player with the lowest total score at the end of the seven deals wins the game.
In each deal, the players reduce the value of the cards held in their hands by laying on the table, melds comprising sets and sequences of cards, usually known as Books and Runs.
The game is played with standard 52-card packs plus the Jokers: 2 packs for three or four players or 3 for more than four players. The ranking from low-to-high is 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A. Aces can be high or low (see section on card play where aces can be used in a high run or low run but not wrap around). Jokers are wild.
The dealer deals 10 cards to each player for the first 4 rounds, then 12 cards to each player for the last 3 rounds. After all the players' hands have been dealt, the rest are placed face down as the stock and its top card turned face-up to start the discard pile.
The player to the immediate left of the dealer plays first.
On each turn, a player may:
Play continues, in alternating turns, until one player goes out, or has no cards left in their hand. Points are tallied and recorded by a score-keeper. All of the cards are shuffled and the next round of play commences.
The objective in Liverpool rummy is to improve one's score by laying down to reduce the number of cards in hand, and eventually going out before other players. Within each round there are two types of card groupings that are required:
Aces rank as high or low, but one cannot create a run that loops around, also known as "turning the corner". A 2 3 4 is allowed, J Q K A is allowed, but K A 2 3 is not.
If a player begins to meld and finds they cannot actually meld, they must add fifty points to their score.
The requirements for each round of play are as follows:
After each player has finished his/her turn by discarding, if the next player should decline to pick up the new top card of the face-up discard pile, any other player may "buy" it. The "price" to pick up this extra card out of turn requires that the buyer draw an additional card from the face-down pile. If more than one player desires to buy a card, the player who first calls out "I'll buy that" gets the card. Or, for a calmer game, whoever is nearest (clockwise) to the player about to draw gets precedence.
The option to buy ends when the next player picks up a card from the top of the face-down deck.
Jokers are wild cards, and can represent any card (suit and number). However there are restrictions on their usage.
During their turn while playing off another player, a player may replace that other player's laid Joker from within a run with the card it is substituting, so long as that Joker is placed somewhere else before the player concludes their turn. An easy way for a player to "waste" the extra Joker if it doesn't allow them to lay additional cards is to simply add it to a set, as this prohibits another player from performing the wild card substitution trick again.
Once a player has laid down, they can then attempt to further reduce the number of cards in their hand by adding to other players' laid cards.
For example, a 3♥ could be added to an existing set of 3s (3♦3♣3♠) or a suitable a run of hearts (4♥5♥6♥7♥) from another player.
No player can interact with jokers after the turn in which they go down. There is only one round in which you can swap out jokers with cards, that is the turn you are actively going down. Not any round before or after—-even if you have the card to do so, (after you’re down)for you it is a dead card in which you can either hold or drop (to get rid of points or) for someone else to buy or pick up. (Before you’re down) wait until you can go down-with or without the joker in question that you need, and then go down. But be careful if there are multiple decks as someone else could have the card and swap it before you’re ready.
Once a player has laid down, their discard must not fit into either their own or any other player's laid cards. If this is the case, every other player has until the commencement of the next player's turn to call rummy on the offending player, in which case that offending player picks up their discard and one additional card from the top of the deck. Once a player lays their cards down to 'go out' of a round, rummy rules no longer apply.
At the end of each round when a player goes out, the rest of the players total their scores by counting up the value of the cards remaining in their hands. Cards are valued as follows:
The player with the lowest point total at the end of final round wins, so players usually work to lower their scores by going down, playing off other players who have gone down and, secondarily, replacing high cards (such as face cards and aces) with lower ones.
A player goes out when they successfully discard the only remaining card in hand, marking the conclusion of the step for all players. A player gets to this point by laying down and then playing off their and other players’ hands.
A player is floating if they exhaust their cards and are not able to discard. In this case, the hand continues until somebody successfully goes out. At no point in time is it acceptable to draw a card from the up pile and discard the same card during the same turn. It follows that a floater must draw an unplayable card from the deck (down-pile) in order to go out. When floating, a player may also play off of someone, meaning they can add on to a run or set owned by another player by simply laying the cards they want to play in front of them.
It is customary for a player to knock on the table when there is only one card left in their hand, alerting other players to the fact that they are close to going out.
In the "Me" variant, a player may buy a card out of turn from the discard pile by calling "me" or "I'll buy that". They pick up the discarded (bought) card and a penalty (the price for buying the card). The difference from Liverpool Rummy is that whoever calls "me" first gets the card as opposed to the player who is nearest (clockwise) the player about to draw.
Gin rummy, or simply gin, is a two-player card game variant of rummy. It has enjoyed widespread popularity as both a social and a gambling game, especially during the mid twentieth century, and remains today one of the most widely played two-player card games.
Canasta is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 rum. Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of seven cards of the same rank and "go out" by playing all cards in their hands.
Robbers' rummy is a card game for two or more players. It is a variant of German Rummy dating to the early 20th century. Being derived from normal rummy, it emphasises arrangement of cards based on card matching rules, while abandoning the notions of card discards and scoring entirely.
500 rum, also called pinochle rummy, Michigan rummy, Persian rummy, rummy 500 or 500 rummy, is a popular variant of rummy. The game of canasta and several other games are believed to have developed from this popular form of rummy. The distinctive feature of 500 rum is that each player scores the value of the sets or cards they meld. It may be played by 2 to 8 players, but it is best for 3 to 5.
Rummy is a group of games related by the feature of matching cards of the same rank or sequence and same suit. The basic goal in any form of rummy is to build melds which can be either sets or runs and either be first to go out or to amass more points than the opposition.
Shanghai rum is a Rummy card game, based on gin rummy and a variation of Contract rummy played by 3 to 8 players. It is also known as California rummy.
Desmoche is a popular rummy card game usually played for small stakes which closely resembles other games in the rummy family, like Conquian and gin rummy, more than poker. It was probably devised in Nicaragua in the first half of the 20th century.
Tonk, or tunk, is a matching card game, which combines features of knock rummy and conquian. Tonk is a relatively fast-paced game that can be played by 2–4 players. It can be played for just points or for money wagered.
Switch is a shedding-type card game for two or more players that is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland and as alternative incarnations in other regions. The sole aim of Switch is to discard all of the cards in one's hand; the first player to play their final card, and ergo have no cards left, wins the game. Switch is very similar to the games Crazy Eights, UNO, Flaps, Mau Mau or Whot! belonging to the Shedding family of card games.
Contract rummy is a Rummy card game, based on gin rummy played by 3 to 8 players. It appeared in the United States during the Second World War. The game is also known as Combination rummy, Deuces Wild Rummy and Joker rummy, and a proprietary version of the game called Phase 10 was published in 1982.
Dummy rummy is a variation of rummy for two to four players. It is played with two standard decks of cards, including four jokers, for a total of 108 cards. The jokers and twos are wild. It appears to be of American origin and may be copyrighted.
Three thirteen is a variation of the card game Rummy. It is an eleven-round game played with two or more players. It requires two decks of cards with the jokers removed. Like other Rummy games, once the hands are dealt, the remainder of the cards are placed face down on the table. The top card from the deck is flipped face up and put beside the deck to start the discard pile.
Khanhoo or kanhu is a non-partnership Chinese card game of the draw-and-discard structure. It was first recorded during the late Ming dynasty as a multi-trick taking game, a type of game that may be as old as Tien gow, revised in its rules and published in an authorized edition by Emperor Gaozong of Song in 1130 AD for the information of his subjects. Meaning "watch the pot", it is very possibly the ancestor of all rummy games.
Chinchón is a matching card game played in Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Cape Verde and other places. It is a close variant of gin rummy, with which it shares the same objective: making sets, groups or runs, of matching cards.
Indian Cherokee Rummy is a card game in India with little variation from original rummy. It may be considered a cross between Rummy 500 and gin rummy. Indian Rummy is a variant of the rummy game popular in India that involves making valid sets out of 13 cards that are distributed among every player on the table. Each player is dealt 13 cards initially; if the number of players is 2, then a 52 cards deck is chosen for the game and if there are 6 players, two decks of 52 cards each is combined for the game. Each player has to draw and discard cards by turns till one player melds their cards with valid sets that meet the Rummy validation rules. It could be that Indian Rummy evolved from a version of Rummy in South Asia, Celebes Rummy, also called Rhuk.
Penang rummy or si rummy is a variant of the rummy card game which originated in the Penang region of Malaysia in the late 1980s. The word si in Penang Hokkien language means 'dead'. It reflects the nature of the card game, where the hand is dead, with no drawing of new cards or exchanging of cards, throughout the whole game.
Marriage is a Rummy card game widely played in India. It uses three or more packs of playing cards.
German Rummy or Rommé is the most popular form of the worldwide game, Rummy, played in Austria and Germany. It is a game for 2 to 6 players and is played with two packs of French playing cards, each comprising 52 cards and 3 jokers. There are no partnerships. In Germany, the Germany Rummy Association is the umbrella organisation for local rummy clubs and organises national competitions. The game is often just known as Rommé in Germany and Rummy in Austria.
Viennese Rummy is a matching card game of the Rummy family for 2-6 people played in continental Europe.
Five Crowns is a card game created by Set Enterprises. Players compete by trying to obtain the lowest number of points after playing all eleven hands of the game and making sets of "books and runs." The game ends when the eleventh round has concluded. As the slogan of Five Crowns states: "The Game Isn't Over 'Til the Kings Go Wild!" The game combines aspects of Rummy and Phase 10.