Sets and runs
Sets use equal ranks across suits, such as three queens. Runs use consecutive cards in the same suit, such as 4-5-6 of hearts.
Lay sets and runs, manage discards, and clear your hand.
Draw from the stock or discard pile, lay down melds when you can, and race the AI to go out first. This version focuses on classic, approachable Rummy play: seven-card hands, open table melds, and round scores that count the loser’s leftover cards toward a 100-point match.
Rummy is the foundation for a large family of draw-and-discard card games. The core idea is simple: collect cards into sets and runs, lay those melds onto the table, and reduce the cards left in your hand.
This online Rummy game uses a clean two-player format against AI. You draw one card, lay a valid meld if you have one, and discard to end your turn. The first player to clear their hand wins the round and scores against the opponent's remaining deadwood.
Those leftover cards are worth real points, so the round score depends on exactly what the loser is caught holding. In this version every card carries a fixed cost: an ace left in hand costs 1, number cards cost their printed value, and each jack, queen, or king costs 10. The winner banks the loser's total, round scores carry forward, and the first side to reach 100 points takes the match — which means a single hand where you get caught with two face cards and a nine can hand over nearly a third of the game.
That scoring structure shapes correct play more than beginners expect. Laying a meld the moment you form it protects those cards from ever counting against you, but it also broadcasts your position and hands the opponent lay-off opportunities in variants that allow them. Holding melds back keeps your hand secret at the cost of risk: if the AI goes out while you are sitting on an unlaid run, every card in it counts as deadwood. When to bank melds and when to sandbag them is the classic Rummy dilemma, and it plays out differently at 20-all than it does when the opponent sits at 90.
Rummy comes in many flavors — straight Rummy, Rummy 500, Gin Rummy, and dozens of house variants — and they share the same backbone of draw, meld, discard. This site teaches the classic game first, because once you can spot sets and runs and manage a discard pile, every other variant is a short step away. The rules page covers the standard game, the Rummy 500 guide explains the most popular scoring variant with its deep discard-pile pickup, and the variations page maps the wider family.
If you would rather keep score with cards in front of you — a kitchen-table match, or checking a disputed round — the scoring calculator tallies melded and leftover card values per player, applies the round result, and tracks running totals to 100 so nobody has to re-add a scratchpad column.
Meld minimum
3 cards
Every set needs three or four cards of one rank; every run needs at least three consecutive cards in a single suit.
Deal
7 cards
This two-player version deals seven cards each, so hands develop fast and the discard pile matters from turn one.
Match target
100 points
The winner of each round scores the loser’s unmelded card values — aces 1, faces 10 — and the first to 100 wins the match.
Sets use equal ranks across suits, such as three queens. Runs use consecutive cards in the same suit, such as 4-5-6 of hearts.
Every discard can help the opponent. Throw cards that are least connected to your hand and avoid feeding obvious runs or sets.
Straight Rummy melds to the table during play: you lay sets and runs face up as you build them, and the game comfortably seats two to six players. Gin Rummy is strictly a two-player duel where melds stay hidden until someone knocks. If you prefer that tighter, secretive version, you can play it free at www.ginrummy.to.
When one player goes out, the cards still stuck in the other hand are added up and awarded to the winner. Melded cards on the table are safe; everything else pays the bill.
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