How to play Robber’s rummy
SUMMARY
Robber’s rummy is a card game which became popular in Germany in the early 20th century. It emphasizes matching of cards based on simplified, but challenging card matching rules, while disposing of the concept of card discards and scoring as a whole.
Number of players: 2 or more players
Deck: 2 decks of 52 cards, plus 2-6 Jokers or wildcards.
Number of cards dealt: 11-13, the remaining cards are formed as the stock pile or face-down cards and the discard pile is where a player discards after his turn.
Object of the game: The goal of each player is to reduce the number of cards held in his hand by placing them on the table, face-up, forming “melds”. A meld is composed of any sequence of three or more cards of the same suit. A King may be followed by an Ace, and 2, and so on, or any three or four cards of equal rank, but of distinct suits. The first player to place cards at hand on the table wins. Any Joker in Robber’s rummy used within a meld must be identified as “one card” of appropriate rank or suit.
During each turn, a player may place one or more cards from their own hand on the table whereby melds are formed (or extended). Each player may rearrange any or all melds on the table. Re-assigning of Jokers is allowed provided that all cards on the table form melds after. All cards must remain on the table.
An essential point to recognize is that any meld consisting of four cards may be reduced to an equally regular three-card meld by removing or robbing one card. This can be used to form other melds. The name “robber” in Robber’s rummy reflects the characterization, by proponents of normal rummy, of such liberty in playing this game as excessive, or even offensive.
A player at turn who was unable or disinclined to place at least one card from their own hand on the table accordingly, must draw one card from the stock into the hand. (Alternatively, a player who did place one or more own cards on the table may draw one card from the stock, or must otherwise yield to the next player right away.
After having drawn one card, the player at turn may still place any one or more cards on the table, and must then yield to the next player, without drawing another card.
Robber’s rummy is adopted from the tile game Rummikub, which uses sets of tiles
numbered 1-13. It has one obvious omission from its rules; that is the rule that the cards on the table at the beginning of a turn must remain there at the end. In other words, if you play Rummikub, you simply take all the tiles that anyone plays you will have a great advantage of being able to use those tiles while others can’t. This is the distinct difference from Robber’s rummy.