Continental

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card order and runs
3. Wild cards
4. Setup
5. Playing a turn
6. Going out
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Continental is a rummy game played with several decks. Everyone gets 15 cards and tries to arrange them into runs – cards of the same suit in a row. Unlike most rummy games, you lay nothing down during play: you keep drawing and discarding until your whole hand fits together, then lay it all down at once. The first player to do so wins the deal and collects points from everyone else.

• Players: 2–12 (it works best with 4 or more).
• You need: two standard 52-card decks plus 2 jokers for up to 5 players; three decks plus 3 jokers for 6–8 players; four decks plus 4 jokers for 9 or more. Shuffle all the cards together. You also need chips, counters or paper and pencil for scoring.

Card order and runs

A run (also called a sequence) is three or more cards of the same suit in consecutive order, e.g. 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ or 9♣ 10♣ J♣ Q♣. In Continental a run is 3, 4 or 5 cards long.

The cards rank A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A: the Ace can be low (A-2-3) or high (Q-K-A), but not both in one run – K-A-2 is not allowed.

Sets (several cards of the same rank, such as three Kings) do not count in Continental. Only runs.

Because several decks are mixed, you may hold two identical cards (e.g. two 7♠). They can go into different runs, but never into the same run.

Wild cards

Jokers and all 2s are wild. A wild card can stand in for any card you need in a run.

Example: 6♦ 2♣ 8♦ is a run 6♦ 7♦ 8♦ – the 2♣ takes the place of the 7♦.

A 2 may of course also be used as a normal 2 in a run such as A♠ 2♠ 3♠ – it is then not wild and does not count as a wild card when you score.

Setup

1. First dealer: everyone draws a card; the lowest card deals. After each deal the turn to deal passes to the left.
2. Deal: the dealer gives each player 15 cards, face down, three at a time, clockwise starting with the player to the left.
3. Stock and discard pile: the remaining cards form the face-down stock (draw pile). The dealer turns its top card face up next to it to start the discard pile.

Playing a turn

The player to the dealer's left begins; play goes clockwise. On your turn:

1. Draw one card: the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile.
2. Discard one card face up onto the discard pile.

You never put melds on the table during play – everything stays in your hand until you go out.

If the stock runs out, set the top discard aside, shuffle the rest of the discard pile and use it as the new stock.

Going out

You go out when all 15 cards of your hand fit into runs in one of these three ways – no other combination is allowed:

After drawing you hold 16 cards: lay the 15 that form the pattern face up and discard the last one. If your dealt hand already fits a pattern, you may go out at the start of your first turn without drawing.

Example: You hold 4♠ 5♠ 6♠ 7♠ · 9♥ 10♥ J♥ Q♥ · 10♣ J♣ Q♣ K♣ · A♦ 3♦ · K♥. You draw a joker. Now A♦ Joker 3♦ is a run, so you lay down 4 + 4 + 4 + 3 cards and discard the K♥. You are out.

If you declare that you are out but your cards don't fit a pattern, your hand stays face up on the table and you must keep playing with it exposed.

Scoring

Only the player who goes out scores. Every other player pays them:

Pay with chips, or write the points down: the winner gets the total from each opponent, each opponent loses that amount.

Example: Four players. Anna goes out with one joker and one 2 in her runs. Each of the other three pays her 1 (going out) + 1 (the 2) + 2 (the joker) = 4 points, so Anna gains 12 and the others lose 4 each. Had she used no wild cards, each would have paid 1 + 10 = 11.

Winning the game

Agree beforehand how long to play – a number of deals, a time limit, or a target total. The player with the most chips or the highest score at the end wins.

Tips for beginners

• Think in runs of 3. Five runs of 3 is the most flexible pattern; longer runs only help if they fit exactly.
• Wild cards are valuable, but not free: every 2 and joker you use lowers what you collect – a hand without wild cards is worth far more.
• Watch what others take. A player who picks up hearts from the discard pile probably collects hearts runs.
• Throw away cards that no run can use – for instance a card whose neighbours have all been discarded.
• Count your cards before calling out. A wrong call leaves your hand exposed.

Variants

These are optional – agree on them before playing.

• Jokers only: at some tables only the jokers are wild (two per two decks) and the 2s are ordinary cards. Then the bonus for jokers is 2 each, and 10 for going out without jokers.
• Contract version: under the same name, a completely different game is also played – seven deals with a fixed contract of sets and runs each (like Contract Rummy). It is a separate game.