Ellibir (51)

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card values
3. Melds
4. Setup
5. Playing a turn
6. Opening
7. After opening
8. Going out
9. Scoring
10. Winning the game
11. Tips for beginners
12. Variants

Overview

Ellibir – Turkish for "fifty-one", usually written 51 – is Turkey's favourite rummy game with cards. You collect melds (sets and runs) and lay them on the table, but your first time down you must open with melds worth at least 51 points – or with five pairs. Then you add your cards to melds on the table until you can go out. Whoever goes out scores minus 100; everyone else scores penalty points for what is left in their hand. After an agreed number of rounds, the lowest total wins.

• Players: 2–4, best with 4; each for themselves or 2 against 2 (see Variants).
• You need: two standard 52-card decks and 2 jokers (106 cards), shuffled together, and a score pad. Traditionally the two decks have different backs.

Card values

Melds

A meld (Turkish per) is a group of at least three cards:

• Run (seri per): three or more cards of the same suit in sequence, e.g. 6♠ 7♠ 8♠ 9♠. The Ace is high only: Q-K-A is a run, A-2-3 is not.
• Set (düz per): three or four cards of the same rank in different suits, e.g. 4♥ 4♠ 4♣. Two identical cards (4♥ 4♥) can't be in the same set.

A pair (çift) means two identical cards – same rank and same suit, e.g. J♦ J♦. That is possible because you play with two decks.

Jokers can stand for any card in a meld or a pair.

Setup

1. Dealer: choose one at random; the deal passes to the right after each round.
2. Deal: the dealer shuffles, the player to the left cuts. The dealer deals two cards at a time, starting with the player on the right and going anticlockwise, until everyone has 14 cards. The first player gets one extra card – 15.
3. Stock: the rest of the cards go face down in the middle as the stock (draw pile).

Play goes anticlockwise (to the right), as usual in Turkey. The player with 15 cards starts by discarding one card face up – this starts the discard pile – without drawing.

Playing a turn

1. Draw one card: the top card of the stock, or the card the previous player just discarded. You may take the discard only if you use it at once in a meld you lay down this turn – if you haven't opened yet, that means you must open with it.
2. Open, meld or lay off – see below.
3. Discard one card face up. Every turn ends with a discard.

Opening

Your first time down is called opening (el açmak). There are two ways:

• With melds: lay down melds worth 51 points or more together. A joker counts as the card it stands for.
• With pairs (çifte gitmek, "going for pairs"): lay down five pairs, or four pairs and one meld. The 51 points don't matter here.

Example: Anna lays down K♣ K♥ K♠ (30) and 7♦ 8♦ 9♦ (24) – 54 points, enough to open. Ben has Q♠ Q♥ Q♣ (30) and 5♣ 6♣ 7♣ (18) – only 48, so he must wait.

Example: Carla has collected 3♥ 3♥, 8♣ 8♣, J♠ J♠, A♦ A♦ and 6♠ plus a joker. She opens with pairs: four pairs plus the joker as the second 6♠ – five pairs.

A player who is going for pairs may take the previous player's discard to make a pair even without opening at once.

You don't have to open as soon as you can. Some players wait to go out all at once (see Scoring).

After opening

From the same turn on you may:

• Lay down more melds (no minimum any more).
• Lay off cards onto any meld on the table – your own and the other players' – as long as it stays a correct run or set, e.g. the 10♦ or 6♦ onto 7♦ 8♦ 9♦. Before you have opened you can't lay off.
• Take a joker: if a joker on the table stands for a card you hold, put the real card in its place and take the joker into your hand. You may keep it for later.

Don't discard a card that could be laid off once you have opened: that costs 50 penalty points. So does trying to open with too few points or a wrong meld.

Going out

You go out when you have melded or laid off all your cards but one and discard the last card. The round ends at once.

If the stock runs out and nobody has opened, the round doesn't count and the next dealer deals again. (Our sources don't say what happens if it runs out after someone has opened; we suggest the same.)

Scoring

Low scores are good.

• The player who goes out: −100.
• Players who have opened: the value of the cards left in their hand (joker 25, Ace 11, K Q J 10, others face value).
• Players who haven't opened: 100.

Doubling: each of the following doubles the other players' penalties (two of them: ×4, all three: ×8):

• the winner opened with pairs;
• the winner's last discard is a joker;
• the winner went out all at once – opening and going out in the same turn – and nobody else had opened.

A player who was going for pairs pays double as well.

Example: Anna goes out normally: −100. Ben has opened and holds A♠ 9♥ (20): 20. Carla hasn't opened: 100. Had Anna's last discard been a joker, Ben would score 40 and Carla 200.

Winning the game

Agree on the number of rounds before you start – usually 9, 11 or 13. Add up the scores; after the last round the player with the lowest total wins.

Tips for beginners

• Aim for 51 with high cards. Kings, Queens and Aces reach the threshold fastest – but they also cost the most if someone else goes out first.
• Go for pairs if you are dealt two or three pairs and small cards: the discards of others often complete them.
• Watch the discards. Don't throw the player on your right a card that fits their melds.
• Open in time. 100 points for not having opened is a heavy penalty.
• Keep an eye on jokers on the table – swapping one out is often the key to going out.

Variants

All optional – agree on them before you start.

• Higher threshold: instead of 51, open with 71, 81 or 101 points.
• Rising threshold: at many tables, once a player has opened, the next player must open with at least one point more than the highest opening so far (after an opening of 72, you need 73).
• Partners (eşli): 2 against 2, partners sitting opposite. As soon as one partner goes out, the round ends for the team; the other partner's hand counts as penalty. Add the partners' scores together.
• Joker in the cut: the player who cuts looks at the card at the cut. If it is a joker, they keep it (and get one card less in the deal); otherwise it goes face up to the bottom of the pack.
• Clockwise: the Turkish Wikipedia deals from the dealer's left and plays clockwise.
• More pairs: at some tables, six or seven pairs, or five pairs and one meld, are also allowed to open with pairs.