Hand Rummy

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Card values
3. Melds
4. Wild cards
5. Setup
6. Playing a turn
7. The first meld: 51 points
8. Exchanging wild cards
9. End of a round
10. Scoring
11. Winning the game
12. Tips for beginners
13. Variants

Overview

Hand is a popular rummy game in the Arab world, played from Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine to the Gulf, today mostly online. These rules follow the form played in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. You play with two decks: you draw and discard, lay melds on the table and try to be the first to get rid of all your cards. Your first meld must be worth at least 51 points. The game takes its name from its big prize: melding your whole hand in one go, called a hand, scores double. Everyone else collects penalty points; after seven rounds the lowest total wins.

• Players: 2–4, each playing for themselves (for four players in two teams, see Variants).
• You need: two standard 52-card decks plus 2 jokers (106 cards), and paper and pen.
• Direction: dealing and play go anticlockwise (to the right).

If you know Rummy (Rommé) or Kalooki, much will be familiar: melds are laid out on the table, you may add to everyone's melds, and the first meld has a minimum value. What is special about Hand is the wild card indicator, the one-wild-card-per-meld rule and the double score for a hand.

Card values

The values count twice: to check the 51 points of a first meld, and as penalty points for cards left in your hand at the end.

Melds

A meld is a group of at least three cards that belong together:

• Sequence (run): three or more cards of the same suit in a row, e.g. 8♥ 9♥ 10♥ J♥. The Ace can be low (A 2 3) or high (Q K A), but not in the middle: K A 2 is not a sequence.
• Group (set): three or four cards of the same rank in different suits, e.g. 5♠ 5♥ 5♦. Two identical cards may not be in one group (9♠ 9♠ 9♥ is not a group).

You lay your melds face up in front of you. Once you have made your first meld, you may also add cards to any meld on the table – your own or another player's – as long as it stays a valid meld: the next card at either end of a sequence, or the fourth card of a group.

Wild cards

After the deal, one card is turned face up as the wild card indicator:

• If it is not an Ace, the two Aces of its suit are wild for this round. The two jokers then take their place and count as ordinary Aces of that suit.
• If it is an Ace, the two jokers are wild, and all Aces are ordinary cards.
• If it is a joker, push it back into the middle of the stock and turn up the next card instead.

A wild card can stand in for any card in a meld – but a meld may contain only one wild card.

Example: the indicator is the 8♣, so the two A♣ are wild and the jokers count as A♣. 7♥ A♣ 9♥ is a sequence (the A♣ stands for the 8♥). 5♠ 5♦ A♣ is a group (the A♣ stands for a third 5). J♣ Q♣ K♣ joker is a sequence of natural cards – the joker is simply the Ace of clubs. 4♥ A♣ A♣ is not a meld: two wild cards.

Setup

1. First dealer: everyone draws a card; the lowest deals. After that, the player with the highest (worst) score in the last round deals (see Variants for a simpler rotation).
2. The dealer shuffles, the player on the left cuts, and the dealer deals 14 cards to each player, two at a time. The player on the dealer's right gets a 15th card.
3. The rest is placed face down as the stock. The dealer turns up its top card as the wild card indicator and leaves it face up beside the stock.
4. Redeal: a player dealt four pairs of identical cards (e.g. 5♥ 5♥), or three such pairs and a wild card, or two pairs and two wild cards, may show them and ask for a new deal. Identical cards are useless together, so such a hand is weak.

Playing a turn

The player with 15 cards starts by simply discarding one card face up; this starts the discard pile. Then, going to the right, each turn has three steps:

1. Draw one card: the top card of the stock, or the top card of the discard pile.
2. Meld (optional): lay down melds, add cards to melds on the table, or exchange wild cards (see below).
3. Discard one card face up onto the discard pile.

Some restrictions:

• Taking the discard: if you take the top card of the discard pile, you must lay it down at once in a new meld with at least two cards from your hand (and, for your first meld, reach 51 points). If you can't, draw from the stock.
• Always discard: every turn ends with a discard, so you must always keep one card in your hand to throw away.
• Not on your first turn: nobody may go out on their first turn; everyone must have played once.
• Announce: when you have three cards or fewer after discarding, say so – "three cards", "two cards" or "one card". If you forget, you may not go out on your next turn.

The first meld: 51 points

Your first meld in each round must be worth at least 51 points. It can be made of several sequences and groups laid down in the same turn, using only cards from your hand (and the card you just drew). A wild card counts as the card it stands for; in a group it counts as one card of that rank.

Example: the indicator is the 8♣. Anna lays down 9♥ 10♥ J♥ Q♥ (39 points) and 4♠ 4♦ A♣ (4 + 4 + 4 = 12 points) – 51, enough. The Ace in a low sequence A 2 3 still counts 11.

Before your first meld you may not add to other melds or take wild cards from the table. From the moment it is down – even in the same turn – you may.

Exception: if you can get rid of all your cards in one turn, you may do so even with less than 51 points.

Exchanging wild cards

Once you have made your first meld, you may take a wild card from any meld on the table by putting the natural card(s) it stands for in its place:

• in a sequence, the card for its position (7♥ wild 9♥: put down the 8♥);
• in a group of two cards + wild, both missing cards (5♠ 5♦ wild: put down 5♥ and 5♣);
• in a group of three cards + wild, the missing fourth card.

You may use the wild card again right away or keep it in your hand. Melds on the table may not be rearranged in any other way.

A group of two cards and a wild card normally only changes when both missing cards arrive. Adding just one of them is allowed only if you go out this turn, or if someone has already announced "one card" (or you will announce it after this turn).

Discarded wild cards: a wild Ace taken from the discard pile counts only as a natural Ace of its suit; a joker taken from the discard pile counts only as an Ace (of any suit).

End of a round

The round ends when a player gets rid of all their cards – melding all but one and discarding the last. That player wins the round.

• Hand: if the winner had not melded before and lays down all 14 cards in one turn, without adding any to other players' melds, it is a hand: all scores are doubled.
• If the stock runs down so that, after a turn, it holds only as many cards as there are players, the round ends without a score, and the same dealer deals again.

Scoring

"Cards in hand" means the values of the cards still in that player's hand: Ace 11, K Q J 10, others face value, wild card 15. The winner's minus points are good for them.

Example: the indicator is the 8♣. Ben goes out over several turns: −30. Anna has melded and still holds K♠ 7♦ A♣: 10 + 7 + 15 = 32. Carla never melded: 100.

Winning the game

Play seven scored rounds (rounds without a score don't count). The lowest total wins; scores can go below zero. If there is a tie for lowest, play more rounds until it is broken.

Tips for beginners

• Keep wild cards for your first meld – they help you reach 51 points – but don't sit on them for too long: one left in your hand costs 15.
• Get your first meld down quickly. Until then you can't add to melds, and if someone goes out you score a flat 100.
• Watch the "one card" calls and get rid of high cards when an opponent is close to going out.
• A hand is worth waiting for only if you are close: melding all 14 cards at once doubles everyone's penalty points.
• Don't feed your right-hand neighbour: they can only take your discard if it fits a new meld, so watch what they collect.

Variants

All optional – agree on them before you start.

• Rotating deal: the deal simply passes to the right after each scored round.
• Partnership Hand: four players in two teams, partners opposite. When one player goes out, their team scores −30 (−60 for a hand); the other team adds up both players' penalty points (so 400 after a hand if neither had melded). The winner's partner's cards don't count.
• Jokers only: no indicator – the two jokers are always the only wild cards.
• Without jokers: 104 cards; the two Aces of the indicator's suit are wild, and there are no natural Aces of that suit.
• Ace values: at some tables an Ace left in hand counts 10, or an Ace in A 2 3 counts only 1 for the first meld.
• Higher minimum: 61, 71 or even 91 points for the first meld – or each player's first meld must beat the last one made.
• Taking the discard: at some tables you may add a card taken from the discard pile to a meld already on the table.
• Egyptian bonuses: a hand ending with a wild card as the discard counts double again (−120 for the winner, 4 × for the others); so does a hand of one colour, and a hand of one suit counts twice that. The doublings combine.