Machiavelli

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Sets and runs
3. Setup
4. Playing a turn
5. Ending the round
6. Winning the game
7. Tips for beginners
8. Variants

Overview

Machiavelli is an Italian rummy game with a delightful twist: you are allowed to rearrange every card on the table. Everybody lays their cards down in sets and runs in the middle – and on your turn you can take these combinations apart, reshuffle them and build new ones, as long as everything is valid again when you finish. That's how you find room for the cards in your hand. The first player who has laid all cards wins the round.

• Players: 2–5 (more is possible – then deal fewer cards).
• You need: two 52-card decks shuffled together (104 cards, no jokers), and pen and paper.

Sets and runs

A combination on the table is one of these:

• a set – three or four cards of the same rank in different suits, e.g. 7♥ 7♦ 7♠;
• a run – three or more cards of the same suit in order, e.g. 3♠ 4♠ 5♠. The Ace can be low (A-2-3) or high (Q-K-A), but a run cannot turn the corner (K-A-2 is not valid).

With two decks, the same card can appear twice, but never twice in the same combination: 7♥ 7♥ 7♠ is not a set.

The important rule: all cards on the table must always belong to a valid combination, and each card belongs to one combination only.

Setup

1. Choose a dealer. Deal and play go clockwise.
2. Deal 13 cards to each player, one at a time, face down. With more than 5 players, deal fewer cards, at least 3.
3. The rest is the face-down stock. The table is empty.

The player to the dealer's left starts.

Playing a turn

On your turn you do one of these:

1. Play cards: put one or more cards from your hand on the table, as long as you can then arrange all the cards on the table into valid combinations. You may: - start a new combination with cards from your hand, - add cards to existing combinations, - rearrange the table: take combinations apart, move cards between them and build new ones, using cards from your hand as well.
2. Draw one card from the stock and add it to your hand, if you can't or don't want to play. Your turn is over.

You can't take cards from the table into your hand. Everything you lay down stays there. And you never do both: either you play or you draw.

If you started to play and can't finish – the table isn't valid at the end of your turn – you have to take back every card you played, put the table back as it was and draw 3 cards from the stock as a penalty.

Example: On the table lie the sets K♥ K♦ K♣, Q♥ Q♦ Q♣ and J♥ J♦ J♣. You hold A♣ and cannot add it anywhere. You rearrange the nine cards into three runs – J♥ Q♥ K♥, J♦ Q♦ K♦ and J♣ Q♣ K♣ – and add your A♣ to the club run. Everything on the table is valid, so this is a legal move.

Example of a failed move: the table shows 10♥ 10♦ 10♠ and J♥ J♦ J♠ and Q♥ Q♦ Q♣. You want to play a 9♠ and build runs 10♥ J♥ Q♥, 10♦ J♦ Q♦, 9♠ 10♠ J♠. Now the Q♣ has no place to go – the table is not valid. Only if you held Q♦ and Q♠ in your hand, you could make a new set with the Q♣ and the move would be valid. Otherwise you must put everything back and draw 3.

Ending the round

The round ends when a player has no cards left. That player wins the round. Every other player gets 1 penalty point for each card left in their hand.

With 104 cards the stock rarely runs out. If it does, nobody draws any more: players who can't play pass, and if a whole round goes by without a card being played, the round ends. The player with the fewest cards left wins it and scores 0; the others score the cards in their hands.

Winning the game

Play several rounds and keep a running total. When somebody reaches 25 points, the game ends and the player with the lowest total wins. For a single round, the first player to go out wins.

Tips for beginners

• Begin by adding single cards to existing combinations – it is a safe way to get rid of cards.
• Look at long runs: they can often be split in two runs to make room for your card.
• Sets of four cards can give up one card without falling apart: 7♥ 7♦ 7♠ 7♣ can lose a 7 to a run.
• Check the whole table before you touch a card. Plan a rearrangement in your head first.
• Keep a card for the endgame that fits several places – it gets you out.

Variants

All optional – agree on them before the game.

• Thirty-Six: to start playing, your first move must lay down valid combinations from your own hand worth at least 36 points (Ace 1, 2–10 face value, face cards 10). Until you have done that, you may not add to or rearrange existing combinations.
• Guadalupe: no jokers, but the players get only 5 cards each. If you play nothing, you draw two cards; if you play cards but don't go out, you draw one card at the end of your turn.
• Tahiti: play with 4 jokers (108 cards), deal 5 cards each and put four cards face up on the table. These can be used in a combination, but don't have to be. A combination may contain only one joker. If you hold the real card, you can swap it for the joker and use the joker somewhere else. When someone goes out, the others score their cards: 2–10 face value, face cards 10, Aces 11, jokers 30.
• Draw first: some tables make it compulsory to draw a card at the beginning of every turn.