Rummikub has many rounds until a winner is declared

Rummikub has many rounds until a winner is declared

Rummikub is one of the most popular card games in the world, having won several ‘Game of the Year Awards’ in Germany, Holland, and Israel as well as being a best seller in the United States of America.  A brainchild of Ephraim Herzano (a Romanian-born Jew who later migrated to Israel in the 1940s), the initial games-sets were, in the beginning, handmade and sold door-to-door but gradually licensed to other countries.  Rummikub is played as many rounds until the one with the highest scores is declared the winner.

Rummikub, the Game

Rummikub is a tile-based game that is comprised of 106 tiles (2 jokers and 104 tiles numbered from 1 to 13 and colored in either black, blue, red or yellow) and is played by two (2) or four (4) players placed on a rack without revealing the identity of the tiles. Each combination of numbers and color is represented twice.

The aim is for a player to be the first to place all their tiles on the table to achieve an  initial meld.  The meld is  achieved by placing a set of three tiles of the same color (group) or three tiles of the same color but with consecutive numbers (game) from an initial fourteen (14) or sixteen (16) tiles.  Should a player not play, they are required to draw an additional tile from the ’tile pool.’

Rummikub Rounds

In the Sabra version (which is the most known version), the first player to use all their tiles earns a positive score based on the total of the other players’ hands, while the losers acquire negative ratings. A critical feature of the game is that players can work with the tiles that have already played. Tiles are mixed and either placed into a container or spread out across the table. Each player picks and reveals a tile with the holder of the tile that has the highest value initiating the game.  After the determination of the player who will start the game, all tiles get pooled, and players collect 14 random tiles and position them on their respective racks. Play begins with the starting player and proceeds in a right-handed direction.

For a player’s first move, they must arrange a set whose value is thirty (30) points or more, with the points being a total of the value of all tiles played in the respective round. A joker can substitute any tile, with the joker valued at the value of the tile replaced.  Other players cannot be used to create the initial meld, and a player who does not make the initial meld picks an additional tile from the pool and add it to their rack.

When a player makes an initial meld, they can play one or more tiles from their rack, creating or adding to runs or groups.  Players may play tiles by amending existing sets. The only limit to the length of a run is the excesses of the tile values. Groups are limited to four because colors may not repeat within a group.

Players may add the appropriate tile to either end of a run or remove a tile from the other end for use elsewhere. If yellow 2, 3, and 4 have already played, a player may add the yellow 5 to the end and remove the 1 for use elsewhere. Players may split long runs and supplement the corresponding tiles in the middle. Thus, if red 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are already a run, the player may insert his own 8 to make two runs: 5, 6, 7, and 8, 9, 10. A player may substitute any tiles in a three-tile group,  with a tile of the fourth color and the same value. If black 5, blue 5, and yellow 5 are already a group, the player may add the red 5 and remove any one of the other three for use elsewhere. As long as the remaining tiles form a valid run, tiles care removed from the ends of runs. Any single tile can bw removed from a four-tile group.

A joker cannot be retrieved before the initial meld. A joker can be retrieved from a set by replacing it with a tile of the same numerical value and color it represents. The tile used to replace the joker can come from the player’s rack or the table. In the case of a group of 3, the joker can be replaced by the tile of either of the missing colors. A joker that has been replaced must be used in the player’s same turn as part of a new set. A set containing a joker can have tiles added to it, be split apart, or have tiles removed from it. The joker has a penalty value of 30 points if it remains on a player’s rack at the end of the game.

Rummikub is played on continuous turns

In the course of a turn, a tile that is “picked” from an existing set is played during the turn; it cannot be retained for future use. Once a player has won, the losing players must add up the values of the tiles remaining in their racks (their score for the game). A player’s score for the game is subtracted from his present total score. Once calculated, each of the losing players’ scores for the game is added to the winner’s current cumulative score.

For example- suppose in a game player Chris wins, player John has a score of 6, player Regina has a score of 12 and player Faith a score of 2. Chris will now have a cumulative score of 20, John will have −6, while Reginal will have −12 and Faith will be −2.

If there is no winner, the player with the fewest tiles in their rack is the winner. Scoring is carried out in the normal manner. The game continues until a player has used all of the tiles in the rack, at which point they should call out “Rummikub” and are declared the winner. If the pool runs out of tiles, play continues until there is a winner or no player can make a valid play.