German Rummy: A Quick Guide to Help You Play This Variety of Card Game Online

The game of Rummy has a wide range of variations. It is interesting to see how the game is played in diverse ways, following several rules in different corners of the globe. While learning how to play Rummy online, it can be an interesting variant to explore.

German Rummy, also known as Rommé in Germany and Rummy in Austria locally, is a popular game worldwide. It is played with two full packs of French playing cards, each comprising 52 cards and 3 jokers. The traditional German Rommé deck has 6 jokers, but most French decks only come with 2.

Number of Players: 2 to 6 players

The Object of the Game

The game’s object is to be the player with the highest score after the game.

Dealing of Cards

The dealer rolls out 13 cards to each player one by one. The rest of the cards are placed in the center of the game table and become the draw pile. The dealer should then flip one card as face up to start the discarded pile.

Specifics to Remember

Figures: Also known as Figuren, these are combinations of at least 3 cards. Such combinations are:

Sets: Locally known as Sätze of 3 or 4 cards of equal ranks but different suits, like ♥K–♦K–♣K or ♠4–♥4–♦4–♣4 are called sets.

Runs: Also known as Folgen, or Reihen, or Sequenzen of 3 or more cards in suit and in a sequence are called Runs where Aces may be high or low. For instance: ♦8–♦9–♦10–♦B, ♥A–♥2–♥3 or ♣D–♣K–♣A, but not ♠K–♠A–♠2.

Joker Cards in Figures: Players may also build figures using Joker cards. Jokers are wild cards that players may use to represent any other card; for instance: ♣B–♣D–Joker–♣A or ♠6–♥6–Joker.

It is to be noted that players may not build a figure with just one natural card and two Jokers. Again, in a run of at least four cards, however, two Joker cards may follow one another. So, ♠3–Joker–Joker–♠6 is allowed as a combination.

The Game Play

Every player’s turn is composed of three significant steps:

• Draw
• Meld
• Discard

When a player draws a card, they may take the topmost card from the draw pile or the top card from the discarded pile.

After drawing, the player may create melds. There must be a minimum of 40 points of melds laid on the table in the first meld.

Players may also lay off on some other melds if the initial meld requirement has been fulfilled. They may also swap out the Joker cards if they can do so.

Example of Lay-off:

On the table there are: ♥2-♥3-♥4. If a player has ♥A and ♥5 in his hand, he may lay off two cards to the melded sequence.

Once melded, the cards may no longer be taken back to the hand or discarded.

A player must discard a card from their hand to the top of the discarded pile to end a turn. A round gets over once a player empties the hand. They may do so by playing a meld, laying off, or even by discarding.

Swapping Joker Cards

If there is a figure with a Joker on the game table, for instance, ♠6-♥6- Joker, and if a player holds the card represented by the Joker, he can swap the Joker for this card.

The Joker card must be then immediately used in a new meld and not added to the player’s hand. A Joker can be swapped out only after the first meld has been made.