Rummy for two to four players with a wild rank that changes every round. One player starts a game, picks
how many are playing, shares the link, and everyone plays from wherever they happen to be.
How to play
Two to four players, one standard 52 card deck, no jokers. Whoever starts the game picks
how many seats there are. The dealer takes eight cards, everyone else seven, and the
dealer opens the round by discarding one card. Play then moves to the left, and each
turn is draw one, lay down whatever you can, discard one. The deal moves one seat to
the left every round.
The wild rank changes every round
Aces are wild in round one, 2s in round two, 3s in round three, on through Kings,
then back to Aces.
Suit does not matter. Every card of that rank is wild that round.
A wild card can also be played at its own face rank if you would rather. In a round
where 5s are wild, 4-5-6 of one suit is a perfectly good run using a natural 5.
A meld can never hold more wild cards than natural ones, so a three card meld takes
at most one wild.
What counts as a meld
Three or four of a kind. Same rank, no repeated suit.
A run of three or more in one suit.
Where the ace sits
An ace can run low, as in A-2-3, or high, as in Q-K-A.
A run never wraps around the corner, so K-A-2 is not a run.
Adding to melds
You can add a matching card to any meld on the table, including anyone else's,
but only once you have laid down a meld of your own.
A set takes a fourth card of the same rank or a wild. A run takes a card at either
end.
When a run could sit in more than one place, the board asks where the wild goes
before laying it down. Holding 3 and 4 of a suit with a wild, you choose between
2-3-4 and 3-4-5.
Buying a wild back
A wild sitting in a meld is standing in for one particular card. If you hold that
card you can put it in the wild's place and take the wild into your hand.
In a run the wild stands for exactly one card. A wild between the 5 and 7 of clubs
is the 6 of clubs and nothing else.
In a set the wild stands for that rank in any suit the set does not already show.
A set of 7s showing spades and hearts will take the 7 of diamonds or the 7 of clubs.
Select the card in your hand and the wilds you can buy start glowing. Tap one to
make the trade. The same rule applies as for adding to melds: lay down a meld of
your own first.
You trade one card for another, so this never empties your hand. The wild is yours
to meld, to keep, or to throw away.
Scoring
The first player with no cards left ends the round and scores the value of
everything still in every other player's hand.
Whatever rank is wild this round is worth 15 against you, so do not sit on one.
That includes aces in round one.
In every other round an ace is 10, the same as a face card or a ten. Everything
else is face value.
A match is thirteen rounds, one for each wild rank from Aces through Kings. The
higher total after the thirteenth round wins.
If the stock runs out it is reshuffled from the discard pile. If there is nothing
left to reshuffle the round is a wash.