Rummikub is a tile based rummy game. It is played with 106 tiles, and players build melds. Melds are played face up, and generally players can play off all melds. The Rummikub game was invented by Ephraim Hertzano in the early 1930′s. Hertzano, in his 1978 book ‘Official Rummikub Book’, described three different versions of the Rummikub game: American, Sabra and International. Today Rummikub sets include only versions of the Sabra rules, with no mention of the other games. The rules also vary between publishers.
The Equipment:
Rummikub games are played with 106 tiles. This consists of 104 number tiles. The number tiles are numbered 1-13 and are in four colors. Each combination of number and color tile is represented twice. The other two tiles are joker tiles, marked as smiley faces. Each player will also need a rack, to hold their tiles. The Rummikub game could also be played with two decks of cards and two jokers. You will, of course, need a playing surface, a table or the floor will do.
Getting Started:
Rummikub is a game for 2-4 players. The tiles are placed in a bag, or laid out flat. Each player selects one tile, and the highest number goes first. A joker could be used as high or low, this is a necessary to determine house rule. Tiles are returned to the pool. Once the first player is determined, they chose 14 tiles. Each player also takes 14 tiles, in clock wise order.
Game Play:
To open in Rummikub you must meld for 30 points or more. This can be multiple melds, or a single one. A joker would count for the face value of the tile it replaces. This first move is know as an initial meld, and must be done with ones own tiles entirely. You may not use other tiles already out for your initial meld. You also may not play any tiles before your initial meld.
Once a player has made his initial meld, he can, on each turn, play one or more tiles from his rack, making or adding to groups and/or runs. If the player cannot (or chooses not to) play any tiles, he must pick one random tile from the pool and add it to his rack.
What are Melds?
There are two types of melds, groups and runs.
- Groups: Groups are three or four of the same number, but different colors.
- Runs: Runs are three or more tiles, of the same color, in consecutive order.
Amending sets
Players may play tiles by amending sets already in play. The only limit to the length of a run is the extremes of the tile values. Groups are limited to four because colors may not repeat within a group.
Manipulation of played tiles
During a player’s turn, sets of tiles that have already been played may be manipulated to allow more tiles to be played. At the end of the turn, all played tiles must be in valid sets.
Shifting a run:
Players may add the appropriate tile to either end of a run and remove a tile from the other end for use elsewhere. If red 3, 4, and 5 have already been played, a player may add the red 6 to the end and remove the 3 for use elsewhere.
Splitting a run:
Players may split long runs and insert the corresponding tiles in the middle. Thus, if blue 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 are already a run, the player may insert his own 8 to make two runs: 6, 7, 8 and 8, 9, 10.
Substituting in a group:
Players may replace any of the tiles in a three-tile group with a tile of the fourth color and the same value. If blue 6, red 6, and orange 6 are already a group, the player may add the black 6 and remove any one of the other three for use elsewhere.
Removing tiles:
So long as the remaining tiles form a valid run, tiles can be removed from the ends of runs. Any one tile may be removed from a four-tile group.
Joker substitution:
A player with a tile matching the color and value of a joker may replace the joker with that tile. The joker must be played that same turn in a set with at least two other tiles from the player’s rack. The color and the value of the joker may both change when this happens. Thus, if blue 3, blue 4, joker is an existing run, a player holding a blue 5, a red 7 and an orange 7 may replace the joker with his blue 5 and play the joker with the two sevens as a new group. As an alternative,the joker may be substituted for tiles already played. This will result in a faster paced game.
Harvested tiles:
In the course of a turn, a tile that is “harvested” from an existing set must be played during the turn; it cannot be kept for later use. Example: if there is a 3,4,5 run on the table, the 3 can be harvested by putting down the appropriately-coloured 6, but the 3 must be used during that turn, not kept in the player’s hand for later use.
Mistakes
At the end of each turn, all sets on the table must be valid, but during the course of a turn, utterly arbitrary temporary re-arrangements are allowed. These can get very involved, requiring several steps. Sometimes, what had been imagined in the mind to be possible turns out not to be, leaving the table in an illegal state. When this happens (and the choice of when to invoke this rule depends on how formal or “friendly” the game is), the offending player must return all sets on the table to their original state, and pick up three tiles as a penalty.
Winning
Game play 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.
Scoring
Once a winner has been declared, the losing players must add up the values of the tiles remaining in their racks (their score for the game). The joker has a penalty value of 30. A player’s score for the game is subtracted from his current cumulative score. Once calculated, each of the losing players’ scores for the game is added to the winners current cumulative score.
For example- suppose in a game player A wins, player B has a score of 5, player C has a score of 10 and player D a score of 3. Player A will now have a cumulative score of 18, player B will be -5, player C will be -10 and player D will be -3.
Should the game result in no winner, the player with the least number of tiles in their rack is the winner. Scoring is then carried out in the normal manner.