13 Card Rummy
13 card rummy, is the most popular type of Indian Rummy played in the country, and is largely thought to have originated from a 16th century, Mughal-era card game. With its roots so deep in our history, 13 card rummy is often played in Indian households during festivals like Diwali and Holi. Now with the advent of technology, there’s been a massive resurgence of rummy online.
13 Card Rummy
13 card rummy is played between 2 to 6 players, and each player is dealt 13 cards. Depending on the number of players and the format, one or two decks of 52 cards would need to be used. The objective of the game is to be the first player to make a valid declaration by grouping 13 cards into sequences and sets. A valid declaration must have at least two sequences, one of which has to be a pure sequence. You can group the rest of the cards into sets or sequences.
Popularity of 13 Card Rummy
13 card rummy is the most popular format of rummy played in our country. It’s quick, fun, and pretty easy to grasp–which explains why it has a very wide player base.
Easy to Learn and Play
With a very simple objective, rummy is one of the most easily-mastered card games. Once players understand the logic of a rummy game and the priority of groupings, they can quickly learn rummy with a few practice games.
Skill Based Game
Knowing rummy rules is half the battle! The other half, though, is knowing how to quickly change strategies. While the basics remain the same, each rummy game and each hand poses a different kind of challenge. A player should be able to analyse their hand and decide which cards to keep or discard to maximise their probability of winning.
Fun-Filled and Exciting
Indian Rummy is a fun and thrilling opportunity to show your analytical skills, along with the prospect of making some real money with real cash rummy games.
Options for Online Gaming
With multiple options to play rummy online, 13 card rummy has become more popular and accessible to people everywhere. As more and more people have started using smartphones, playing online games in a rummy app has become a preferred option for many.
Objective of 13 Card Rummy
A 13 card rummy game has 2 to 6 players, and 13 cards are dealt to each of them. The objective of the game is to divide these 13 cards into melds or groupings. These melds must include: at least 2 sequences, one of which has to be a pure sequence. The rest of the cards can be melded into sequences or sets.
Once a player has these melds in place, they have to make a declaration. A valid declaration means all the conditions are met: you have at least 1 pure sequence, at least 1 other sequence (either pure or impure), and all the cards are part of some sequence or a set. Make a declaration once you discard the 14th card (the last ungrouped card). Once a valid declaration is made by a player, all the other players are prompted to make the best melds possible with their cards and declare.
13 Card Rummy Rules
13 card rummy is different from its predecessors in terms of number of cards dealt and a few rules. For instance in the original rummy, 10 cards are dealt to each player, while in Indian Rummy a hand has 13 cards. In formats like gin rummy, only 2 players participate and ace is the lowest-ranking card in a suit. In the 13 card version of Indian Rummy, however, 2 to 6 players participate and an ace is considered the highest-ranking card, with the same points as the other face cards (king, queen, and jack).
Sequence
A sequence (or a ‘run’) is a group of at least 3 consecutive cards of the same suit. A Joker card can also be used to complete a sequence, in which case it will be an impure sequence. However, if a wildcard Joker fits naturally into a sequence, you can form a pure sequence with it. For example, if 6 is the wildcard Joker, and you form 5♥️ 6♥️ 7♥️ as a sequence, it will be considered a pure sequence.
Valid pure sequence:
or
Valid impure sequence:
or
Sets
A set is a group of 3 or more cards of the same rank but different suits. A Joker card can also be used to complete a set. You can create a set of up to 4 cards if you don’t use a Joker and up to 7 cards if you are using jokers. The following are examples of valid sets:
or
or
or
Note: 2 same-ranked cards of the same suit CANNOT be part of the same set.
Valid
Invalid
Printed Joker and Wild Card Jokers
In addition to the 2 printed Jokers in the deck, one card is selected out of the closed deck, called the wild card Joker. This wild card Joker lies face up under the closed deck so that all players can see it. This card determines an additional set of jokers for that hand–any card of the same rank, regardless of the suit, can be used as a wild card Joker.
If the selected card turns out to be a printed Joker, all ace cards become the wild card Jokers for that particular rummy game.
Valid uses of Joker/wild card Jokers:
or
or
How to Play 13 Card Rummy
It is quite simple to master 13 card rummy once a player is aware of the rules and strategies. A player must always focus on creating a pure sequence first before making other melds, and also discard high-value cards to reduce the number of points. Understanding that, one just needs a few practice games to learn it completely.
Shuffle and Dealing of Cards
In 13 card rummy, depending on the number of players, one or two decks of cards will be used in the game. Cards are shuffled thoroughly to ensure the deck is as random as possible. When playing rummy online, apps like RummyCulture incorporate a system called the Random Number Generator (or RNG) that ensures a fair, random distribution of cards. The act of distribution of cards is called dealing. To decide who goes first, initially 1 card is dealt to each player
Open Card
Once 13 cards have been dealt to all the players, one card is put face up in the middle of the table. This is the open card. The player who goes first can either choose to pick this card, or take one from the closed deck.
Declaration of Wild Card Joker
One card is randomly picked from the closed deck, which becomes the wild card Joker. This card is placed face up under the closed deck, so all players know which cards can be used as wild card Jokers. All cards of the same rank as the picked card, irrespective of their suits, would qualify as wild card Jokers.
Drawing and Discarding of Cards
Once all cards are dealt, an open card is placed and a wild card Joker has been established, the game starts with the first player either drawing one card from the open or the closed deck. After drawing a card and sorting their hand, the first player discards a card which is of no use to them. This card goes to the open or discard pile. The game continues and the second player can either pick the first player’s discarded card or draw a new one from the closed deck, and so on until all players have taken a turn.
If the open card is a Joker or wild card Joker, the first player has the opportunity to take it, but discarded Joker cards can not be picked up by other players.
Declare
The turns continue until one player has a valid declaration–with at least 2 sequences (one of them compulsorily has to be a pure sequence). Once all cards have been melded into sequences and sets, the 14th card is discarded to make a declaration.
As soon as a valid declaration is made, all the other players on the table are prompted to sort their cards and declare their best possible grouping.
Calculation of Points in 13 Card Rummy
The player who makes a valid declaration first is declared the winner. They would be said to have 0 points.
Points are calculated as the sum total of the ungrouped cards in a hand. For example, after a valid declaration is made, another player has the following cards:
Here, the player has a pure sequence, an impure sequence, a set, and three ungrouped cards-
The valid melds would be equal to 0 points, while the ungrouped cards would be equal to 4 + 8 + 9 = 21 points.
The points for each numbered card is equal to the number printed on it, while face cards (king, queen and jack) and ace equal 10 points each. A Joker (both printed and wild cards) are equal to 0 points.
The objective of 13 card rummy is to make a valid declaration or leave the least amount of points possible.
