Rummy Wiki – Dictionary of Rummy Terms
Rummy Wiki by Rummy Millionaire is your complete reference to all the terminologies used in the game of rummy. It can get confusing at time especially when you start to learn the basics of the game. This fully fledged glossary is created with informative details about the rummy game play. This reference has been made simple for better knowledge on the game of rummy.
Ace: Ace in rummy can be used as both a low card and high card. There are four suits in a deck of card namely Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spade; every 4 suits in a deck have an Ace card each.
Card Deck or Deck of Card: A card deck is a group of complete playing cards. There are 52 cards in a deck which is the combination of 13 cards for each of the four suites.
Declare: A declaration is made when a player finishes a game by arranging his cards into sets and sequences. 13 cards are to be melded into sequences and sets and the 14th card is placed in the finish slot to 'Declare' the hand.
Deadwood: The winner of the game is the one who arrange all his cards into sets and sequences. The cards which were unable to be melded together by the rest of the players are known as 'Deadwood'.
Dealer: A dealer is the one who deal the cards to all the players. During a game of rummy players are allowed to draw a card at random from the deck of cards and the player with the lowest card becomes the dealer in that particular dealer. There are also other ways in which a dealer is selected; in some games, the player who loses the game gets to become the dealer.
Drawing & Discarding: The game of rummy is a game of draw and discard. 'Drawing' a card means to pick a card from the closed or open deck. When you pick a card from the deck you will be left with 14 cards including the 13 cards that you were dealt with. 'Discarding' refers to getting rid of the extra card that you do not require from your hand. The player can discard any card that he thinks is not worth to make a set or sequence.
Draw Pile/Closed Deck: After distributing the 13 cards evenly to all the players the rest of the cards are placed faced down which contributes to the 'Draw Pile'. It is also known as 'Closed deck'. There might be scenarios where in the draw pile might be out of cards, in those cases the discard file is shuffled and will be placed faced down to add to the cards.
Discard Pile/Open Deck: The cards that are discarded by the players are placed in the 'Discard Pile' which is also called as 'Open Deck'. The next player can either pick the top card from the 'Discard Pile' or from the 'Draw Pile'.
Discard Time: In online rummy you have a time limit to play your hand. You need to pick a card and discard a card in a limited time limit. This is not applicable in traditional rummy, but in online rummy it is necessary to keep the game flow.
Joker: In rummy, Joker acts as a card that is used to substitute the missing cards. After dealing the cards to all the players a card is selected at random which acts as a Joker. If you have drawn ♣10 as the random Joker, all the suits with rank '10' act as the Joker. The Joker is used to make sets and sequences which were not able to be melded. Eg: If you have the following cards in your hand with ♠4, ♠5 and ♠7 you will need ♠6 to make a sequence; since you do not have it, you can use a Joker to substitute the missing card which in this scenario acts as '♠6'.
Points/Scores: In Rummy: Every card has a point assigned to it. The points of the cards that are not melded are used to count the point of cards. The points assigned to the cards are as follows
Cards 2 to 10: Card 2 to 10 holds the points that match their rank. For eg: The card ♠9 holds 9 points similarly ♣5 holds 5 points.
King: 10 points
Queen: 10 points
Jack: 10 points
Ace: 10 points
The points that the player receives during the end of each game can be called as 'Scores'. The player with the least score wins the game.
Printed Joker/Wild Card Joker: Printed Joker is the card with the Joker symbol printed on it. A standard deck of card comes with 52 cards and additional 3 printed Jokers. Apart from the 'Joker' drawn at random, the printed Joker also can be used to substitute the missing cards.
Pure sequence/Straight Sequence/ Straight Run: A pure sequence is essential for declaring a hand. A pure sequence is a sequence which has no Joker used for substitute the missing card (Eg: ♠4 ♠5 ♠6 is a pure sequence)
Set: Set is made by arranging 3 or 4 cards of the same rank and different suits. Jokers can also be used to substitute the missing cards in the set. A suit is not valid if any one of the suit repeats. (Eg: ♠7 ♥7 ♣7 or ♠Q ♥Q ♣Q ♦Q can be called as valid sets. ♠9 ♠9 ♣9 cannot be called as valid sets as the ♠9 is repeating in the group of cards.
Sequence or Run: A sequence or run is a combination of 3 or more cards of the same suit but in a consecutive order. A sequence can be pure if does not have a Joker, it is mandatory to at least have one pure sequence while declaring. (Eg: ♠9 ♠10 ♠J ♠K or ♦2 ♦3 ♦4 can be called as a pure sequence. ♠7 JOKER ♠9 can be called as an impure sequence.
Shuffling: Shuffling is the process of mixing the cards to make it more random during dealing. The shuffling makes sure that the cards are random in the next dealing. It is the dealer who shuffles the cards.
Suit: Suits refers to the different type of cards in any pack of cards. The four suits in a deck of cards are: Spades ♠, Hearts ♥, Diamonds ♦ and Clubs ♣.
Winner: A winner is the person who finishes the games first by melding his cards into sets and sequences in the game of rummy. In a series of rummy games the winner is the one who receives the least score.
Hope this Rummy Wiki glossary helped you in increasing your knowledge in rummy. The basic to advanced rummy strategies are available in our tutorials page. If you need any more information that you would want us to add to the Rummy Wiki, please do let us know at support@rummymillionaire.com.