Indian Rummy Rules — How to Play and Keep Score

Overview

Indian Rummy is the thirteen card version of rummy played across India. Each player is dealt thirteen cards from two shuffled decks with jokers, and the goal is to sort every one of them into runs and sets before anyone else. The catch that gives the game its shape is the pure sequence: at least one run of consecutive cards in one suit that uses no joker. Without it your whole hand counts against you.

Scores are one number per player per deal with a running total, and the lowest total after the agreed number of deals wins, so this is a rounds game.

Setup

Shuffle two 52-card decks together with their printed jokers, giving 106 cards for up to six players. Deal thirteen cards each. Turn one card from the remaining stock face up: every card of that rank, in all four suits, becomes a wild joker for the deal. Turn one more card to start the discard pile.

How to play

On your turn draw the top card of the stock or the top of the discard pile, then throw one card away. You are arranging your thirteen cards into groups. A sequence is three or more consecutive cards in one suit. A set is three or four cards of the same rank in different suits. Jokers can substitute for missing cards in any group except a pure sequence, which by definition has none.

When your entire hand is arranged into valid groups, including at least two sequences of which one is pure, you place your final card face down as the show and lay out the hand. If it checks out you have declared. If it does not, the show is wrong and you pay the flat penalty.

Scoring

The player who declares correctly scores 0.

Every other player counts the cards in their hand that are not part of a valid group:

• Ace, king, queen and jack count 10 each.
• Every other card counts its printed number, so a nine counts 9.
• Jokers, both printed and the cut wild rank, count 0.

Then the cap applies. No player can score more than 80 in a single deal, so a hand adding up to 91 is written down as 80.

The pure sequence rule decides what gets counted. If a player has not formed a pure sequence, none of their groups count as melded and the entire thirteen cards are added up before the cap is applied, which almost always lands on the cap. With a pure sequence in place, only the genuinely loose cards count.

Two other numbers can land on the sheet instead of deadwood:

• First drop, 20 points, for folding on your very first turn before drawing anything.
• Middle drop, 40 points, for folding at any point after that.
• Wrong declaration, 80 points, the flat charge for showing an invalid hand. The player who shows wrongly is out of the deal and the others play on.

Ending the game

After the agreed number of deals, usually two, three or six, totals are compared and the lowest wins.

Common variations

Some groups cap at 60 rather than 80 to soften bad hands, and a few skip the cap entirely. Dropping mid game is banned at some tables, making the first turn the only chance to fold. The number of jokers varies too: playing with the cut wild rank alone makes the game noticeably harder.