Rummikub Rules — How to Play and Keep Score

Setup

A set holds 106 tiles: numbers 1 to 13 in four colours, two copies of each, plus two jokers. Shuffle them face down and deal 14 tiles to every player. Leave the rest as the pool. The player who draws the highest tile goes first.

How many can play

Two to four with one set. For five or six, shuffle two sets together — 212 tiles and four jokers — and set Tile sets in play to two.

How to play

A valid group is three or four tiles of the same number in different colours. A valid run is three or more consecutive numbers in one colour. Your first play of the game must total at least 30 points, counting only tiles you lay from your own rack, and you may not touch the table on that turn. Jokers used in the opening meld count as whatever number they replace.

Once you have opened, you may rearrange anything already on the table, as long as every group and run on the table is legal again when your turn ends and you have added at least one tile from your rack. If you cannot play, draw one tile from the pool and your turn is over. Leaving the table in an illegal state means putting it back as it was and taking a three-tile penalty.

The opening meld: 30 points from your own rack

Your first play of the game must be worth at least 30, adding up the face values of the tiles you lay down, and every one of them must come from your rack — you cannot borrow from the table to reach the number, and you cannot rearrange anything until you have opened. A joker in the opening meld counts as the tile it stands for. The Opening meld minimum setting is there for tables that play a different figure.

Jokers

Two in a set, and a joker can stand for any tile. On the table it keeps the value of the tile it replaces. Once you have opened, you may take a joker off the table by swapping in the real tile it represents — in a group, a tile of either missing colour — and you must then use that joker in the same turn; it can never go onto your rack. Groups differ on whether the freed joker may join an existing set or has to start a new one, so agree that in advance, and the Jokers can be swapped off the table setting switches retrieval off for tables that do not allow it at all. A joker still on your rack when someone finishes costs 30, the Joker penalty setting.

Rearranging the table

After your opening meld, everything on the table is raw material: split a run in two, move a tile from a group into a run, add a tile from your rack to make a set legal. The only conditions are that every group and run is valid when your turn ends and that at least one tile has come from your rack. If you cannot make it work, put the table back exactly as it was, take back your tiles and draw three from the pool as the penalty.

The turn timer

Most rulebooks suggest a time limit — two minutes is the figure usually printed, one in tournaments — and it is a house rule, so the Seconds per turn setting starts at zero. A player whose time runs out restores the table, takes back their tiles and draws three, the same penalty as an illegal table.

Scoring

The round ends the moment a player places their last tile. Every other player then adds up the tiles left on their rack at face value, counting each joker as 30, and records that figure as a negative number. The winner records the sum of all those penalties as a positive number.

Who records what

With four players holding 22, 55 and 8 points of tiles, the round reads -22, -55, -8 and +85. The four entries add up to zero, and that is the check the app should enforce: if the round does not balance, someone has miscounted a rack. The largest penalty possible from one full rack is bounded by the two jokers plus twelve high tiles, so entries below about -180 are worth flagging as a likely typo rather than rejecting.

Totals carry forward across rounds and may go negative, so the score column needs to accept minus numbers.

If the pool runs out

Rarely, the pool is empty before anyone has finished. Play carries on without drawing; when the next player cannot or will not play, the round ends and the lowest rack total wins it. Each other player is charged the difference between their rack and the winner's, and the winner collects the sum of those differences, so the round still balances to zero.

Ending the game

Play the agreed number of rounds, officially three, then compare cumulative totals. Highest wins. A player who never wins a round but consistently empties their rack down to a few cheap tiles can still finish ahead of a one-time big winner, which is the point of the format.

Common variations

Some households let the winner take only a flat bonus rather than the whole pot of penalties, which keeps scores closer together. Others play a fixed number of games and drop the lowest round for each player. Tournament play adds the one-minute turn timer and forbids rearranging the table on your opening meld.