- How many cards do you get in rummy?
- It depends on how many are playing: ten each for two players, seven each for three or four, and six each for five or six. One more card is turned face up to start the discard pile, and the rest are the stock.
- What is the difference between a set and a run?
- A set is three or four cards of the same rank, like three sevens. A run is three or more cards in a row in one suit, like the four, five and six of hearts. Both are melds, and both can be laid down on your turn.
- Are aces high or low in rummy?
- Low, so ace-two-three is a run and queen-king-ace is not. Many tables agree to let the ace go at either end instead, but a run still cannot go round the corner from king to two. Either way an ace is worth only one point if you are caught holding it.
- Can you add cards to another player's meld?
- Yes. On your turn you may lay off cards onto any meld on the table, yours or anybody else's — the fourth seven on somebody's set, or the next card at either end of their run. It is often the best way to get rid of a card that would otherwise cost you points.
- Do you have to discard to go out?
- Yes. You go out by melding or laying off every card but one and then discarding that last card. A turn that would put your whole hand on the table with nothing left to throw is not allowed.
- What does going rummy mean?
- Going out in a single turn with your whole hand, having laid nothing down before. It pays double: the winner scores twice the value of the cards left in everybody else's hands.
- How do you score rummy?
- Only the player who goes out scores. They get the value of every card left in the other players' hands: court cards 10, aces 1 and number cards their face value. The game is usually played to 100 points.
- What happens when the stock runs out?
- The discard pile, all but its top card, is shuffled and turned over to make a new stock. Tables differ on what happens after that; on this site it is done once, and if the stock runs out a second time the hand ends and nobody scores.