Rummy 500 Rules

Objective

Score points by melding sets and runs and laying cards off on melds, while avoiding being caught with cards in hand when the hand ends. Each hand every player scores the value of what they melded minus the value of what they still hold. The first player to reach 500 points ends the game, and the higher total wins.

Players, cards and the deal

• Players: 2 on CardCouch, head-to-head against the computer. (Three to eight can play with a physical deck; see the variations below.)
• Deck: a standard 52-card deck, no jokers.
• Deal: 13 cards each, face down.
• Discard pile: the next card is turned face up to start the pile. The pile is kept spread out — overlapping in a row — so every card in it can be seen and taken.
• Stock: the remaining 25 cards, face down.
• Dealer: the deal alternates each hand. The non-dealer plays first. The computer deals hand 1, so you go first in hand 1, the computer in hand 2, and so on.

The turn

A turn is always draw, then meld, then discard:

1. Draw the top card of the stock, or take a card from the discard pile under the rules below.
2. Meld and lay off as many times as you wish, in any order. This part is optional except for the card taken from the pile, which must be melded now.
3. Discard exactly one card from your hand face up onto the end of the spread pile. Your turn ends.

Taking from the discard pile

On your draw you may take any card in the discard pile, subject to two rules:

1. You must take all the cards above it into your hand as well.
2. The card you took from the bottom of that stack must be melded in the same turn, either in a new meld (with cards from your hand or from the cards you just took) or as a lay-off on a meld already on the table. You may not take it merely to hold it.

The same rule applies to taking only the top card: it must be melded at once. The other cards picked up with the deepest card are free — meld them, keep them or discard one of them. A take is illegal if the deepest card cannot be melded with the resources available, and it stays illegal to meld or lay off other cards in a way that would make the taken card impossible to meld.

Melds

• Set: three or four cards of one rank (7♠ 7♥ 7♦, or all four Sevens).
• Run: three or more cards of one suit in sequence (4♣ 5♣ 6♣ 7♣).
• Aces may be low (A-2-3) or high (Q-K-A). A run may not continue around the corner (K-A-2 is not a run), so a run holding an Ace and a Two can never be extended to a King and vice versa.
• A meld must be complete and legal at the moment it is laid. Melds are placed face up in front of the player who made them and remain on the table for the rest of the hand.
• Melding is optional. Except for the card taken from the discard pile, you are never obliged to put a meld down.

Laying off

• During the meld part of your turn you may add single cards to any meld on the table, yours or your opponent's.
• A set of three takes its fourth card; a run takes a card at either end. A set of four is complete.
• Each lay-off must be legal on its own at the moment it is made. Lay-offs may be chained (the 5♠ and then the 6♠ on a 2-3-4♠ run) as long as each one is legal in turn.
• A laid-off card scores for the player who laid it off, not for the meld's owner. On CardCouch a lay-off never moves a card between melds, and melds are never rearranged.

Going out

A player goes out the moment their last card leaves their hand, whether by melding it, laying it off or discarding it. A final discard is not required when the last card is melded or laid off. The hand ends immediately and is scored.

When the stock runs out

If a player's turn begins with the stock empty, they may still take from the discard pile provided they can meld the card they take, and the hand continues normally (they meld and discard as usual). If no card in the pile can legally be taken, or the player chooses to end the hand rather than take, the hand ends at once and is scored as it stands. The discard pile is never reshuffled to form a new stock. A player who draws the very last stock card simply finishes their turn.

Scoring

At the end of every hand, each player:

1. adds the value of every card they melded and every card they laid off, then
2. subtracts the value of every card still in their hand.

• Ace = 15, except an Ace used low in a run (A-2-3), which counts 1. An Ace caught in hand costs 15.
• King, Queen, Jack = 10 each
• 2 to 10 = face value

The result is added to the player's running total. A hand result can be negative, and a running total can fall below zero. There is no bonus for going out in the rules used here. See the scoring guide for worked examples.

Winning the game

Hands are played until a player's total reaches 500 or more. The game ends at the end of that hand and the player with the higher total wins, even if both crossed 500 in the same hand. (An exact tie is declared a draw.)

Rules at a glance

Common variations

Rummy 500 is played differently in almost every house. These are the rules you are most likely to meet; none are used on CardCouch:

• Jokers as wild cards: two jokers stand for any card; usually 15 points each.
• Seven cards each: the standard deal for three or more players, and some tables use it for two as well. Thirteen is the standard two-player deal.
• Must discard to go out: the hand can only end on a discard, never on a meld or lay-off.
• Persian Rummy: four players in partnerships with jokers; no lay-offs on the opponents' melds; four Aces together score 100.
• Reshuffle: the discard pile is turned over to form a new stock instead of ending the hand.
• Going-out bonus: 25 points for going out, or double for going out in a single turn (“rummy”).
• Ace always 15 or always 1: some houses ignore the low-run exception; others count every Ace as 1.
• Lay-offs kept in hand: some players keep laid-off cards in front of themselves rather than adding them to the meld, so the credit is visible. The scoring is the same.

Frequently asked questions

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