Romanian Tile Rummy
The same set as Rummikub, a different game: a wall of face-down stacks, a row of discards, and an opening meld of fifty points that must include a run.
The set here is the one Rummikub uses: a hundred and six tiles, four colours, two jolys. The game, though, is built like classic rummy rather than like Rummikub.
The tiles do not lie in a common pool: they are built into a of face-down stacks, drawn from one at a time. A turn always ends in a discard, and the discards lie in a row in the order they were thrown.
The discards give the game a memory
In Rummikub what is discarded does not exist. Here the row of discards lies face up, and it is not only the last tile that may be taken from it.
If two tiles from the rack together with some older tile in the row make a combination, that tile is taken — and with it every discard lying after it. It is an expensive move: the hand grows at a stroke, and so does the risk of being caught holding it.
The joly scores for whoever laid it
A is worth fifty to whoever first put it on the table, and minus twenty-five to whoever is left holding it.
And the bonus stays with the first player to meld it for good: if the joly is later replaced by a real tile, the points for it still belong to whoever laid it down first.
Tile Rummy Set
Under these rules: One hundred and six tiles: numbers one to thirteen in four colours, two of each, and two jolys.
One hundred and six wooden tiles: numbers one to thirteen in four colours, two of each, plus two jokers.
The composition is that of a Rummikub set, and the game is a different one: the tiles do not lie in a common pool but are built into a wall of face-down stacks, drawn from one at a time.
Rummy Rack
Under these rules: One per player; two of them also serve to square the wall before the deal.
A ledge for fourteen tiles facing its owner.
Two of them held parallel are also what the wall is squeezed straight with before the deal.
The rules of Romanian tile rummy
The wall and the deal
The tiles are mixed face down and built into a wall of fifteen face-down stacks of seven; one tile is left over.
The dealer turns the spare face up and counts off from one end of the wall as many stacks as its number. In that stack the exposed tile replaces the top one, and the tile removed goes on top of the next stack — which now holds eight.
The stack with the eighth tile goes to the player on the dealer's right; the deal then continues counterclockwise until everyone has two stacks.
The player to the dealer's right ends with fifteen tiles, everyone else with fourteen.
Doubla
Before play, anyone holding two wholly identical tiles may declare a . Two players who have declared may exchange such pairs blind.
Naming the number and colour is not allowed; only "high" or "low" may be said.
The turn
The player with fifteen tiles begins by discarding one face up. That first tile never returns to play.
Until a player has melded, every turn begins with a compulsory draw of a face-down tile from the wall. A turn always ends with one tile discarded.
Combinations
A run is at least three consecutive numbers in one colour. The one may be low in 1-2-3 or high in 12-13-1, but it cannot stand inside a run.
A set is three or four tiles of the same number in different colours.
The opening meld
, a player must lay down tiles from their own rack alone, meeting both conditions at once: at least one of the combinations must be a run, and together they must be worth at least fifty points.
Tiles from two to nine are worth five each, ten to thirteen ten each. The one is worth five in 1-2-3, ten in …-12-13-1, and twenty-five each in a set of ones.
A discard may not be used to make the threshold.
After opening
From the following turn a player may lay down new combinations of any value, add tiles to other players' melds, take the last discard instead of drawing face down, take an older discard together with everything lying after it, and replace a joly.
On the turn they open, adding to other people's melds and touching another player's joly are still forbidden.
Down to one or two tiles, a player may not draw from the discards at all.
The joly
A joly stands for any tile. A combination must hold twice as many real tiles as jolys: two jolys in a set of three are not allowed, nor two in a run shorter than six.
A joly taken by replacement must be laid the same turn into a new combination together with two tiles from the player's own rack.
Winning
The winner is whoever melds every tile but one and discards the last. A player down to three tiles or fewer must announce it.
A player may meld nothing all game and try to go out with all fourteen tiles at once.
Scoring
The winner receives a hundred points plus the value of the tiles they melded.
The others count the value melded minus the value left on the rack.
A joly is worth fifty to whoever first melded it and minus twenty-five to whoever is left with it. A player who melded nothing loses two hundred. Going out with all fourteen tiles at once adds a further hundred.
Worth knowing
The opening threshold is given as fifty and as forty-five. The penalty for melding nothing is either a flat two hundred points or a hundred plus what is left on the rack. Whether a discard may be taken to make the opening threshold also varies — it wants settling before the deal.
Glossary of terms
- Doubla
- Two wholly identical tiles — same number and colour. Before play, such pairs may be exchanged blind.
- Joly
- A tile with no number and no colour. It stands for any tile needed, but a combination must hold twice as many real tiles as jolys.
- Opening meld
- Combinations worth fifty points or more, at least one of them a run, built from the player's own rack alone.
- The wall
- Fifteen face-down stacks of seven tiles, dealt and drawn from.