Although the American version was originally put into the 1978 book that Ephraim Hertzano wrote to tell everyone of this “new” game, these particular rules are no longer available with the Rummikub sets that are still being sold today. The reasons for this is that people have taken the game to the next level, but the American version is still perfect for beginners as well as families with younger children so that they can get everyone involved.
The American version can be played with two, three, or four people, but it does make an excellent two-handed game. To open the game, you must first decide which player will be opening. To do this, you pick out four tiles with consecutive numbers, place them on the table face down and shuffle them around. Each player draws a tile and the person picking the highest tile goes first. After deciding who opens the game, the tiles are then placed face down on the table and shuffled thoroughly. Each of the players takes 14 tiles and places them on their rack. The remaining tiles are stacked in groups of seven and lined up on the table to form the pool. The one tile left over is placed face up on top of the last stack. This is called the trump. Each player takes their original 14 tiles on their rack and arranges them into as many sets as they can.
There are two kinds of sets. One is called a group which consists of three or four tiles of the same numerical value but of different colors. The other is called a run. A run consists of three or more tiles in numerical sequence, all of which are the same color. Tile 1 may be considered either high or low, but it cannot be considered both. For example, a 1, 2, 3 are considered to be a valid run, and so is 12, 13, and 1. However, a 13, 1, 2 is not considered to be a run because it is neither high nor low.
The object of the game is to simply eliminate all of the tiles from your rack by forming them into sets and melding them onto the table. Melding is when you place the sets of tiles onto the table face up in front of your rack. Instead of just melding complete sets, you can also meld by adding your tiles to the melds that are already on the table, whether you put them there originally or not. That means that you can add the fourth tile to a group of three or you can add another tile to the end of a run. Melds that are already on the table may not be broken up to form new melds though. Again, Rummikub is essentially the same as the Classic Rummy game (also known as Tradional Rummy) with tiles instead of cards. The first player to clear his rack calls “Rummikub” and is declared the winner.