Rummikub Online Guide

Open melds, the melds that you form off of other player’s melds, can be played in many different ways. The first kind of play you can follow when melding your tiles to other tiles on the table is the direct layoff. It is the easiest to do because you simply add your tiles to the existing melds. For example, if you have a black run of 1, 2, 3, you can layoff your tiles but adding a black 4, and 5. Another example is when you have a group of three 10’s. You simply meld your 10 in front of you.

The other various ways of melding are definitely more complicated and they involve visioning how you want all the melds to eventually be placed. This means using your tiles, as well as the melds already formed and moving them around to make an entirely new meld. For example, if there are two melds on the table of two groups of four tiles of 4’s and 6’s, and you are holding a yellow 5 on your rack, you can rearrange the melds to form two groups of 4’s and 6’s made of three cards each, and a separate meld of a yellow 4, 5, and 6.

With the exception of the joker, any tile on the table may be repositioned provided that all tiles on the board eventually become part of a meld. The joker may be used in place of any tile when forming melds, but once a joker is on the table it cannot be moved to another meld. It must first be replaced by the tile for which it was used. This can be done by any player in their turn, if they have the replacement tile. For example, if player 1 put down a joker in place of a 9 in a group of four 9’s, then player two if they have the 9 can put down that 9 and remove the joker to use in another meld. The joker, once replaced, cannot be put back onto a player’s rack and must be used during that turn for another meld. A joker can never be replaced and used in an initial meld either.

You have to keep in mind that if you are playing with a time that all of the melds have to be repositioned within the 3 minute time frame or the turn is lost and the next player starts off from the position in which the melds were located at the beginning of the lost player’s turn.

When a player finishes a turn and has three or less tiles left on the rack, they must announce that as well as the number of remaining tiles unless they go out in that turn in which you always announce that. You play until one person goes out the hand is over and won by that player. The total value of all the tiles remaining in the other players’ racks becomes the winners score for the hand. A complete game consists of two complete rounds which are eight hands for four players, three rounds which are nine hands for three players and four rounds which are eight hands for two players. The player with the highest total score at the end of the hands is considered to be the winner.