The hand of Open Rummy is the lowest scoring of all the hands, which means that it is the easiest to play. If more than one of the four players in the game is playing Open Rummy, there is an improvement in those players’ chances of going out first over players, playing hands on their racks. This is because the open melds are available to lay off odd tiles. Otherwise, the players are working on the same possibilities as occur in Hand.
Open melds are not played for any of the special hands played on the rack. If they should develop in such a fashion, they do not count as anything extra. Therefore players are looking only for possible runs or groups that can be formed or added to. The point value of the open melds again does not mean anything. Scoring occurs only by a player going out. Of course points left on a player’s rack count against him, and to this extent melding high tiles may have a slight advantage, particularly late in a game in which the score is very close. Normally this is not a factor. Since any losing player who has not been open melding has 100 points scored against him, the advantage would be only the difference between the tiles on the rack and 100. Incidentally, the average point count for a rack with 14 tiles is 103, so that on the average, a losing player neither gains nor loses points over counting actual point values.
If the tendency for all or most of the players in a game is to play Open Rummy, a player must estimate their chances of winning against such players by playing on the rack. This is not the same game as the American version, in which you cannot rearrange tiles. Therefore the tiles on the table do not automatically become part of the pool in which you can play. Since you can only add to them, you cannot hold combinations on your rack awaiting a chance to use the table tiles to complete them. If you play on the rack, you either have to meld all your own tiles or form one of the Hands, or be able to lay off all odd tiles when you meld the others. Going out from the rack by laying off odd tiles is the play called Foot, and it is worth minus 200 points versus 100 points for the Open Meld. The question is, is the double point value worth holding your tiles while everyone else is on the table?
You automatically lose 100 points if you lose and have not melded. However, if you lose and have melded, you still lose the points on your rack. You are basically gambling on making 100 extra points for each hand that you win. If everyone wins an equal number of hands, you win one out of four times. Therefore, based on points alone you would lose by two to one playing each time for Foot or better. It isn’t really worth it, and if everyone is playing Open Meld then you should consider joining in as well.
As you already know from the American version, calculating the odds on each of the possible hands in the Israeli version is a daunting task. There are over 6 trillion hands that can be made. This can be very important to the player in determining whether or not to play for any specific hand or hands that may be developing on the player’s rack.
In these 6 trillion ways to calculate the hands, it does not even include the hands that are duplicates of each other. In other words, if a run of red 1, 2, and 3 is included, it is only counted once, even though it can be made up eight different ways with the duplicate tiles. In many hands, the run can obviously appear twice. It is nearly impossible to account for differences in odds resulting from exchanging each tile for its duplicate. Included in the table is a list of the scores for each hand, again without jokers.
Many hands haven’t even lent themselves to mathematical analysis. Reasonable speculations can be made about their possibilities though. For example, Piccolo 41 Odd and Piccolo 41 Runs are both easier to obtain than Piccolo 41 Groups. Piccolo 41 Sets are probably harder to get. Minor 51 Runs is less than Minor 51 Groups, which is less than Hand Minor 51. All three are probably easier to get than the Piccolo hands since they include the lower-count Piccolo hands which are played as Piccolo of course. Grand Odd, Single color Odd, Mosaic, Little Wave, and Big Waver are all very low probability hands. Little Blitz or Big Blitz should occur approximately once out of every 5000 to 7000 hands.
Two colors are easier to obtain than Four Colors obviously, and they both score more frequently than Three Colors. This is because Two Colors can be scored with two, three, or four runs, of lengths between three tiles and eleven tiles. Three Colors can be played with only three runs. Four Colors is played with four runs, but after you have formed your first two you still have two colors left for the third run and one for the fourth, whereas with Three Colors, after two runs you have the possibility of working with only one color. With Three Colors you also must form at least one longer run than you have to form with Four Colors.
These are all examples demonstrating the complexities for forming many of the hands which are not immediately obvious from looking at the form of each hand. Playing the suggested solitaire game is a good way to get a practical feel for what the table is saying. Intuition may tell you that it should be easier to form Odd hands than hands with groups and runs. After all, you don’t have to match up tiles to form an Odd hand, do you? Of course the chances of forming at least some runs and groups with 14 tiles are extremely high. Therefore, it is far more difficult to prevent their formation, and the Odd hands are of low probability.
As you already know, it is best to keep your melds for the last possible moment, but there are going to be times when you simply can’t keep them in your rack any longer. As the hand progresses you may see that this is the case and you are going to need to change your strategy. It may become desirable to begin playing the open melds, and you have to be prepared for this.
If one or more of your opponents is down to three tiles, the chances are that they are looking for one or two possibilities to complete their hand, and you do not want to be caught with a large point count. There may also be times during the hand when open melds appear that allow you to play odd tiles on your rack which you do not see much chance of combining. Therefore you should play early on in the hand, to form melds with enough points to allow an initial meld. During the play you may wish to rearrange these on your rack, but you should always try to maintain the necessary 25 points to make an initial meld. If you should be lucky enough to have a joker, it is always possible to meld it with two other tiles for a guaranteed initial meld, but that may not happen, not to mention that it isn’t wise in general to meld with a joker to begin with.
Again, you should try not to make an initial meld until it is to your overall advantage, either defensively or offensively. If you have reached a point that you feel that it is necessary though you need to remember that you do not have to put all of your possible melds down. The rule is still to play as few of your tiles on the table as possible. By keeping some tiles behind you are making it harder for your opponents to use your open melds and possibly going out, gaining more points.
There are going to be times in which you have tiles on your rack that you are certain that your opponent can use to their advantage. This is when you most definitely hold back these exact tiles. The last thing you want to do is to give them an advantage over you. When you hold tiles defensively they usually have no offensive value to you, so therefore you must attempt to build possible combinations around these tiles that will allow you to meld them later on. Sometimes these defensive tiles can be played to allow your opponent to use them and give you an advantage on your next turn, but you need to make sure that you can use them the next time around.
It may seem reasonable to assume that it is always to your advantage to have an opponent play to the open melds while you retain your tiles and form your melds on your racks. This is generally true when you are dealing with an average rack. The trade off which you must consider is that any tile on the table is of no value to anyone as a score. The only scoring points you receive come from the tiles that remain on opponent’s racks after you go out.
There are many strategies for open melding, but the important aspect to know is that you need to play them defensively. This means paying melds that are the most difficult to rearrange or add on to. The safest meld is a group of three. There is only one other tile that can be added to such a set by another player which is better than the group of four that allows any one of the tiles to be removed and used in another group or run. A group of three requires that all tiles be rearranged and used, which is much more difficult.
When it comes to runs, if you have to play them, you should again choose a run of three rather than a run of four. An opponent can lay off at both ends of the run but cannot take an end tile to use in another set. A run of five buries one more tile than does a run of four, so that may be a choice as well. Again, two end tiles are available for use in other sets, but the fourth is relatively protected. A run of four tiles is safer than a group of four tiles. With the group, any one of the four tiles can be removed and used. With the run, only the two end tiles are available. Then of course you have a run that begins with a 1 or ends in a 13. They are very safe because they can only have tiles added to one end, or taken away from one end.
This pattern can be used in the opposite manner if you are playing the tiles on your rack. In this case, you want to maximize your chances of creating new melds or adding onto existing ones. Therefore, you would attempt to form melds from the lower part of the figure in preference to those in the top part. Here you need to make a choice between offensive and defensive play. The strictly defensive player plays his rack the same way as he plays the open melds, knowing that sooner or later he has to play the melds on the table.
With open melding, obviously you lay off as many of your tiles on the table, as well as form melds on your rack. If you have, or pick up tiles that can be laid off to the open melds, it is best that you keep them as long as possible in your rack. As the hand progresses the chances of someone else having the same tiles you do becomes less, and you are almost guaranteed layoffs when you do finally need them. You may also prevent your opponents from using your tiles in open melds and keep them guessing as to what you are holding. Again, it is a matter of your having the knowledge in which they lack.
If there are a number of open melds on the table, such as what can occur with four players, you have the possibility of acquiring several such tiles. These are great for when you are ready to go out. The effect of adding just one tile to an open meld is important to understand, because adding to it changes its ability to be used by both you and your opponent. Adding to any open melds is a poor defensive move and has no offensive value whatsoever.
You already know how to figure out what tiles that you need and how to memorize the tiles so that you can get them, but what are the odds like as the hand progresses? The chances of picking a tile obviously increase as the hand goes on, but how you play it is what will differentiate a beginning player from an expert player.
After the deal, all the tiles are unknown to you obviously. Since you hold 14 tiles, after the first draw, the chances of the needed tile being picked from the pile are 1 in 46, regardless of the number of players. Those aren’t very great odds. This presumes that both tiles of the same number and color will fill your meld. However, if you are using one on your rack, the odds increase to 1 in 92 which is even worse for you.
On the second draw if you have not seen the tile appear as a discard or on the table, the chances improve to 1 in 45 with one opponent and 1 in 44 with four players. If everyone continues to draw only from the drawing pile, the odds on the 12th draw are 1 in 37 with one oppo9nent and 1 in 32 with two opponents, and 1 in 28 with three opponents. Of course the game is rarely played with each player only drawing from the drawing pile. Therefore it is important to keep track of the number of tiles left in the drawing pile. That is why they are stacked in piles of seven so that you can quickly look to see how many remain and therefore calculate your chances of picking the tile that you want.
Your chances are figured from the total number of tiles that are unknown to you. This includes the tiles in the pile plus all unknown tiles on opponent’s racks. The number of tiles on your opponents’ racks will be the number of players multiplied by 14, minus the number of tiles on your rack, and then minus the number of tiles on the table. It may sounds confusing, but once you get used to the equation it is very easy to figure out your odds of picking the right tile you need.
With only two players, it is possible to have a chance to pick every tile in the deck, either on your original rack, from the pile, or from each discard of your opponent. Unless one of you draws a lucky rack in the early hand, you will soon be able to develop a pretty good idea of where each tile is. If the game continues without either of you going out, the drawing pile will eventually become very small. By this time you have had the opportunity to figure out pretty accurately what tiles your opponent is holding. Again, it is extremely important to keep track of the tiles that have been played because it is these hands that separate the good player from the random player.
By now you should have figured out that melding is one of the most strategic aspects of Rummikub. Without doing it the right way, you will only win a hand by luck and not by skill. That is why it is extremely important for you to learn everything you can about melding and the best strategy to take when you are figuring out which tiles to meld, and when to do it.
Once you have your initial 25 point meld, you always have the choice of playing them on the table or leaving them on your rack. If you are just beginning you may have tendency to get your initial meld down as quickly as possible. Perhaps you feel that you have established a position in the game or maybe you want to demonstrate your ability to meld, or lastly, you could just find the fun in rearranging the melds to get as many tiles down as you can. Whatever the reasoning behind it, it may not be the best decision if you are looking at the strategy of the game versus the fun of the game.
The easiest way to meld tiles is to have as many other tiles available to meld with. That means that the more open melds that are on the table, the more tiles you have to work with. Sure, it makes sense but with this line of thinking you are not only giving away all of your secrets about what you have in your hand, but you are also allowing others to be able to meld onto your tiles and possibly going out before you do.
Since the good player attempts to gain as much information as possible while withholding as much information about your own hand as possible, it may make more sense to let everyone else meld, while holding your 14 mysterious cards in your rack so that you won’t give them any information about your own hand. The ideal game to be in is to allow the other players to meld while you hold back until you can lay down all your tiles at once and go out and win the hand. Since Rummikub is a game that involves so much luck, there are times when it is necessarily to play the open melds as early as possible as a defensive measure, but it doesn’t happen that often. Therefore, the best rule is to hold on to your melds, and meld as late as possible.
Since the object of the game is to meld all of your tiles, the more combinations that you have to work with, the better the chances are that you will be able to do this. If you have melded 9 of your tiles, and only have 5 left to work with then you will have a far worse chance of melding with combinations then if you kept all 14 tiles in your hand. Since melds on your rack can be rearranged and changed by you, it is easier to do that within your rack then on the table. That way they cannot be used by your opponent and you are not letting anyone know what is in your rack.
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.
When it comes to offensive play, the joker is an extremely important tile. Its most obvious function is as a guaranteed initial meld tile. Since by itself, the joker counts for the full value needed to make an initial meld. However, the odds of you being dealt a rack with at least one combination is pretty high, so you may want to consider holding back the joker to use later in the game as an offensive move.
It is usually a good idea to hold the joker for as long as possible. You do not want to lock it up for use with a specific group or run though. You should also keep the joker at the end of your rack and play the rest of the rack as if you didn’t even have it. This will keep you looking for the maximum number of combinations and sets. When it is necessary to meld, the joker will then be available to use to your best advantage.
There are going to be situations in which you may wish to have an opponent reuse your joker so that you can reuse it again later. To the beginner this might sound like an unusual gamble when you use the joker in hopes that they use it to add onto a meld that you may or may not have the tile to replace it with. However, the experts know that you have to take all possibilities into consideration. It is a way of taking advantage of all the odds in his favor, no matter how small.
Another example of when to use the joker offensively is when you are near the end of the hand. For example, say that you are down to three tiles, one of which is the joker, and none of them are playable on the table and do not form any combinations. This is actually pretty common and may happen to you quite often. You may think that you should dump the joker to get rid of the points but then you will still be left with two cards. Unless another player just happens to put down a meld in which you can use your two tiles you are in some trouble. Therefore, you should keep the joker and discard the highest and safest tile on your rack. That leaves you with 1 tile and 1 joker. Chances are you can use the joker and the last tile when another play melds their hand on the table. The odds are actually 28 to 1 that you will have something that you can use the joker and the last tile with. Unless you were extremely defensive player, then keeping the joker till the last possible moment in this situation is the best decision you could make.
The joker is the most dangerous single tile and it should be played with care. In spit of its high point value, it should be retained or played as a protected tile as often as possible. The only exception is when you are absolutely certain that an opponent is prepared to go out. You want to be in charge of the jokers as much as you can, and take advantage of every opportunity to reuse an opponent’s joker and place it in a protected position.
Jokes are extremely important when it comes to the game of Rummikub. No other tile has the strategic possibilities that a joker has, so it is wise to learn how to use it. Since the jokers represent any tile in the deck, they are obviously the easiest to use, and the most versatile. However, they are also the most versatile to your opponents whether or not they have any in their rack. They can be used both offensively and defensively and it is important to be aware of which way you want to use them.
The first thing you want to look at is how many players are in your game. The more people you have on the table, the more chances it can be reused. You need to remember that anyone may replace the joker with the tile it represents and then reuse it in another meld. This includes you as well as your opponent. If you are playing against only one other player, you both have the same number of turns and therefore the same number of chances to reuse the joker. The basic strategy with the joker is to improve your chances of use and reuse and to limit the chances of your opponent.
The easiest strategy, defensively, is to attempt to play a joker so that it cannot be reused, or to play it to minimize the chances of replacing it. With three or four players, this is particularly to your advantage. The best defensive play in the early part of a hand is to play the joker as an Ace or a 13 in a run, making it replaceable by only two tiles. You are positioning it as well so that no other tiles can be laid off of it.
You don’t have to be in a hurry to play the joker, especially early on in a hand. It will give your opponents too many chances of replacing it with a tile that they have in their hand. It is not normally advantageous to meld with a joker early on in a rack just for this reason. Remember, in the beginning you are trying to get as many chances at the drawing pile as you can.
Another way to place a joker in a meld that defensively will work for you is to play it only when you have the replacement tile in your hand. That way, it can never be replaced by anyone but you. You can always replace the protected joker at any time later on in the hand. This is especially important as you get to the end of a hand when you see that someone has only a few tiles remaining. You do not want to give them a chance to go out. The same works in reverse as well, but only if you have the protected joker. By putting it down early, only if it is protected, you are lowering your rack score just in case someone goes out. Since the joker is worth 25 points, you really don’t want to be stuck with it in your rack.
As you have already realized, the tiles that are given to you at the beginning of each hand are given strictly by chance. What you make of those tiles are strictly up to you though, and with more skill and knowledge of how to play the game, you will learn to use strategy to get the tiles that you need to get the biggest score possible.
Each time an opponent discards their tile, you learn the location of just one more tile that you may need or want. The same thing happens each time you pick a tile and discard one. The tiles that have been melded on the table are obviously known tiles, which can be helpful to figure out which ones you may need later on. Since the discards are only visible for one turn on the table, it may be hard to remember them, but it is vitally important that you do.
You should make every effort to keep track of all the tiles that are discarded, whether or not they are picked up. If they are picked up then you will see them later in the melds, making it a bit easier, but if it is not picked up you need to use your memory to remember it. There is not way to teach someone how to perfect their memory. Some are just lucky and have photographic memories, but most people do not. The only thing that will help you is to practice your memorization techniques. A good way to do that is to visualize the entire deck of tiles in a specific pattern of colors and numbers and then subtract from the pattern all the tiles that are dead. For this game, this is only the discard tiles that are not used and then become covered by the next discard.
When the discard tiles are picked up you should constantly review those particular tiles. Once a tile has been melded on the table, it is important to discard it from your memory so that you are not playing defensively against it, or looking for it to come up. It is also important to forget the tiles that you have been remembering from a previous hand that could really throw off the hand you are in now. This can be extremely important in increasing the odds of getting the tiles you need because you certainly don’t want to be looking for a tile you do not need.
The other two ways of increasing the possibilities of forming melds that you need are to pick from the drawing pile as well as the discard pile, and to use the open melds on the table. Unless someone goes out, you have a minimum of 39 picks from the drawing pile if there are two people playing, 21 picks if three people are playing, and 12 picks if four people are playing. Since the discards are seen by everyone, they all know the tiles. However if you are picking from the draw pile then only you will know the tiles, giving you an advantage of getting exactly the tiles that you need to win the game.