Open
This is the only version of International that involves melding. The play is almost identical to the basic American Rummikub with two exceptions. First, you need 50 points for your initial meld. Second, you may pick up the top discard from the opponent on the left side of you instead of drawing from the pool when it is your turn, whether you have melded or not.
When you play an Open game, and you have only three tiles remaining on your rack, you must announce it to the entire table. When you are left with only one tile on your rack, you may draw only from the pool, and not from the discard of your opponent on your left. When you are playing an Open game, you may not draw the trump.
Foot
Foot is a closed game in which you do not meld at all. You simply accumulate tiles on your rack, even though you are in a position to make the opening meld. You may not meld individual tiles onto the melds of other players during the play of the round, but you may do so when you finally declare Rummikub and expose all of your tiles.
To win a Foot, you must be able to get rid of all of your tiles by organizing them into sets or adding them onto the melds of others. You must have at least one Run and the total of your 14 tiles must add up to 50 or more. You may not pick up the trump tile as your final draw.
It is not possible to win a Foot game unless someone else at the table is playing an Open game. If you can organize all of your tiles into sets without adding to an Open player’s melds, then you have a more valuable Hand combination.
Hands
All Hand games are played closed. You do not meld at all, but you do expose your entire rack when you declare Rummikub. These are the real big wins, ranging in value from 300 to 2600 points. There are 40 different winning combinations, each of which has three different point values. A Hand with no jokers scores the highest, with one joker next, and two jokers being the least valuable. For example, the basic Hand #1 scores 500 points with no jokers, 400 with one joker, and 300 with two jokers.
The Draw and Discard
When play first begins, a player at his turn may draw a tile from the pool or he may choose instead to pick up the top discard tile of the player on his left. This can be done whether or not he has already melded. Later on in the game, for his final draw he may take the trump tile to complete a hand.
Each player must pick up one tile and must discard one tile at each turn, so the number always totals 14. Discards are placed on the table to the player’s right, face up, and neatly stacked so that only the top tile is visible. You cannot win with 15 tiles. In order to win and declare yourself “Rummikub” you must discard a tile, which you place upside down on your discard pile to indicate that the game is over. Then you display the tiles on your rack to the other players.
The Meld
Whereas in the other two versions of Rummikub, the meld was extremely important, it isn’t the case with International. It occurs only if a player decides to play the Open version, in which case the initial meld must total a whopping 50 points, which is usually a deterrent in itself to play Open.
When melding, tile 1 can be considered either high or low, but not both. For example, 1, 2, 3 would be considered a valid run, as would 12, 13, 1, but not 13, 1, 2. As in American and in Sabra, melding consists of laying sets on the table face up, or you can add tiles to a meld that is already on the table. Once a meld has been made it cannot be manipulated or taken back into your rack.
Jokers
As before, the joker can be substituted for any missing tile. The value is the same as the missing tile. A player holding the missing tile may exchange it for a melded joker, in his turn, but he must then play the joker immediately in another meld on the table. He must then continue to play an Open game. If a layer goes Rummikub by discarding a joker, all scores for the round are doubled.
The Winning Variations
This is where the game really gets exciting. There are three ways to win at International. In order of their value, they are Open, Foot, and Hand. There are 40 different Hand combinations but that doesn’t mean you should be discouraged. Each of these combinations is related in some way to the familiar idea of sets, and many are simple variations of point value or color. In any case, you are permitted to keep the list handy to consult as you play, along with the scoring table. In fact, it’s a good idea for each player to have their own.
The Trump
The trump tile plays an important role in the Hand game. Any player may draw the trump to finish out his Hand and win the game. Knowing that it is yours if you need, you should consider this one of your tiles throughout the round. If the trump is a joker, it makes for a very exciting ending. It represents the winning tile to any player who is one tile away from winning, and that may mean “sudden death” for the other players.
The International version of Rummikub is by far the most complicated, as well as the most varied of all three versions. It takes a considerable amount of time to master with each playing choosing from three different approaches to winning the game. Once they choose one approach, it is then further subdivided into forty different winning combinations. This is what you have to look forward to playing when you play International.
Even the scoring of International is unusual. Not only can the final scores be extremely high, but the method for computing them has been devised to add more excitement to an already absorbing matching of the wits. As play proceeds, the leading players receive minus scores for their efforts, but then at the end of the game session you can change up some of the mathematical equations and suddenly the minus scores become winners and the positive scores become losers.
This game requires four or five players. When five people play, the fifth player acts as dummy, sitting out the opening of the game and cutting in at regular intervals. To determine the dealer, the seating arrangement, and (if necessary) the dummy, you need to select four or five tiles in numerical order and place them face down on the table. Then you shuffle and draw. The high tile is the dealer, the next highest sits to his right, and so on counter clockwise around the table. The fifth player is the dummy. He does not play until four rounds have been completed. He then replaces the fourth player for four rounds, and after four more rounds the fourth player comes back into the game, replacing the third player, and so on around the table.
After the players have been seated according to the draw, you place all the tiles face down on the table. You shuffle them and arrange all of the 106 tiles in stacks of seven. The odd tile, also face down, goes on top of the first stack, and the top tile of the last stack is turned face up to become the trump.
The dealer deals out the stacks one at a time in two counter clockwise rounds of the table, starting with player #2 on his right, who will have 15 tiles instead of 14. Players study their tiles and arrange them on their racks. Player #2 discards an unwanted tile, placing it face up on the table to his right, and the game begins.
The basic object of this game is to be the first to get rid of all of their 14 tiles. This may be accomplished by putting together any of the 40 combinations or by melding. Play is counter clockwise and continues until one player declares “Rummikub”, making him the winner.
There is a reason this game is commonly referred to the Manipulation version of Rummikub. Manipulating or “playing the table” is the important and most difficult feature of Sabra.
In this game, the melds on the table are not permanent and can be changed throughout the game. That means they can be broken up, rearranged, and added in ways which enable you to get rid of as many tiles as possible from your rack during the two minutes allowed for your turn. In manipulating the table, you can break up existing melds and combining them with one or more tiles from your own rack to make new patterns of runs and groups. During your turn you can make multiple plays, using tiles from several sets at a time, continuing to manipulate till your two minutes are over. You then call out “over” and the play passes to the person seated on your right side.
There are many ways to manipulate the tiles using any of the following combinations of these ways, or any other rearrangement that you may find, as long as there are only legitimate sets on the table at the end of your turn with absolutely no loose tiles left over. They include:
The only exception to these rules is that the joker may not be manipulated in any way. You can of course retrieve the joker for a new meld, but you may never take a tile away from a meld which includes the joker.
As you can clearly see, the combinations and rearrangements in Sabra are essentially endless. As the game progresses the manipulation gets even wilder as opposed to the beginning of a round that may seem slow, especially if your initial meld is hard to put up at first. The table fills up fast though and when that happens, the possibilities multiply and the opportunities to get rid of all the tiles in your rack multiply significantly. You have to think fast, and in most cases, you have to rethink as the plays you have in your mind simply disappear before you when other players get their hands on the tiles. In the early part of the game it is often a good idea to hold back and let the other player’s open up the table so to speak, so that you can play off of their tiles.
When melding in the early part of the game, before the table is very full, it is also wise to hold back the fourth tile of a group or run and meld only three. That way, on your next turn you will have a meld to make and won’t have to draw for a tile. Of course, someone else might have the same tile or manipulate the tiles in a way that prevents you from using the tile you are holding on to, but for the most part you will be able to manipulate something else to fit it in later. This works especially well if you meld with a joker and know that no one else can manipulate that particular set or run. That way you can feel safe in holding on to it, but you do have to watch out for someone replacing it.
The Sabra version is the most popular Rummikub version and most of the players just call it “Rummikub” as it is the classic game for them.
As with all things in life, game rules change throughout the years as well as people make their own variations of the game. The Sabra style, which was one of the most popular ways to play Rummikub, has changed in the rule style depending upon which Rummikub set you buy. These are the original rules as stated by Ephraim Hertzano in the 1978 edition of The Official Rummikub Book. There are now over 10 different variations of these rules, so it is best to learn the basics and then vary your play according to the set in which you buy.
In Sabra, two, three, or four people can play. Three-handed Sabra is faster paced and livelier than just having two players, and four players are idea for having a really exciting game.
The tiles are placed face down on the table and shuffled. Each player draws a tile and the high tile goes first, just as in American Rummikub. The next highest is seated on his right, and so on counter clockwise around the table. The tiles are then reshuffled and stacked in groups of seven, then lined up to form the pool. The odd tile does not matter in this game, as it did in American because there is no trump in this version.
Each player takes two stacks of seven and arranges them on his rack, forming sets whenever possible. As in American, sets consist of either Groups of three or four tiles of one numerical value but are different colors. For example, a group is a 10, 10, 10 of different colors. The other set of course is the Run. That is the set of tiles of one color in numerical sequence. Unlike in the American game rules, tile 1 is always considered low tile in Sabra. That means that you cannot use it for a 12, 13, 1 run, it must always be 1, 2, 3.
The object of the game is essentially the same, but with a different outcome sometimes. You need to eliminate all of your tiles as quickly as possible, but in Sabra, it is most common that the exact opposite may happen. In this game, there is no discarding. Until you can make your initial meld you must draw a tile each time your turn comes around. That means that there is no limit to the amount of tiles you can hold on your rack. After making your initial meld, if you are unable to play when it is your turn, you must draw a tile. Basically that means you must either play or draw, you have no other options.
You have two minutes for your turn, and when the table gets complicated, you may need all of that time to just decide if you can play or if you must draw. Your particular table rules may expand this time limit, if you allow it to. However, you’ll see a much more spirited game if you keep it at 2 minutes. Once you draw your tile, your turn is over. At the end of your turn, you should announce “over” to alert the player on your right, who may be deep in their own strategic thought and not watching what you are doing. The play continues counter-clockwise around the table until on player goes Rummikub.
Just as in the American version, you need to make an initial meld of a certain amount of points. In this case, the initial meld must add up to 30 points or more. This may consist of one or more sets. Once you have made your initial meld you are able to not only to make melds of any value, but to “play the table” which is in this case, the most exciting part of the game. In addition to adding on to existing melds, you can perform all sorts of intricate manipulations which will be talked about later when we get to strategy.
The jokers are still wild and can be used to represent any missing tile in a set. In the initial meld, the joker’s numerical value is the same as the value of the missing tile, whichever tile it may be. A joker can be replaced just as in American, by a player who has the tile that the joker represents. He must then use the joker immediately in a new meld for himself. He cannot place it in his rack to use for a later meld. The only exception to the rule of replacing a joker with his own tile is that it cannot be done in order to form his initial meld.
Although this next rule is not “official” it is commonly none that many players have put a table rule restriction on the joker in Sabra. They think it adds interest to the game, and makes it a bit more difficult. The rule is simple; a joker may be retrieved as usual from a run of any length or a group of four tiles, but a joker in a group of three tiles cannot be retrieved or replaced except by supplying both of the missing tiles to form a complete group of four. For example, if you have a group of 3, 3, Joker then you can only replace the joker if you also have the other 3 making it 3, 3, 3, 3. Again, this is not an official rule, but many people play this way in this version of the game.
There are certain penalties when it comes to Sabra. One of these penalties is for the player who persists in playing past the two minute time limit. They must draw one tile from the pool each time after you think that they are doing it too often. Another penalty is for the player who misplays by physically manipulating the tiles unsuccessfully, ending up with incomplete melds on the table when the two minutes are up. They must replace the tiles in their original positions, take back the tiles he has melded, and draw three additional tiles from the pool as a penalty.
Scoring in Sabra is exactly the same as in American. Each loser adds up the values of the tiles left on his rack, counting 30 points for a joker and face value for all other tiles, and scores this as a negative amount. The total of all the scores of the losers is credited to the winner as a plus or positive amount. At the end of the session, each player’s final score is totaled for the final result. The total of the plus scores should be equal to the total of the minus scores if all the mathematics has been done correctly.
In the rare case that all of the tiles are used up before anyone goes Rummikub, the player with the lowest count remaining on his rack is considered to be the winner. The losers then total up the remaining tile value and subtract the winner’s total. That is scored as a minus amount, and the winner gets a plus score by totaling the loser’s score.
The strategy of American Rummikub deals mostly in the discarding of the tiles. Your goal is to get rid of the tiles that you don’t need to win, and at the same time, reducing the value of your hand, since the tiles you are left with count against you in somebody else wins.
For example, if you have two 13’s, and two 3’s, you would obviously want to break up your 13’s and hope for another 3 to become available to you, rather than keeping the 13’s. However, if you hold a 12 in the same color as one of your 13’s, it gives you another chance to meld with 13, 13, 13 or 11, 12, 13, or even 12, 13, 1. This is where you have to make a decision and hope that you pick up something that will help with the tiles in your hand.
When you are at the beginning of the game, you can afford to take more of a chance of holding onto the higher tiles. However, when you are reaching the latter stages of the game, or if you think someone is about to call “Rummikub”, you should try to reduce your holdings by getting rid of the higher tiles at every discard.
An important part of this strategy is to note and remember in your mind what you are throwing away into the discard pile, as well as what your opponent is putting into his discard pile. You should really look at each tile that is put down or discarded because remembering them long after they have been discarded is an excellent way to figure out what you need to do with your hand. You can’t just glance at these tiles; you must study them to do well in this game. This knowledge of what is out of play is essential in determining the odds of completing a run or group. It also lets you plan or alter if necessary your game strategy.
Holding on to a joker which you are in position to meld at the beginning of a round is often good strategy, but you need to remember that if you are stuck with the joker at the end of the game, it counts as 30 points against you and therefore an additional 30 points for your opponent. So, you need to make sure that you find the proper time to play it without giving too much of your hand away if your opponent then picks up your joker with his tile.
It is a lot like gambling. If you are more of a gambler you may wish to hold back your melds, hoping to make your opponent feel secure. You are denying your opponent an opportunity to build on your melds, and allowing yourself the freedom of rearranging your melds anyway you choose before putting them on the table. There are some risks involved in holding back your melds, but it could be worth it if you get the payoff you are looking for.
Now that we have established the initial meld of the game, let’s talk about the play of the game after that. After a player makes their initial meld, they can make melds of any value after that. These may be new melds, or tiles added to other melds on the table. As long as the player has a turn they can continue to meld tiles or hold onto the tiles for strategic purposes later on in the game.
Another option open to a player after he has made his initial meld is instead of drawing a tile from the pool available to all players, they can also pick up the top tile of the discard stack of the payer on their left. However, he may pick up the discard only if he can use the tile immediately for a meld. A player cannot pick up the discarded tile to put in their rack.
The discarded tile is always the last tile put on the table which means that his turn is completed. The tiles in the rack, added to the tiles that have already been melded, plus the discarded tile must add up to 14. The player places the discarded tile on the table face up, to his right, and stacks subsequent discards squarely on top of it so that only the uppermost tile is visible. No player is permitted to peek at the tiles underneath the top tile, not even if the discard pile is your own.
At the end of the game, you’ll notice that there is one tile left face up at the end of the pool. This is called the trump and may be picked up by any player who can use it to win the game. At the player’s last turn, instead of drawing a tile from the pool, he takes the trump and melds it with his final set, declaring himself “Rummikub”. You can add the trump to a run or to a set, as long as you play it on some meld that you already have.
The scoring on the American Rummikub is very simple. After one player has called “Rummikub” the losing players add up the values of the tiles remaining on their racks. All tiles have face value, with tile 1 being scored as 1 point, and the joker counting as 30 points. The score of each player is entered in their column on the score pad as a minus or negative number. The loser’s scores are added up and their sum is entered in the winning player’s column as a plus or positive score. At the end of the game session, the player’s columns are added up vertically. The totals, including the entire plus and minuses, will determine the final winners and losers, and the exact amounts won or lost by each player. If there are no mistakes in the arithmetic, the plus scores should equal the minus scores in each game, and in the final tally.
Scores are entered after each round on a score pad with a column for each player. To total each column at the end of the playing session, you add up a player’s minus scores and his plus scores separately. Subtract the smaller sum from the larger and give the result the same sign (plus or minus) as the larger figure. For example, a player’s wins total minus 3210 points and his losses total plus 1530. You write down the difference, 1680, as a minus amount at the bottom of the column.
It is possible to keep a running score, adding and subtracting as you enter the score for each new round. If you prefer this method of scoring, add an extra column in which to enter the amount the winner receives for each round. It might become necessary to later check back on the accuracy of the scoring.
Now is when it becomes fun, or complicated, depending on how you look at it. It probably sounds more complicated then it really is, and it just adds more excitement to the game. It takes a bit of arithmetic on your part to figure out the end result of a session of International Rummikub but it is well worth it.
Example:
| Player #1 | Player #2 | Player #3 | Player #4 | |
| (a) Total Scores | -1200 | +7800 | -2320 | +16200 |
| (b) Addition Factor | +2320 | +2320 | +2320 | +2320 |
| (c) Primary Scores | +1120 | +10120 | 0 | +18520 |
| (d) Sum of Primary Scores | +23760 | +29760 | +29760 | +29760 |
| (e) Primary Scores X 4 | -4480 | +40480 | 0 | +74080 |
| (f) Final Scores | +25280 | -10720 | +29760 | -44320 |
The totals of each player’s columns, line (a) in the example above, will now contain both plus and minus scores, but they do not tell you exactly how much each player has won or lost. As you can see, Players 1 and 3 were winners and Player 2 and 4 lost, but do you know how much?
Our first step is to convert all scores into plus amounts, and to do this we add the same number, an Addition Factor, to each column, line (b) above. This number can actually be any random number, since it will be used equally in each player’s column, but the easiest way to pick the Addition Factor is change the sign of the largest minus number to plus as shown. In our example -2320 is the largest minus score, so we add 2320 to each player’s scores at line (b). This gives us each player’s Primary Score line (c).
Next we add all of the primary scores together, and write in the sum below each primary score as line (d). Now, multiply the primary score of each player by 4 and write down the product in each column as line (e). We then subtract line (e) from line (d) and we arrive at line (f), the final score of each player.
As you can clearly see, the winners, Players 1 and 3, now have plus scores. Player #1 has won 25820 points and Player #3 has won 29760 points. The losses of Player 2 and 4 are 10720 and 44320 points respectively. Their sum is equal to the sum of the winnings, which proves that our computations have been correct.
If you would like to save a little time and don’t mind remembering a short formula you can avoid some of the math involved. When you have arrived at the total scores of each player, simply switch the plus and minus sign of your score, multiply by 3 and add the result to the scores of the other players. For instance, Player 1 had -1200 as a total score in the example scoring. Using the shortcut formula, you simply change the minus sign to a plus (1200), multiply it by 3 (3600) and add the totals of the other three players (21680) to get the same final score, 25280.
When you have a game involving five players it works exactly the same way, except you add another column for the fifth player.
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.
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