We’ve already established that the player who drew the higher tile goes first. After arrange the tiles on his rack into partial or complete sets, he begins the game by drawing a tile from the pool and adding it to his tiles in his rack. Then he figures out if he can start to meld.
A player’s initial meld must total at least 21 points. This may consist of many different types of groups or runs, or it may only contain one set. That could be 6, 7, 8 or 10, 10, 10. You could have two sets of 1, 2, 3 and 6, 6, 6. As long as once it is all put down, it adds up to 21 or more you have put down a successful meld. If your rack contains mostly tiles that have a low value, such as 1, 1, 1 or 3, 4, 5 you may need to accumulate several sets in order to meet the initial meld requirement. It may take you one or more turns to do this.
You also may use either of the two jokers to form your initial meld. The value of the joker is the same as the tile in which you are substituting it for. The two jokers are the most valuable tiles in the game. They are wild, which substitutes for any missing tile you want it to. Once a joker has been melded, it can be taken back by any player who holds the tile that it represents. That means that if you are using it to replace a red 10, the player that has the red 10 may replace the joker with it, but only if he can immediately use the joker in a new meld of his own. He may not place the joker in his rack for future use. Also, a player may not retrieve a joker with a tile from his rack until he has made his initial meld.
Going back to the initial meld, until you have actually made your initial meld, you cannot make any melds by adding to the melds on the table. For example, if you see that you can add to the meld that player 1 makes, you cannot do it until you have placed your own meld in front of you. A player who makes a mistake and places an insufficient meld on the table must return the tiles to his rack. There is no penalty but the other players at the table then have the advantage of knowing the tiles that he holds which can be very advantageous to them.
Whether or not the player has made an initial meld, he always must end his turn by discarding a tile. This is the same as anytime during the course of the game.