After you have been dealt your 14 tiles, play starts with the first player examining their hand to see whether or not they can form melds of at least 25 points. The point values are taken from the tile numbers. Each tile 1 through 9 has a value equal to its number, and the tiles 10 through 13 each are worth ten points each. The joker has a value of 25 points.
For example, if you have a group of three 9’s, then you have 27 points and can form a meld and place them in the center of the table. This is called the initial meld. It doesn’t have to be a single meld either. You can have two groups, three runs, or any combination of groups and runs, as long as they total 25 points or more. A player does not have to meld if they do not want to. You can retain the tiles to meld later if you think that it may be more to your advantage. If you choose not to meld, or you can’t meld then you draw a tile from the drawing pile and discard one tile, face up on your left hand side.
Each player after you then takes their turn to make the initial meld of 25 points, draw from the pile, or draw from the previous discard one tile to the left. After making the initial meld, a player has the options of making another meld with no stipulation on points, draw from the pile, or draw from the previous discard of the person to your left.
A player must meld when they first start their turn. If a player has picked up a tile from either the pile or the previous player’s discard, then they may not meld that turn. They must discard one tile and wait to meld until the next turn. If the player does meld then they can draw one tile, either the last discard or from the pile, and then discards to the left again. Discards should be stacked so that only the last tile discarded is on tip and visible.
Once a player has made their initial meld, they can play on all melds on the table. The initial 25 point meld must be made only with your tiles and cannot be made with anyone else’s. However, once you have made your initial meld, you can use any open meld on the table because all melds become available to the entire table. It may be added to or rearranged to produce other melds as well. The only rule that applies to open melding is that all tiles on the table at the completion of each player’s turn must be valid melds. That means that they must be either in groups or runs and must contain at least 3 tiles. You may not under any circumstances, remove a tile that has been placed on the table already and put it in the discard pile or in your rack. This is when the strategy really gets interesting.