Contract Rummy Rules

Contract rummy is a fun card game that can be played with 5 or less people. Below are the official rules.

Set Up

You need 2 decks of cards, with the jokers included. The number of jokers you have in the deck is 1 less than the number of players. So if 3 people are playing you put 2 jokers in the deck.

Deal

During the first 3 rounds everyone gets dealt 10 cards. During the last 4 rounds everyone gets dealt 12 cards. After the cards are dealt the remaining card are put on the field and the top card is put face up on the field next to it.

Playing contract rummy

During your turn you do the following.

1. Draw 1 card from either the discard pile or from the deck.

2. You can lay down cards based on what round it is. (see rounds)

3. If you don’t have the right cards to lie down, but have put cards down on another turn you can lay off of something else. So if someone else put down 3 Jacks you can put down the 4th jack.

4. Discard 1 card face up.

Rounds

Every round you are allowed to put down a different set of cards. The rounds are as follows.

1. 2 groups of 3s (ex 3,3,3 and 8,8,8)

2. 1 group of 3 and 1 group of 4 (ex 5,5,5 and k,k,k,k)

3. 2 Sequences of 4 (ex 2,3,4,5 of the same suit and 10,J,Q,K of the same suit)

4. 3 groups of 3

5. 2 groups of 3 and 1 sequence of 4

6. 1 group of 3 and 2 sequences of 4

7. 3 sequences of 4 and no discard

Each round of contract rummy lasts until 1 player goes out.

”May I”

If it is your turn and you do not draw the card from the discard pile another player may ask, “May I”. In this case they can draw the card from the discard pile, but must draw 1 card from the deck as a penalty.

If multiple people want the discarded card the one who asked first gets to draw it.

Once they finish another player may ask, “May I” for the next card and so on.

When everything is done you continue your turn.

Jokers

Jokers are wild; you can use them in place of any card. Also if a player has played a Joker for a card they didn’t have, and you have it. You may replace it with that card and take the joker yourself.

However if you do you must play the Joker immediately if you do this.

Winning and Points

When one player goes out all other players get points based on the cards in their hand. The points are as follows.

For 2-10 points are face value

For J-K you get 10 points

For Ace’s and Jokers you get 15 points.

If you run out of cards with no one going out everyone gets points.

At the end of all 7 rounds the person with the least amount of points wins.

Top of Contract Rummy