| Origin | United States |
|---|---|
| Type | Matching |
| Players | 3-8 |
| Skill(s) required | Strategy |
| Cards | 52 cards (104-156) |
| Deck | French |
| Play | Clockwise |
| Playing time | 20-30 min. |
| Random chance | Easy |
| Related games | |
| Canasta | |
Liverpool Rummy is a multi-player, multi-round card game similar to other variants of rummy that adds features like buying and going out. It's the same as Contract Rummy, except that if a player manages to cut the exact number of cards required to deal the hand and leave a face-up card, then the cutting player's score is reduced by 50 points.[1]
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The game is played with multiple (typically 2, for four to five players, 3 decks for more) standard 52-card packs of playing cards. The ranking from low-to-high is A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A. Aces can be low or high.
Dealership rotates to each player from round to round. The dealer to the first round is usually determined by cutting the deck. Low card deals. The dealer deals a ten-card hand to each player. (In some circles, a 12-card hand is dealt, this variant is sometimes called Peruvian rummy) After all the players' hands have been dealt, another card (the upcard), is placed face-up in a central location known as the discard pile. The remainder of the pack is called the deck.
The player to the immediate left of the dealer plays first.
On each turn, a player:
Play continues, in alternating turns, until one player goes out, or has no cards left in their hand. Points are tallied and recorded by a score-keeper. All of the cards are shuffled and the next round of play commences.
The objective in liverpool rummy is to improve one's score by laying down to reduce the number of cards in hand, and eventually going out before other players. Within each round there are two types of card groupings that are required:
Aces rank as high or low, but one cannot create a run that loops around, also known as "turning the corner". A 2 3 4 is allowed, J Q K A is allowed, but K A 2 3 is not.
The requirements for each round of play are as follows:
After each player has finished their turn by discarding, any player may then buy the top card from the discard pile. The "price" of picking up these extra cards is drawing an additional card from the pile. If more than one player desires to buy a card, the player who is nearest (clockwise) the player about to draw gets precedence.
2s are wild cards, and can represent any card (suit and number). However there are restrictions on their usage.
During their turn while playing off another player, a player may replace that other player's laid 2 from within a run with the card it is substituting, so long as that 2 is placed somewhere else before the player concludes their turn. An easy way to "waste" the extra 2 if it doesn't allow you to lay additional cards is to simply add it to a set, as this prohibits another player from performing the wild card substitution trick again.
Once a player has laid down, they can then attempt to further reduce the number of cards in their hand by adding to other players' laid cards. If another player has laid down a set of 3's (3♥ 3♣ 3♠) and you have a 3 in your hand, you may add lay it down on his pile. A player who has laid down a run of hearts (3♥ 4♥ 5♥ 6♥), you may add a 7♥ to their pile.
Once a player has laid down, their discard must not fit into either their own or any other player's laid cards.If this is the case, every other player has until the commencement of the next player's turn to call rummy on the offending player, in which case every player gives that offending player one card from their hand. Once a player lays his cards down to 'go out' of a round, rummy rules no longer apply.
At the end of each round when a player goes out, the rest of the players total their scores by counting up the value of the cards remaining in their hands. Cards are valued as follows:
The player with the lowest point total at the end of final round wins, so players usually work to lower their scores by going down, playing off other players who have gone down and, secondarily, replacing high cards (such as face cards and aces) with lower ones.
Florida Rummy, also called Ten Step, is a multi-player, multi-round card game. variant of Rummy similar to Liverpool Rummy.
Each step (round of play) has its own requirements as follows:
A player goes out when he successfully discards the only remaining card in hand, marking the conclusion of the step for all players. A player gets to this point by laying down and then playing off his and other players’ hands.
A player is floating if he exhausts his cards and is not able to discard. In this case, the hand continues until somebody successfully goes out. At no point in time is it acceptable to draw a card from the up pile and discard the same card during the same turn. It follows that a floater must draw an unplayable card from the deck (down-pile) in order to go out.
It is customary to knock on the table when there is only one card left in your hand. This alerts other players of closeness to going out.
I Buy Sausages is a variant of Liverpool Rummy with some significant changes.
Two to three 54-card decks including jokers are used, depending on how many people are playing. Jokers and twos are wild cards. In the first hand, 6 cards are dealt to each player. In each subsequent hand, one more card is dealt. The game ends after the 8th hand, in which each player is dealt 13 cards. A player may take a card from the deck, or a single face-up card from the discard pile. If you take a card from the discard pile you must take two cards from the deck.
Requirements for laying down: The requirements change in each round of play and are as follows:
Me derives its name from a player out of turn buying a card from the discard pile. The player calls "me" and then picks up the discarded (bought) card and a penalty (the price for buying the card). The difference from Liverpool Rummy is that whoever calls "me" first gets the card as opposed to the player who is nearest (clockwise) the player about to draw.
The requirements for each round of play are as follows: