Honor System

RUMMY ROYAL

STARTING THE GAME:

Appoint a Banker. The Banker distributes an equal number of chips to each player. Chips may be valued at the following rate: blue-1O, red-5, white-1. Players cut the cards, and high man (Ace is always high in cutting) deals for the first game. Before the deal, each player places one chip in every space on the game sheet, including the POT and the KITTY. The dealer distributes the cards, one at a time, face down, until the entire deck has been dealt. It does not matter if some players have extra cards. One extra hand is always dealt. For example if there are six players, seven hands are dealt.

After looking at his hand, the dealer may exchange it for the extra hand if he chooses. However, he may not look at the extra hand until after the exchange has been made. If the dealer prefers to keep his original hand, he may sell the extra hand to the highest bidder and keep the proceeds. The player who buys the extra hand discards his entire original hand before looking at the extra hand and these discarded cards are not used during the rest of that game.

PLAYING THE CORNER ACES (Optional):

If desired, bets may be made on the Aces in the corners in the following manner. Before dealing, the dealer places a bet (usually amounting to, or less than, the limit agreed upon by the players) on one of the Aces in the corners. Any other players who wish to cover this bet place equal amounts on that corner. After the deal, and before disposing of the spare hand, the player holding the Ace on which bets have been placed declares and displays it. If he is one of those who placed a bet on that Ace he collects all the chips on that corner. Then he returns the Ace to his hand and play proceeds with the disposal of the spare hand and the playing of the poker hand.

If the Ace is held by a player who did not bet on the corner or if it is in the spare hand, the chips remain on the corner until the next deal, at which time all original bettors add another bet to the same corner. After corner bets are collected, the winner may select the Ace for bets in the next hand.

PLAYING THE POKER HAND:

Each player selects five cards from his hand to be used as his poker hand. He places his remaining cards face down in front of himself to be used later. The player to the dealer’s left starts the betting. Following in turn, the other players may raise the bet, meet it, or drop out of the betting. All chips bet are placed in the POT. The player who forces all other players out of the betting or has the best poker hand when called, wins the POT.A player who has dropped out of the betting before the bet is called cannot win the POT, even if it appears later that his hand was the best.

If the hand is not played, players can neglect placing a chip in the POT at the start, or the player who goes out first in the rummy hand may take all the chips in the POT.

PLAYING THE RUMMY HAND:

Players use all cards originally dealt, except the discarded hand mentioned above. If the poker hand was played, the winner starts play (otherwise player to dealer’s left) by laying his lowest black card (club or spade) on the table and calling it aloud. (Whether Ace is high or low should be decided beforehand.) Players build upon this first card with cards of the same suit in numerical order. Each person plays as many cards as he can during his turn. When no more cards can be played in this suit (because of cards in the discarded hand) the player that played the last card starts a new suit. Red always follows black so he plays the lowest card in either his heart or diamond suit. Again when play is halted the last player starts another new suit, this time black. Suit colors alternate until one player has used all his cards. If a player is unable to change suits the opportunity to lead passes to the player on his left. Should no player be able to change the color, each player must place one chip for each card he still holds in the KITTY. These remain until won on the next or a later hand.

As the rummy hand is played, the person who plays a card corresponding to one of the spaces on the game sheet takes all of the chips on that space. Thus, when a player plays the 10 of hearts, he lakes the chips from that space. If he plays both the King and Queen of hearts, he takes the chips from the combination King-Queen space as well as from the individual King and Queen spaces. In order to win the chips from the 6-7-8 space, a player must play all three of these cards in succession, from the same suit. If more than one player holds a 6-7-8 combination, the chips go to the first person to play his combination. All chips not collected from the spaces remain there for the next game.

END OF GAME:

The first player to dispose of all his cards wins the game. He takes the chips in the KITTY and also collects from the other players one chip for each unplayed card they are holding. The winner does not take chips left on spaces for which cards have not been played. These stay on the board until won.

STARTING A NEW GAME:

The deal passes to the left, and play proceeds as before.

TERMINATION OF PLAY:

If, at the termination of play, there are chips left on the game sheet, the chips can be disposed of by cutting the cards. The high man and low man in the cut divide the chips.