The object of the game is to make 4 melds (groups) from 13 cards before your opponents do.
- Jokers may be substituted for any card.
- There will be 3 three-card melds and 1 four-card meld.
- Melds are either sequences of the same suit (ex: 4,5,6,7 of diamonds or 10, J, Q of spades) or three-of- a-kind of different suits (ex: 6 of hearts, clubs & spades). See Note 1 under comments.
- The four-card meld must be a sequence.
- At least 2 of the melds must be sequences including the 4-card sequence. At least one of these 2 melds must be without a joker (called a pure). The other 2 melds can be either sequences or three-of-a-kind.
- There is no problem with having all four melds being sequences, as long as at least one of them is without a joker (pure).
- Ace can be used as a high card or a low (1) card, but not as the middle card. For example, “Q, K, A” or “A, 2, 3” sequences are valid, but not “K,A,2”.
Counting:
Losers have to count their cards. Loser with the highest count is the highest loser.
Losing rules are generally a sub-set of winning rules.
- If the loser does not have at least 1 pure sequence (either a 3 card or 4 card sequence is acceptable), all cards need to be counted.
- If the loser has at least 1 pure sequence, they can exclude all the completed melds from the count. Only the cards that could not be melded need to be counted.
- No more than 2 one-of-a-kind melds can be excluded from the count.
- Numbered cards are counted at their face value.
- Face cards (J, Q, K, A) are counted as 10.
- Jokers are counted as 0.
- If winner’s all four melds are sequences without jokers (all pure), the losers have to count their cards double.
Comments:
Note1: When playing with multiple decks, it is possible to be dealt more than one card of the same rank from the same suit (ex: two 6 of clubs). But you cannot have multiple cards of the same rank from the same suit (ex: two 6 of clubs) in a single three-of-a-kind meld. All three cards in a three-of-a-kind meld must be of different suit.
Game progresses clockwise.