Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things.

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites, when the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

The object of the game is to make 4 melds (groups) from 13 cards before your opponents do.

1. Jokers may be substituted for any card.
2. There will be 3 three-card melds and 1 four-card meld.
3. 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.
4. The four-card meld must be a sequence.
5. 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.
6. There is no problem with having all four melds being sequences, as long as at least one of them is without a joker (pure).
7. 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. No more than 2 one-of-a-kind melds can be excluded from the count.
4. Numbered cards are counted at their face value.
5. Face cards (J, Q, K, A) are counted as 10.
6. Jokers are counted as 0.
7. 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.

Happy New Year! Best of 2017!