Rummy

Advertising – The act of discarding a card to induce an opponent’s discard of similar rank, suit or sequence.  Often called “baiting“, “chumming” or “fishing”.

Angling – The act of discarding a card to induce an opponent’s discard of a card one rank away. Often called “sideways fishing” or “side baiting“.

Baiting – “Advertising“.

Base – Four natural cards of the same rank.  A base is essential to making a canasta.

Base Count or Basic Count – In Canasta, the total of a player’s bonus scores, as distinguished from the point values of melded cards.

Blind Discard – A suspect discard made without a history.

Blitz – The act of winning a game in which the opponent has not scored not a single point.  This can have a dramatic impact on scoring.  Also known as Schneider, Schneide or Shutout.

Block – The act of withholding a card that would extend or complete a meld for an opponent.

Borrowing – The act of using extra cards from a previous meld to form new sets.

Box – Each entry on the score sheet.

Buy – To select a card from the stock or the discard pile.

Calling – A card needed to fill a combination.

Canasta – In Canasta, a meld of seven cards of equal rank.  A “mixed canasta” is a meld containing one to three wild cards.  A “natural” or “pure canasta” is a meld containing no wild card.

Captain – the player who opposes 2 players who rotate play against the captain; the captain can also be an entity of two opposing three rotating players.

Combination – Two cards that will become a matched set with the addition of a suitable third card.

Concealed Hand – In Canasta or Oklahoma, a hand that plays out in one turn without prior melds.

Conditions – In Panguinque, certain melds for which the player collects immediate payment.

Contract – In Contract Rummy, the pre-fixed number and type of sets that a player must meld on the first occasion of a deal.

Crack – To discard a card wanted by an opponent when there is a possible advantage in keeping the card.

Cut – the event that occurs after the shuffle and prior to the deal whereby the lower portion of the deck is place on the top.

Dead Cards – Cards buried in the discard pile and not available.

Deadwood – Unmatched cards in hand.

Deal – The act of distributing the cards from the deck to the players.

Dealer – The player who distributed the cards from the deck to the cards.

Deck – The set of cards used to play a game.

Deuce – A card with a rank of two.

Discard – The act of selecting a card from the hand and placing the card on the discard pile, concluding the player’s turn.

Discard Pile – The pile or overlapping row of all cards discarded and not picked up.

Draw – see Buy – To select a card from either the stock or the discard pile.

Exposed Card – In any partnership game, any card that is dropped or so held that partner sees its face illegally.

Fill – occurs when the player draws a card that turns a combination into a matched set.

Foot – The bottom portion of the stock, when it is divided in two parts for easier handling.

Forcing – The act of discarding a card that the next player, under the rules, must pick up.

Frozen – In Canasta, the condition of the discard pile when, under the rules, it may be taken only by matching the top card with a natural pair.

Gin Hand – In Gin Rummy a hand with no unmatched cards.

Go Down – Occurs when a player ends play by placing the remainder of one’s cards face up on the table to knock or meld.

Go Gin – In Gin Rummy, the act of a player laying down a gin hand.

Go Out – Occurs when a player rids himself of the last card in the hand.

Go Rummy – Occurs when a player lays down a hand with no unmatched cards.

Group – Refers to a matched set comprising three or more cards of the same rank.

Hand – The cards dealt to a player; or a reference to the entire deal.

Head – The upper portion of the stock, when it is divided in two parts.

Initial Meld – In Canasta or Gin Rummy, the first meld, that conforms to certain specifications, and is made in a deal by a player.

Kibitz – To observe and comment upon a game without participating.

Knave – Any jack.

Knock – The act of ending play by placing the remainder of one’s cards face up on the table; to go down.

Lay Down – The act of going down.

Lay Off – The act of adding suitable cards to previously melded sets.

Line Score – In Gin Rummy, the box score.

Matched Card – a card that is part of a matched set.

Matched Set – Three or more cards which may be melded together.

Meld – The act of placing matched sets on the table or to lay off a matched set.

Natural Card – A card that is not wild.

Non-Comoquers – In Panguinque, refers to aces and kings in groups regardless of suits.

Off Card – A card that is neither matched nor part of a combination.

Pack – In most games, the discard pile but in Oklahoma or Canasta refers to the stock.

Player – A card which, if retained or taken up, could be laid off.

Pluck – The act of taking the top card off the deck.

Prize Pile – In Canasta, refers to a discard pile that is frozen.

Rank – Refers to a card’s name and hierarchy, as distinguished from its suit.

Rope - A sequence.

Round-the-Corner – Refers to the rule that the ace is in sequence with both the king and the deuce or any variant of Rummy in which this rule is adopted.

Rummy – To go rummy is a hand with no unmatched cards.

Run - A working sequence of cards.

Safe Discard – A discard that cannot be used if taken up.

Schneider – See blitz or shutout.

Sequence – Is a matched set comprising three or more cards of the same suit and consecutive rank.

Set – Three or more cards of the same rank.

Shutout – See Blitz or Schneider.

Skunk – A shutout or defeat by a shutout.

Spread – A melded set.

Stock – The remainder of the pack after the original hands are dealt.

Stop Card – In Canasta, a black three or any wild card that when discarded the next player may not take from the discard pile.

Stringer – A sequence.

Suit – One of the four kinds of cards in a deck and denoted by symbols known as spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs.

Take Up – To draw from the discard pile.

Top or Going on – In Panguinque, paying a forfeit on dropping out of a deal.

Trey – A three of any suit.

Turn-up – The upcard.

Trade – The act of taking the Joker from a meld into one’s hand and supplying to the meld the card that the joker represented therein.

Triplet – A group of three.

Undercut – In Gin Rummy, the act of reducing one’s deadwood to the same or lesser count than the knocker’s.

Unload – To discard high cards, or to meld cards as to reduce the possible loss.

Unmatched Cards – The cards in a hand not included in matched sets.

Upcard – The first card turned face up from the stock which starts the discard pile.

Valle Cards – In Panguinque, threes, fives and sevens, so called because the formation of these groups of cards earns a special bonus.

Wild Card – A card that may be designated to be of any suit and rank by the owner.

Wild Discard – A discard that can be taken up and thus is completely unsafe.

Uncovering and recounting the history of Rummy is insightful but lacks the clarity and definition that a true historian likes.  Three cultures lay claim to the origin of Rummy.  As the game developed and offshoots of Rummy evolved, most historians conclude that Rummy, as we know it today, is the byproduct of all three cultures that claim the game’s birth.

All modern day Rummy games have definite characteristics.  At the core of all Rummy games is the “draw and discard” concept, whereby at each turn of the hand, a player must draw one or more cards and then discard from a strategically managed reserve.  The goal of each play in Rummy games is to develop a hand into sets of matching cards or melds which are three or four cards of equal rank or three or more cards in a suited sequence.  Unless the game involves trumps or tricks, any game that includes draw and discard and contains a reward for the formation of melds is a version of a Rummy game.

The first and oldest of the three versions of Rummy is Conquian.  This Spanish version originated hundreds of years ago and was exported to Mexico in the mid 1800’s and was imported by Texans in the late 1800’s.  Texans named the game Cooncan or Coon King or Coonkin.  The game worked it sway across the country to England where it was renamed Rum, meaning “odd” or “queer”.

The Conquian version of Rummy has striking similarities to the modern game of “Gin Rummy” in that the objective of Conquian Rummy is to be the first player to be rid of all cards by laying them down, face up on the playing surface, in matched sets called spreads.  Later, spreads became known as melds.  When a player lays down his hand, other players are assigned a score based upon the “deadwood” or cards remaining in their held cards.  In a later, American version, of the game called Michigan, a player’s score also includes not only the “deadwood” but accounts for any claimed melds.  This scoring system has striking similarities to today’s “Gin Rummy.”

This earliest version of Rummy is described in some detail by R.F. Foster, in Foster’s Complete Hoyle of 1897.  In an 1897 work entitled the Standard Hoyle, the game is called Coon Can.  Foster’s Complete Hoyle, refers to the game as Conquian.  Foster tracks the game to Mexico by way of Spain and states that the game was then popular in all states bordering Mexico.  Foster also believed the game to have originated  in Spain because it used the Spanish, or 40 card, deck.

Another researcher, Stewart Culin, speculated that the game was played by Apache Indians.  Culin calls the game Con Quien, Spanish for “with whom.”

The Chinese version of Rummy is traced to a derivative of Mah-Jong, believed to have been conceived during the Tang dynasty, more than 1000 years ago.  There has even been speculation that Confucius originated a form of the game as early as 500 B.C.  This game was played with paper cards before more ornate tiles were created.  The characteristics of the game also featured drawing and discarding and a strategy to shape melds.  An Englishman, Mr. W. H. Wilkinson named a version of this game “kun p’ai” and convinced a friend to publish rules of play for a similar game under the name of Khanhoo in 1891.  Khanhoo was played with two decks of 31 cards each.  The 62 card deck was similar to the Chinese deck and consisted of the ace through nine in three suits and one jack, one queen, one king unsuited and a joker from each deck.  In this game, each player received fifteen cards which were used to form melds or sequences.  The discard pile was turned to become a new draw or stack pile.

A similar game was called Kon Khin which sounds so similar to Conquian that speculation arose that the game arrived in the Southwest United States via Chinese immigrants or that the game was picked up by Portugese in China and exported to the Philippines and then to Mexico.  This Spanish game came to be called Chincon and was played with a Spanish deck of either 40 or 48 cards.

The third and least probable origin of Rummy is tied to the game of Poker which was developed by early French settlers in North America.  While there are distinct similarities to poker blends, such as “three of a kind” or a “straight,” poker is not a draw and discard game.  Attempts to link Rummy to poker origins begin with a game called “Whiskey Poker,” an offshoot of which became known as “Rum Poker” which became “Rum” or “Rummy.”

Wherever Rummy originated, it has transcended time and international borders.  Meanwhile, all modern day Rummy games have distinct similarities.  The components of all gin games include;

• The Deal – where a dealer issues cards to the players.
• The Up Card – the last card dealt is turned up and begins the discard pile.
• Aces Low – Aces do not go around the corner and are deemed to be low.
• Card Scoring – cards retain their numerical value except for face cards which are assigned a numerical value of ten.
• Discard Pile – where players put their unwanted cards face up.
• The Stock Pile – the pile of cards facing down from which players can pick cards to be added to their hands.
• The Meld – at least three cards forming a sequence or a set.
• Laying Off – the process by which players can play unmatched cards from their hand to another’s hand.
• Deadwood Count – the sum of unplayed or unmatched cards.

Rummy, Rummy 500, Gin Rummy, Contract Rummy, Kalooki and Canasta are some of the more popular forms of Rummy games.  Today, many of these games are played on the internet.  The great news is that wherever Rummy came from, it is now a global experience shared equally by players of all ages, nationalities and both genders.