Players can also lay down cards that can be played off of another player’s meld. A meld can either be 3 or 4 cards of the same rank, like three 8s, or 3 or more sequential cards in the same suit, like 10, jack, queen, and king of diamonds. After drawing a card, players have a chance to lay down any melds in their hand. If a player takes a card from the discard pile, they must pick up any other cards that are on top of it, and they’re required to play that card in a meld during that turn. Option two is to take a card from the face-up discard pile.
Option one is to take the top card on the face-down stock pile. On a player’s turn, they have two options. The player to the left of the dealer goes first. Place the leftover cards in a face-down pile in the middle of the playing area, and flip the top card face-up next to it. If you’re playing with 3 or more players, everyone gets 7 cards each. If you’re playing with 2 players, each player gets 13 cards. To start the game, have one player deal everyone their hand, starting with the player to their left and moving clockwise. The goal of the game is to form combinations of 3 or more cards, called melds, to score more points than your opponents. Rummy 500 is a variation on Rummy that can be played with 2 to 4 players.
