5000 Rummy

Players and equipment

Three or four players use a single standard 52-card deck; five to eight use two decks shuffled together, 104 cards. Deal and play go clockwise.

The deal

The turn to deal starts anywhere you like — draw cards and low deals, say — and moves left after every hand. Before dealing, shuffle and have the player on your right cut.

Deal to each player in turn, starting on your left. Give that player one card face up first: its rank says how many more cards they get, face down, straight after it. A numbered card from 2 to 9 means that many more; a jack, queen or king means ten more; an ace means eleven more. You deal yourself last, and your own face-up card works the same way — but it also names the wild card for the whole hand, whatever its rank. Hands come out different sizes around the table, and that unevenness is the game, not a mistake.

Stack whatever is left face down as the stock, and turn its top card face up beside it to start the discard pile. Everybody picks up their cards — the face-up one and the face-down ones together — and play begins.

Play

The player to the dealer's left starts, and the turn goes clockwise from there. Every turn has three parts, in order.

Draw. Take the top card of the stock, or take one or more cards off the top of the discard pile. If you take more than just the top card, the deepest card you take has to go straight into a meld this turn, and you must take every card that was sitting on top of it too — you cannot leave some of them behind.

Meld. Lay down any sets or runs you can, either new ones of your own or cards added to anyone's already on the table. If you add to somebody else's meld, say so out loud, because the table needs to know what it can now be extended with. A wild card stands in for any card missing from a set or a run. If you hold the real card that a wild is standing in for in a run, you may meld that real card in front of you during this step; the wild card stays where it is.

Discard. Put one card face up on top of the discard pile to end your turn. The one exception: if you drew only the top card of the discard pile, you may not put that same card straight back down.

Calling rummy. If a card is discarded that could extend a meld on the table, and you have melded something of your own already, you may call "rummy" out of turn: take that card, meld it onto the combination you name, and discard if you can. Play then carries on from whoever was due to go next anyway.

What counts as a meld. A set is three or more cards of one rank — with two decks in the pack, a set can repeat a card exactly, so three identical sevens is fine. A run is three or more cards in a row, of one suit; the ace can sit at either end but never in the middle.

Going out and floating. You go out by melding everything except one card and discarding that last card — and that discard has to be unplayable, meaning nothing on the table could use it. If every card in your hand is playable, you cannot go out yet: meld what you can and float, holding nothing. On your next turns, draw from the stock only (you cannot draw from the discard pile, since you would not be able to discard what you just took) until you draw something that cannot be melded, which you then discard to finally go out.

Play also ends without anyone going out if the stock runs dry and the player to act does not want a card from the discard pile. Either way, the hand stops at once and is scored.

Scoring

Every card you have melded during the hand counts towards your score, by card value:

Ace or any wild card

100

aces are worth 100 only when they are not themselves wild

Ace

200

when aces are this hand's wild card

King, queen, jack or ten

10

not wild

Any card from two to nine

5

not wild

If the hand ended with somebody going out, that player also takes the value of every card still unmelded in everybody else's hand — which is why chasing the end of a hand is worth it even when your own meld is thin.

On the SquareScores sheet, each hand is one round. Work the hand's total out on paper first — card by card, your own melds and anything you were given for going out — then enter that single number in your own column; the host may enter or correct anyone's. The running line across hands is what the match plays to, and End match banks the result once somebody crosses it. The app never deals a card or sees your hand; it only ever holds the number you give it.

A worked hand

Three are playing and sixes are wild this deal. Alice goes out, having melded a run of clubs — nine, ten, jack — and a set of three kings.

Alice's run, 9♣-10♣-J♣

25

5 for the nine, 10 each for the ten and the jack

Alice's set of kings

30

10 each

Alice's own melds come to 55. When the hand ends, Bob is left holding an eight, a seven and the ace of clubs.

Bob's leftover cards

110

8 and 7 at 5 each, ace at 100

Carl is left holding the wild six itself, a queen and a three.

Carl's leftover cards

115

wild six at 100, queen at 10, three at 5

Alice's score for the hand is her own 55 plus Bob's 110 plus Carl's 115 — 280, entered as one number in her column on the sheet. Bob and Carl melded nothing this hand, so each enters 0 in their own column. The match carries on to the next hand with that total standing.

Ending

Hands carry on, one after another, until somebody's running total reaches the target. 5000 is the name and the usual line, though plenty of tables play to less and a few to more (see Variations). Whoever is highest once the target is crossed wins the match — even if it was not their hand that tipped the total over.

Some tables decide it differently when two or more players cross the target in the very same hand: the win goes to whoever went out that hand, provided they themselves reached the target; if the player who went out fell short of it, the highest of the others wins outright, and a tie between them is shared. The sheet only ever sees the numbers you type in, so it cannot apply that rule for you — agree it at the table if it comes up, then tap End match, which is any player's to do, not only the host's.

Learn your hand size before you plan anything

Your first card decides everything about your hand, from a short three-carder to a sprawling twelve, and there is nothing to be done about it — so look at what you were dealt and plan from there rather than wishing for someone else's start. A small hand is a fast route to going out; a big one is slower to tidy but harder for the table to catch up with on melds.

Shed the expensive cards first

Aces and wild cards are worth 100 (200 when aces are the wild card), and picture cards and tens are worth 10 — far more than the 5 a plain numeral costs you if somebody else goes out while you are still holding it. Meld your high-value cards the moment you safely can, even ahead of a meld that would score you more points outright, because the real cost of a slow hand is what you are caught holding.

Track the wild card like it is a fifth suit

Everyone at the table can use this hand's wild rank, which makes it the single most valuable card in play. Count how many of the four (or eight, with two decks) are already out before you take a multi-card pile from the discard just to chase one.

Keep an unplayable card for your exit

You can only go out by discarding a card that nothing on the table can use. If your last card is playable you have to meld it and float, drawing from the stock turn after turn until something unplayable turns up — and every one of those turns is a chance for somebody else to go out and collect what you are still holding. As your hand shrinks, keep back a card that fits nothing in play rather than melding down to one that does.

Watch the running score, not just the hand in front of you

A huge single hand only matters if it moves you meaningfully towards the target — 5000 is won over many hands, not one. Once a player is close to the line, every meld you let through is worth more than it would have been earlier, so tighten up on discards.

A different target

Tables name the game after whatever target they actually play to — 1500, 2000, 2200, 2500, 2800 or 10,000 Rummy are all this same game under a different number. A shorter target makes for a quicker game; a longer one rewards patience.

Permanent wild cards

Some tables make every two a wild card all the time, in addition to the dealt wild card, or add jokers as permanent wilds. Either way, deal 15 or 20 more cards to whoever's upcard is one of them, so hands do not come out too small.

Counting the upcard differently

Some tables treat the face-up card as the player's *total* hand size rather than the number of *extra* cards — so a 7 gives six more cards, not seven. Agree which way you are counting before the first deal.

George, or 2500 Rummy without runs

In this well-known variant, only sets may be melded — no runs at all — and a set may hold at most one wild card. It is usually played with a 96-card double pack with the twos removed, and the face-up card gives the total hand size — its number for a numeral, 11 for a jack, 12 a queen, 13 a king, 14 or 15 an ace. A player may take cards from the discard pile only while holding two natural cards that match the deepest card they would take. It changes the game enough that a table playing it should treat it as its own game rather than a side rule.

Deadwood against you instead of for the winner

Some tables score it the other way: instead of giving the unmelded cards to whoever went out, each player subtracts their own leftover cards from their own meld total, which can leave a hand's score below zero. The SquareScores score table only takes whole numbers from zero up, so a table playing this way enters 0 for a hand that nets below zero and keeps track of the shortfall themselves against the next hand.

Restricting wild cards in melds

Plenty of groups cap how many wild cards one meld may carry — often just one — though a meld of six cards or more may then be split in two so each half gets its own wild. Agree the limit before you deal, since it changes how safe a big meld is to attempt.

How many cards do you get dealt in 5000 Rummy?

It depends on the rank of your own face-up card. A numeral from two to nine gives you that many cards on top of it; a jack, queen or king gives you ten more; an ace gives you eleven more. The dealer deals themselves last, using the same rule, and the dealer's upcard also sets the wild card for the hand.

What is the wild card in 5000 Rummy?

Whatever rank the dealer's own face-up card turns out to be, for that hand only — a different rank almost every time. A wild card fills any gap in a set or a run, and is worth 100 points melded (200 if aces are the wild card that hand), so it is usually the single most valuable card at the table.

Can you play 5000 Rummy with two people?

Not really — the usual rules start at three, because the game depends on there being more than one opponent's hand to pick up points from when somebody goes out. Three or four use a single deck; five to eight need two shuffled together.

What happens if two players reach 5000 in the same hand?

Under the usual rule, whoever has the highest total wins, whoever went out. Some tables instead give the match to whoever went out that hand, so long as they themselves crossed the target; if the player who went out did not reach it, the highest score among those who did wins, and a tie there is shared. That is a table rule rather than something the sheet enforces — the sheet simply shows who is highest when you bank the match.

Do you lose points for cards left in your hand?

Not under the usual scoring — your own leftover cards cost you nothing directly. They only matter if somebody else goes out, because the person going out takes the value of everyone else's leftover cards as a bonus for themselves. Some tables play a stricter version where you do subtract your own leftovers from your own total (see Variations), but that is not the rule most tables use.

Why does everyone get dealt a different number of cards?

Because your hand size is set by the very first card you are dealt, face up. It is deliberate: the game is built around uneven hands, rather than everybody starting level the way most rummies do.