Arlington

Players and equipment

Two to eight players, each for themselves, and best with four or five. Shuffle two full 52-card decks together into one 104-card pack — Arlington runs on two decks from the first hand, not one. The deuces (every 2) are wild all through the game and can stand in for any other card in a meld. There is no joker in the base game, though some tables add one; see Variations.

The deal

Deal thirteen cards to each player, one at a time. Turn the next card face up beside the pack to start the discard pile, and set the rest face down as the stock everybody draws from.

Play

Turns go round to the left. On your turn:

First, draw. Either take the top card of the face-down stock, or take the whole discard pile — but only if you can meld its top card at once, using at least two cards from your own hand to do it. Lay that meld down before you touch any of the other cards underneath; only then do the rest of the discarded cards come into your hand, to use for the remainder of your turn. You cannot take the pile and simply hold onto it unmelded.

Second, meld. Lay down, face up, any melds you can make from your hand — as many as you like, or none at all. A meld is either three or four cards of the same rank, or a run of three or more cards in one suit (a run has no upper limit; a same-rank meld stops at four). Aces run high or low (A-K-Q or A-2-3) but never bridge the two (no K-A-2-3). You may add cards to melds you have already laid on the table, but never to anyone else's — each player's melds stay theirs alone.

A deuce can fill any gap in a meld, standing in for whatever card is missing. You may also lay down a meld of deuces on their own — something most rummies do not allow — and each deuce in it scores for itself rather than for the card it would otherwise be replacing.

Third, discard. Finish your turn by placing one card face up on top of the discard pile. You may not discard a queen of spades unless she is the only card in your hand. The pile stays squared so only that top card shows; nobody may look back through the cards buried under it.

A hand ends the moment a player melds every card from their hand — they have "rummied" — and that player may discard one last card as part of going out, or simply run out with nothing left to throw away.

If the stock is ever used up mid-hand, turn the whole discard pile over except for its current top card, and carry on drawing from that as the new stock, unshuffled.

Scoring

Scoring happens once, at the end of each hand, and runs both ways: your melds earn you points, and whatever is stuck in your hand costs you points.

What you melded to the table:

King down to 8

10

each

7 down to 3

5

each

Ace

20

high or low, it's the same

Queen of spades

50

melded

A deuce standing in for a king-to-8

10

A deuce standing in for a 7-to-3

5

A deuce standing in for an ace

10

the source gives no value; most tables score it 10

A deuce standing in for the queen of spades

50

only where the rest of that meld is natural

A deuce in an all-deuce meld

25

each deuce

What is left stuck in your hand when the hand ends:

King down to 8

-10

each

7 down to 3

-5

each

Ace

-10

each

A deuce

-20

each

The queen of spades

-100

caught in hand

Add your melded points, subtract whatever is left in your hand, and whoever rummied adds a further 100 for going out. Everyone else gets no such bonus — only the player who emptied their hand collects it.

A worked hand

Three players: Jess, Ravi and Tom. Nobody takes the discard pile this hand, so each of them is holding thirteen cards less whatever they have melded. Jess goes out first — she melds her last cards and discards her final card, rummying the hand.

Over the hand Jess melded all thirteen of her cards: three jacks (10 each), a run of 4-5-6 of clubs (5 each), a king-queen-jack run of hearts with a deuce standing in for the king (10 each — the deuce takes the king's 10), and a run of 7-8-9-10 of diamonds (5 + 10 + 10 + 10). That comes to 30 + 15 + 30 + 35 = 110, plus her 100-point bonus for rummying.

Jess

210

three jacks, 4-5-6♣, 2-Q♥-J♥ with the deuce for the king, 7-8-9-10♦, then rummies

Ravi melded nine cards: a K♠-Q♠-J♠ run (10 + 50 + 10), three 8s (30) and a 3-4-5 run of hearts (15), for 115. He was left holding four when Jess went out — an ace, a 9 and two 6s — which cost him 10 + 10 + 5 + 5 = 30.

Ravi

85

K♠-Q♠-J♠, three 8s and 3-4-5♥ melded; an ace, a 9 and two 6s left in hand

Tom melded six cards: three 10s (30) and a 7-8-9 run of clubs (5 + 10 + 10), for 55. He is caught holding the other seven: the queen of spades, a deuce, a king, a 9, a 5, a 4 and a 3 — 100 + 20 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 155 against him.

Tom

-100

three 10s and 7-8-9♣ melded; queen of spades, a deuce, a king, a 9, a 5, a 4 and a 3 in hand

Catching the queen of spades at the end of a hand is the single worst thing that can happen at this table, and Tom's hand shows why: melded, she would have left him 50 up for the hand; caught, she leaves him 100 down — a 150-point swing on one card.

A round on the sheet is one hand. Once the hand is over, each of you works out your own total the way the table above does — melds minus whatever's left in hand, plus 100 if you went out — and enters it in your own column; the host can enter or correct anybody's. The running line is the score itself, and the first to cross 1,000 wins. The score table only takes whole numbers from 0 up, so a hand that leaves you with a loss, like Tom's, does not go in as a minus: enter 0 for that hand, and knock the shortfall off the next hand's total yourself before you type it in. If that still leaves you short, enter 0 again and carry what remains. SquareScores deals nothing and sees no card — End match banks the line the moment somebody reaches 1,000.

Ending

Play on, hand after hand, until somebody's running total reaches 1,000 or more. That player has won the game. There is no fixed number of hands — you deal again and again until the line is crossed.

If more than one player reaches 1,000 on the same hand, the highest total wins; a tie at the top plays another hand.

Score your queens of spades the moment you can

A queen of spades is worth 50 melded and costs you 100 sitting in your hand — a 150-point swing on one card. She scores her 50 in any meld you can put her in, so there is nothing to gain by holding her back for a better one: the instant you can lay her down, do it. If somebody rummies while she is still in your hand, she is the single worst card you can be caught with.

Spend your deuces, don't hoard them

A deuce is worth 5 to 50 on the table — 25 in an all-deuce meld, 50 in the rare otherwise-natural spade meld where it stands for the queen — and -20 in your hand: not as painful as the queen, but still a card you want melded rather than held. Weigh every deuce against what it could complete: filling a genuine gap usually beats parking three of them together for 25 each, because a meld of deuces alone ties up cards that could otherwise unlock three separate melds.

Watch for the moment to rummy

Taking the whole discard pile scores you points fast, but everything under the top card comes into your hand, where it counts against you if somebody rummies, and a big pile can leave you further from going out than when you started. Count how many cards the table around you is holding, and favour the single draw once you sense somebody is close to rummying — the going-out bonus is worth less than not being caught with a handful of face cards.

Reading the discard pile matters more than reading your own hand

Because you can only take the whole pile by melding its top card, a careful player tracks what everyone else needs and starves them of it. Discarding a card nobody can use to take the pile is often worth more than discarding your highest card, especially once a hand starts running long.

Mind which deuces are still live

With two decks there are eight deuces in play, so losing track of how many have gone down is easy and costly. A deuce you need to complete a king-to-8 run is worth tracking: once the last one is melded or discarded face-up, you know exactly what is and is not coming.

The joker

Some tables add one joker as a second wild card, worth 100 points melded and -200 if it is still in your hand when a hand ends. Whoever first melds the joker may later swap it back into their hand by replacing it with the real card it was standing in for, then use it again elsewhere — some tables let only that original player reclaim it, others let anyone holding the matching natural card take it back.

How you're allowed to take the pile

The rule above has you meld the top discard using at least two cards from your own hand. Some tables play it looser: you must meld the top discard somehow, but it can go onto an existing meld on the table, or be combined with cards from your hand in any mix, without the two-from-hand requirement. Agree which version you're playing before the first deal — it changes how often the discard pile gets taken.

Bigger same-rank melds

Most tables cap a same-rank meld at four cards, same as the deal above, but a few let a same-rank meld run past four when more than one deck's worth of a rank is in play. A run in one suit has no cap either way.

How many cards do you deal in Arlington?

Thirteen to each player, dealt one at a time from two shuffled-together 52-card decks. The next card starts the discard pile, and everything left becomes the stock.

Is Arlington the same as Oklahoma Rummy?

Yes — Oklahoma Rummy is simply the other name this game goes by. It is not the same game as Oklahoma Gin, despite the similar name.

Is Arlington the same game as Fortune Rummy?

They are close cousins rather than the same game. The turn, the melds and the wild deuces work the same way in both, but Arlington deals thirteen cards instead of eleven, plays to 1,000 instead of 500, scores aces and the queen of spades differently, allows an all-deuce meld, and pays a 100-point bonus for going out, which Fortune Rummy does not.

Can you discard the queen of spades?

Only if it is the only card left in your hand. Hold onto any other card and you must keep her rather than throw her away, which is part of what makes catching her in your hand such a live risk.

What happens if a player never gets to meld anything?

They still score — just downward. Every card left in that player's hand at the end counts against them at the in-hand values in the scoring table — 10 for a king down to 8 or an ace, 5 for a 7 down to 3, 20 for a deuce and 100 for the queen of spades — so a hand full of court cards or an unlucky queen of spades can leave a player well into negative points for that deal.

What happens when the stock runs out mid-hand?

Turn the discard pile face down except for its current top card, and keep drawing from that as the new stock. The cards are not reshuffled — they simply carry on in whatever order they land in — though some tables shuffle them first.

Is there a bonus for going out first?

Yes — whoever rummies a hand, melding their whole hand (with one last optional discard), adds 100 points on top of whatever they melded. Nobody else gets that bonus for the same hand.