Rummoli
Rummoli Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What You Need
Rummoli is played with a standard deck of playing cards (excluding the Joker) and counters or chips. A Rummoli board is required to play. The layout of the board has 8 separate areas. The areas are:
- The Poker Pot
- Ten of Spades
- Jack of Diamonds
- Queen of Clubs
- King of Hearts
- Ace of Spades
- Ace-King of Diamonds
- Sequence 7-8-9
- Rummoli Pot
Note: the source says "8 separate areas" but lists nine entries, and it later refers to seven card-marked spaces ("Pay Cards" section) and to nine spaces receiving a chip each. All three counts are transcribed as printed.
How to Start
To decide who deals first, the players cut the cards and the player with the highest card (Ace is high) is the dealer.
Next, divide the playing chips or counters among all players. All players put 1 playing chip on each of the sections of the board.
The dealer deals out the cards, one at a time, and must deal an extra hand which is called the "Widow". Depending on the number of players, some hands will have more cards than others.
The dealer checks out his own hand and, if he likes, he can exchange his hand for the extra "Widow" hand (however, he cannot look in the extra hand until he decides to take it). If the dealer decides he would like to keep his hand, he can auction the "Widow" to the highest bidder and keeps the chips.
The player who bought the "Widow" hand cannot take back his own previous hand if he does not like it. The now extra hand should be placed face down so no other players know what is in the hand.
There are 2 phases to the game: the first is the "Poker Play" and the other is the "Rummy Play".
Poker Play
Players now select the 5 cards which he feels will create the strongest poker hand, lays them aside, and his other cards remain face down. This part of Rummoli may be played in a couple of unique ways, and all players need to decide before playing the game which method will be used.
Method No. 1
In this method, players will have a "showdown" of poker hands. Each player will need to place his hand on the table with cards facing up, and the player with the best poker hand will take all the chips in the "Poker Pot" section.
Method No. 2
Just like a regular poker game, the players may bet and raise the bet, and the bets (chips) are placed in the "Poker Pot" section. The player who either forces the other players out or who has the strongest poker hand when hands are shown takes the chips in the "Poker Pot".
Even if a player who was forced in the betting process to be out cannot participate after the fact when hands are shown and discovers he had the best hand.
Rummy Play
All players now pick up all their cards and sort them in suits. The player who won Poker will start by placing the lowest card in his hand and calling it verbally. The play goes to the player on the left, and the player having the next consecutive card(s) in the same suit plays it or lays it face up in front of him.
The play will continue until the play is broken by a card being in the dead (Widow) hand. So, when a suit is done by playing the ace or is blocked by a card in the dead hand, the player who had played the last card will now play the lowest card in his hand in a suit of the opposite color than the last suit played, and the play will continue in this manner until all the suits have been run out.
When a deadlock occurs, which is when no player is able to change the color of the suit, the hand is finished, and all players must place a chip for each card left in his hand into the "Rummoli Pot" section of the board.
Pay Cards
The Rummoli board has 7 spaces that are marked with specific cards or a combination of cards. As each player lays down one of these cards/combinations, he will collect the chips from the space as the same card he has played (i.e. 10 of Spades).
Some spaces will not be collected if a player has not had the chance to play the card or the card is in the dead hand.
The end of the hand is complete when the first player gets rid of all his cards. He will then take all the chips from the Rummoli Pot. The other players must pay the winner a chip for each card they have remaining in their hands.
When it comes to dealing, the deal passes to the left at the start of each new hand, and each player needs to place a chip on each of the nine spaces on the board.
Game Over
When the players are ready to end the game, they must decide how to get rid of the leftover chips on the spaces on the board. An option may be to cut the deck and the high man will take all the chips, or deal each player five cards and the best poker hand wins all the chips on the board.