Scoring rummy · 2–8 players
Fortune
Rummy.
Build sets and suited runs, turn wild deuces into points, and decide when taking the whole discard pile is worth the risk.
Only the top discard is visible. Taking it means taking the entire pile.
Scoring
Hand complete
A little luck.
A lot of nerve.
Follow a sample hand in the illustrated guide, then consult the complete rules below. Fortune Rummy can be played by two to eight people; four or five works especially well.
Illustrated guide
See how a hand unfolds.
These examples are separate from the live game.
Complete rules
The rules below describe the version played on this site.
Origin & history
Fortune Rummy belongs to the scoring-rummy family: players lay combinations on the table, score those cards, and subtract the value of cards they still hold when a hand ends. It appears in traditional card-game literature alongside the closely related Arlington, also called Oklahoma Rummy. The rules used here do not establish a country of origin.
Objective
Earn points by laying valid melds and avoid finishing a hand with costly cards. The first player to reach at least 500 cumulative points wins the match. Each person scores individually.
Equipment & setup
Shuffle two standard 52-card decks together, without Jokers. Deal 11 cards to each player. Turn one card face up to begin the discard pile; the remaining cards form the face-down stock. A physical game accommodates two to eight players and is especially suited to four or five. This single-screen table uses four seats: you and three bots.
Two decks mean that duplicate physical cards may appear. A meld is either a set of three or four cards of one rank, or a run of at least three consecutive ranks in one suit. Runs may be longer than four cards, but cannot repeat a rank. An Ace may be low or high; a run cannot turn the corner from King–Ace to Two.
Every Two is wild and may represent another card in a set or run. Twos cannot form a meld of Twos alone. When a wild Two is placed, the card it represents remains fixed as that meld is extended.
Gameplay
On your turn, first take cards in one of two ways. Draw the top card of the stock into your hand, or take the entire discard pile. To take the pile, first combine its visible top card with at least two cards already in your hand to form a new valid meld and lay that meld immediately. Only then take the hidden discards into your hand. The discard pile is squared: you may see its top card and count the cards, but may not inspect the ones underneath.
After drawing, you may lay any number of new melds and add suitable cards to your own melds. You may not add cards to another player's melds. Finish your turn by putting one card face up on the discard pile, unless you have gone out by melding your last card. On this table, the Queen of Spades may be discarded only when it is the only kind of card left in your hand.
When the stock has no cards and the discard pile has more than its visible top card, turn the hidden discards over without shuffling to make a new stock. Leave the top discard in place. If neither drawing nor taking the pile is possible, the hand is scored.
Scoring & points
At the end of a hand, add the value of every card you laid in your own melds, then subtract the value of every card still in your hand. A hand score may be negative.
- Queen of Spades: 50 points on the table; minus 50 if held.
- King through Eight: 10 points each on the table or in hand.
- Seven through Three: 5 points each on the table or in hand.
- Ace: 10 points when high in a run or in a set; 5 when low in a run. An Ace left in hand costs 10.
- Wild Two: scores the value of the card it represents in a meld, except that representing the Queen of Spades scores 10 rather than 50. A Two left in hand costs 10.
There is no bonus for using all your cards. Going out simply leaves no cards to subtract.
End of game & winning
A hand ends when a player uses all their cards, either by melding the last card or by discarding the last one. The table also scores the hand if no further draw or discard-pile pickup is possible. Carry every player's hand score into the next deal. The first player to reach 500 or more total points wins the match; if players tie above 500, play another hand until one has the highest total.
Variants
Some tables allow the Queen of Spades to be discarded freely, permit sets of more than four cards, or shuffle the hidden discards before rebuilding the stock. The playable version here uses the restricted Queen discard, four-card sets, and an unshuffled stock recycle. Arlington (Oklahoma Rummy) is a related game with 13-card deals and a 1,000-point target, along with several scoring differences; it is not a selectable variant on this page.
Category
Rummy · Scoring · Draw and discard
Also known as
Fortune Rummy
Documented countries
Not established