Scoring rummy · 2–8 players
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
Fortune Rummy is a scoring-rummy game. This digital table has you and three bots; the card game can be played by two to eight people, and works especially well with four or five.
Shuffle two standard 52-card decks. Deal 11 cards to each player, turn one card face up to start the discard pile, and leave the rest as stock. Score your cards laid in melds minus the value of cards left in your hand. The first player to reach at least 500 total points wins the match.
A set is three or four cards of the same rank. A run is three or more consecutive cards of one suit, with no fixed maximum. Aces may be low (A-2-3) or high (Q-K-A), never around the corner (K-A-2). A deuce can fill the 2 position in a low run, but an all-deuce set is not allowed.
Every 2 can represent a missing card in a set or run. The represented card is shown on the meld, and stays fixed when the meld grows. The two decks contain duplicate cards, but a run still needs distinct consecutive ranks.
Draw one card from stock, or take the entire discard pile. To take the discard pile, first select at least two cards from your hand that form a valid new meld together with its visible top card. Lay that meld immediately, then take all the hidden discards into your hand. You cannot inspect the hidden discards first.
After drawing, lay as many new melds as you wish. You may add cards to your own melds, but never to another player's. End your turn by discarding one card face up. Only the new top discard remains visible. At this table, the common restriction applies: you may discard a Queen of Spades only when you hold no other kind of card.
A hand ends when a player has no cards left, either by melding them all or by discarding the last one. There is no going-out bonus. If the stock empties, turn the hidden discards over without shuffling, leaving the upcard in place. If nothing can be drawn or taken, score the hand.
Each Queen of Spades scores 50. Kings through 8s score 10; 7s through 3s score 5. An Ace scores 10 when high (including a set), or 5 when low. A wild 2 scores the value of the card it represents, except that replacing the Queen of Spades scores 10 rather than 50.
At hand's end, subtract 50 for each Queen of Spades, 10 for every Ace, 2, or King through 8, and 5 for each 7 through 3. A player who goes out has no hand penalty. The scores carry over across hands until someone reaches 500.
Fortune Rummy shares the familiar draw–meld–discard rhythm with other rummies, but its two-deck game and whole-discard pickup create much larger swings. It appears in traditional card-game literature and is less familiar today than its related game Arlington. A reliable country of origin is not established in the rules used here.
Arlington uses a 13-card deal and a 1,000-point target, while Fortune Rummy deals 11 and races to 500. Some Fortune Rummy tables allow the Queen of Spades to be discarded freely, allow more than four cards in a set, or shuffle the discard pile when rebuilding the stock. This implementation uses the four-card set limit, the restricted Queen discard and an unshuffled recycle.