Liverpool Rummy

Liverpool Rummy is a multi-player, multi-round card game similar to other variants of rummy that adds features like buying and going out.

The Deck

Gin is played with multiple (typically 2 for four to five players, 3 decks for more) standard 52-card packs of playing cards. Aces can be low or high; the ranking from low-to-high is A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K-A.

Dealing

Dealership rotates to each player from round to round (the dealer to the first round is usually determined by cutting the deck; low card deals). The dealer deals a ten-card hand to each player. After all the players' hands have been dealt, another card (the upcard), is placed face-up in a central location known as the discard pile. The remainder of the pack is called the deck.

The player to the immediate left of the dealer plays first.

Play

On each turn, a player:

may allow any player including themselves to buy any amount of cards from the discard pile.
draws either the (face-up) top card of the discard pile, or one card from the deck.
may lay down their completed round-appropriate collection of sets and runs.
may play off other players who have laid down once they have laid down themselves.
discards one card from their hand onto the discard pile. If the discard could have been played off on either their own or another player's laid cards then any other player can call rummy and every player then gives the offending player one card from their hand. If the next player commences their turn by either drawing or allowing buying then the opportunity to call rummy has passed.

Play continues, in alternating turns, until one player goes out, or has no cards left in their hand.

Points are tallied and recorded by a score-keeper. All of the cards are shuffled and the next round of play commences.

Laying Down

The objective in liverpool rummy is to improve one's score by laying down to reduce the number of cards in hand, and eventually going out before other players. Within each round there are two types of card groupings that are required:

Sets of 3 or more cards sharing the same rank. For example, 8♥-8♣-8♠.
Runs of 4 or more cards in sequence, of the same suit. For example, 3♥-4♥-5♥-6♥-7♥.

Aces rank as high or low, but one cannot create a run that loops around. For example: A-2-3-4 is allowed, J-Q-K-A is allowed, but K-A-2-3 is not.

Each Round's Requirements for Laying Down

The requirements for each round of play are as follows:

First - 2 sets (6 cards)
Second - 1 set & 1 run (7 cards)
Third - 2 runs (8 cards)
Fourth - 3 sets (9 cards)
Fifth - 2 sets & 1 run with only 1 final card immediately discarded (10 cards)
Sixth - 1 set & 2 runs with no remaining cards in hand, no final discard (11 cards)

Playing Off Other Players

Once a player has laid down, they can then attempt to further reduce the number of cards in their hand by adding to other players' laid cards. For example, if another play has laid down a set of 3's 3♥-3♣-3♠ and you have a 3 in your hand you may add lay it down on their pile. Another example: A player has laid down a run of hearts, 3♥ 4♥ 5♥ 6♥ you may add a 7 of hearts 7♥ to their pile.

Calling Rummy

Once a player has laid down, their discard must not fit into either their own or any other player's laid cards.If this is the case, every other player has until the commencement of the next player's turn to call rummy on the offending player, in which case every player gives that offending player one card from their hand.

Evaluation of the hand

At the end of each round when a player goes out, the rest of the players total their scores by counting up the value of the cards remaining in their hands. Cards are valued as follows:

A and 2 are 25 points each.
3 through 9 are 5 points each.
10, J, Q and K are 10 points each.

The player with the lowest point total at the end of final round wins, so players usually work to lower their scores by going down, playing off other players who have gone down and, secondarily, replacing high cards (such as face cards and aces) with lower ones.

Buying

After each player has finished their turn by discarding, any player may then buy any number of cards from the discard pile. The "price" of picking up these extra cards is drawing an additional card from the pile. If more than one player desires to buy a card, the player who is nearest (clockwise) the player about to draw get precedence.

Wild Cards

2's are wild cards, and can represent any card (suit and number). However there are restrictions on their usage.

Sets must include at least 2 non-wildcards. Legal Example: 7♥ 7♣ 2♠. Illegal Example: 2♥ 2♣ 3♣.
Runs must include at least 3 non-wildcards in an original 4 card grouping. Legal Example: 7♥ 8♥ 2♣ 10♥. Illegal Example: 7♥ 8♥ 2♣ 2♥ 11♥.

During their turn while playing off another player, a player may replace that other player's laid 2 from within a run with the card it is substituting, so long as that 2 is placed somewhere else before the player concludes their turn. An easy way to "waste" the extra 2 if it doesn't allow you to lay additional cards is to simply add it to a set, as this prohibits another player from performing the wild card substitution trick again.

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