Rummy 500 Variations and House Rules

Rummy 500 has been passed around kitchen tables for generations, and almost every family has adjusted it somewhere. The core never changes: dig into the discard pile if you dare, meld for points, and race to 500. The details around the edges do. Four of the differences below can be switched on in the Settings of our online Rummy 500 game; the others are here so you know what to expect at someone else's table.

How Long a Game Lasts

The name says 500, and that is the usual target: a two-player game takes perhaps six to ten hands. Some players prefer a quicker game to 250, handy for a lunch break, while others play to 1,000 for a whole evening. In every case, if two players pass the target in the same hand, the higher total wins, and an exact tie means one more hand.

Going Out With or Without a Discard

In the standard game you can go out any way you like: by discarding your last card, or by melding or laying off every card you have left. Many families play stricter: your last card must be a discard. That means you can never meld your whole hand; you have to keep one card back to throw. It makes going out a little harder and gives everyone else an extra turn or two to get their points down.

When the Stock Runs Out

With 13 cards each in a two-player game, the stock is thinner than you might expect, and it is common for a hand to end with nobody going out. In the standard game, the hand ends when the stock is empty and a player should draw. Everyone scores as usual, table minus hand.

Some tables don't like hands ending that way and instead turn the discard pile over (keeping its top card face up) to make a new stock, then play on. Hands last longer, more cards get melded, and scores run higher. Our game turns the pile over at most three times in one hand, so a hand can never go on forever.

Free Pickups

The rule that makes Rummy 500 special is that you may take any card in the discard pile with everything above it, but the deepest card must be melded or laid off right away. A few families drop that condition and let you take any part of the pile just because you want the cards. It makes the discard pile a free-for-all: big pickups become common, hands swing wildly, and careful play counts for less. It can be fun for a change, but most players find the standard rule makes for a better game.

Other Rules You May Meet

Must the top card be used too?

Some players say that any card taken from the discard pile, even just the top one, must be melded at once. Others apply the rule only when more than one card is taken, as we do. Ask before you play.

Aces high, low, or both

We let an Ace be low (A-2-3, worth 1) or high (Q-K-A, worth 15). A few tables allow only one or the other, and a very few allow "around the corner" runs like K-A-2. We don't.

Bonus for going out

Some families give the player who goes out a small bonus, often 25 points, or charge a penalty to anyone left holding many cards. The standard game has no bonus: going out is rewarded enough by catching the others with cards in hand.

Laying off on your own melds only

A rare variation lets you add cards only to your own melds. It makes the game more private and less interactive. In the standard game, and in ours, you may lay off on anyone's melds, and the card scores for you.

Jokers as wild cards

Some families add one or two jokers as wild cards, worth 15 or more in hand. That turns the game into a close cousin of Canasta-style play. Our game uses a plain 52-card deck.

Partnerships

With four players, some tables play in two partnerships, adding partners' scores together. It's a sociable way to play but needs a bigger target, often 1,000.

Which Rules Should You Use?

If you are learning, start with our defaults: play to 500, go out any way you like, end the hand when the stock runs out, and use the deepest card right away. Those are the rules most players know. Once you're comfortable, try "must discard to go out" for a slower, tenser game, or a game to 250 when time is short. For the full standard rules, see the Rummy 500 rules page, and for the simpler game it grew from, try basic Rummy.