Play guide

Before you play

• A 52-card deck without jokers; seven cards per player.
• Meld three or four equal ranks, or three or more consecutive cards of one suit.
• Ace is low: A–2–3 works; Q–K–A does not.
• You must register your own meld before laying cards on anyone's melds.
• Empty your hand to win. Knock only before drawing, with ten or fewer hand points.

Playing a hand

1. Draw the stock or the top discard.
2. Register a meld, then optionally lay cards onto existing melds.
3. Discard one card to pass. Emptying your hand by melding or laying off also wins immediately.
4. Alternatively, knock before drawing and compare remaining hand totals.

A legal meld and a useful extension

Hearts 4–5–6 is a run; hearts 4, clubs 5, hearts 6 is not. Three nines of different suits form a set. After registering a meld, you may add hearts 7 to a public hearts 4–5–6 run, including an opponent's.

Taking the top discard does not impose a separate requirement to meld it immediately. An unopened player cannot lay off directly onto an opponent's meld.

Knocking can lose

Ace counts one, 2–9 their rank, and 10/J/Q/K ten. A–3–5 totals nine and permits a knock, but an opponent with eight wins. If the caller and one opponent tie for the lowest total, the caller is removed from the tie and that opponent wins.

The stock can be replenished twice, keeping the top discard. Exhaustion or 150 discards ends the game by lowest hand total; equal lowest totals are a draw. Do not assume other tables' special multipliers or out-of-turn claims.