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Rummy 500 rules

Learn the Rummy 500 rules used in DeNiro Card: the deal, legal moves, scoring and how to win. House rules vary; these are the rules at DeNiro Card tables.

How to play Rummy 500

1. This is Rummy 500, not the go-out-first family game. Nobody wins by emptying a hand: every round is scored, and the match runs to 500 points.
2. Two to four players, chosen on the setup card: 13 cards each with two players, 7 each with three or four, from one 52-card deck (no jokers), plus one face-up discard.
3. Each turn: draw, then meld or lay off as often as you like, then discard. Melds go face up on the table in front of whoever laid them, stay there, and are what you score.
4. Draw the top of the stock, the top discard, or a buried discard together with every card above it. A buried card must be used at once in a new meld or lay-off, and that choice is offered only when it is possible.
5. A top discard you pick up alone may be kept or melded, but it can't be discarded back that turn unless it is your last card.
6. Sets are 3 or 4 of a rank. Runs are 3 or more in one suit; the Ace may be low (A-2-3) or high (Q-K-A), never both.
7. You may lay off on any player's melds. Every card scores for the player who put it down.
8. Round score = the value you put on the table minus the value left in your hand; it can be negative. Ace 15 (1 only as the low card of an A-2-3 run), face cards 10, others face value.
9. A round ends when a hand empties by meld, lay-off or final discard, or, once the stock is empty, when the player about to draw chooses to end it.
10. After any round in which someone has 500 or more, the highest total wins. A tie for highest plays another round.
11. Your clock: at a coin table against the computer you get up to 90 seconds for each move, and the table header counts down the exact time left. If it runs out, the table plays that move for you on the merits. You are not forfeited, nothing extra is charged, and your stake and payout are unchanged. Each of your first three missed moves keeps the full clock; miss a third in a row and the rest of the hand runs at computer speed, about two thirds of a second a turn, which in practice finishes it for you. Making one move yourself puts the full clock back. An Online table against real people runs its own, separate clock; watch the same countdown there.

Common questions

Playing in DeNiro Card

Practice lets you play any game with no account and no coins. Coin tables use virtual play coins and need a DeNiro account; choose a coin stake before joining one. Leaving an active coin game forfeits the stake and adds a 10% leaving fee. Play coins have no cash value and cannot be cashed out.

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