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Rules are from Hoyle's Rules of Games.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 83-61703. Pages 70-72. Posted
here for those who can't find their book and wanted to get that
game going tonight, not next week.
Five Hundred Rum
Five Hundred Rum was one of the earliest Rummy games to give
scoring values to the melds. It is sometimes called MICHIGAN
RUM or PINOCHLE RUMMY.
PLAYERS From two to eight, each playing for himself.
Four sometimes play a partnership game.
CARDS A regular pack of 52 when four or fewer play; two packs
shuffled together, with five or more. The cards rank as in Rummy,
but with ace either high in A-K-Q or low in 3-2-A.
THE DEAL. In two-hand, each player receives thirteen cards. With
three or more, each player receives seven cards. The cards are
dealt one at a time. As in Rummy, the rest of the pack becomes
the stock and an upcard is turned face up beside it.
THE PLAY. The rules of play (plus the additional rule below)
are as in Rummy, and the same object is in view-. to form the
hand into matched sets, groups, or sequences. The sets are melded
as in Rummy. -A player in turn may draw the top of the stock
or the
top of the discard pile; but he has a third option: he may take
a batch of two or more cards from the top of the dis-card pile
(even the whole pile), provided that he melds the bottom card
of the batch. He may meld this card by laying It off on a prior
meld, or by combining it with cards from his hand in a new set,
or even by combining it with cards wholly from the batch taken,
in a new set.
As in Rummy, a player may lay off additional cards on any melded
sets-opponents' as well as his own. But he should keep such laid-off
cards in front of himself, so as to score them for himself. When
a card could be laid off on either o-f two sets (a group and
a sequence), he must state his choice, since this may affect
the places open for future layoffs.
Play ends when any player gets rid of the last card in his hand.
(The player going out need not make a final discard; he may meld
all his remaining cards.) If none has gone out by the time the
stock Is exhausted, play continues so long as each successive
player draws from the discard, but ends as soon as one player
cannot or will not draw.
SCORING The card values are as in Rummy except that an ace counts
1 only when melded in a low sequence, A-2-3.
In all other circumstances, it counts 15.
At the end of play, each player totals the point values of his
melded cards. From this amount he subtracts the total of cards
left in his hand (including cards matched in sets), counting
each ace 15. The difference, plus or minus, is entered In his
column of the scoresheet, and a running total is kept of each
player's score.
Theplayerfirsttoreachatotalof plus 5OO or more wins the game.
Settlement is made on the differences of the final scores.
There Is no bonus for going out and none for winning a game-all
scores accumulate from melding alone.
IRREGULARITIES. The rules of Rummy apply, with one addition:
If a player takes a batch from the discard pile and then finds
he cannot meld the bottom card, he must return all the cards
and draw from the stock. The discard pile (if the cards have
become mixed) is reconstructed by majority opinion of the players.
This rule is superfluous if the customs of the game are followed.
By custom, a player taking a batch first detaches it from the
pile, without mixing the order, and leaves it on the table for
inspection. The other players are entitled to "a good look."
The player picks out the bottom card and melds it, before adding
the rest of the batch to his hand.
STRATEGY OF FIVE HUNDRED RUM
At the beginning, the prime object Is to acquire as many additional
cards as possible. In early discarding a common stratagem is
to "salt" the discard pile by cards from combinations
or even matched sets, to pave the way for cap-turing a batch
of subsequent discards. Much judgment goes into the question
of how long to wait before making the capture - another player
may "dig in" first.
In early play, do not meld any more than you must in order to
capture from the discard pile. Presently comes a time when there
is danger that some other player may go out; you must then unload
all you can. Since your melds may enable another player to unload
or even go out, try to delay unloading to the last moment of
safety. You can often avoid panic unloading by keeping track
of discards taken by other players, among which will be odd or
dead cards that must probably be discarded before the hand can
possibly go out.
In early discarding, the natural tendency Is to avoid adding
a card to the pile that makes a pair or near-sequence with another
already there. If the pile is large, your hand may have no safe
discard. Then, usually, match a card near the top of the pile,
rather than one far down. After general unloading has begun (when
one player "cracks" the others usually unload too),
the danger in discarding is much less, for the general aim is
now to go out and a player will seldom dig deep for a new meld. |