Michigan Rummy
Charlotte Zaino
This game was played by my children some 30+ years ago and I have lost
the instructions.Anyone out there familiar with Michigan Rummy? I would
like to play it now with our grandchildren and would appreciate a re-
fresher course.
Mergle29ub
This is how I remember playing the game:
There are 8 or 9 'pots' in the center of the table, of which everyone
puts an agreed number of chips or coins into each before the deal.
They are variable, but in our game we played:
Ace of Diamonds
King of Clubs
Queen of Hearts
Jack of Spades
10 of Diamonds
7-8-9 of a suit (or any three card run)
Q-K of a suit
Kitty (winner takes pot, each player puts 1 coin for each remaining card
in their hand)
Deal out all cards as evenly as they go allowing for one extra 'dummy
hand'.
(Thus, in a six player game, deal seven hands.) Players may auction or
bid
or be asked in order for a switch with the face-down dummy hand. (Any
bids
go to the kitty.)
Player left of dealer starts by playing lowest card in hand into a central
discard
pile. Next card of suit is played next by any player. When the next card
of suit
is unavailable or the progression goes to Ace (high) player gets to
alternate color
and play the lowest of the other color on the pile. Thus, if 7 of clubs
is played,
8 of clubs is in dummy hand or already played, same player plays lowest
RED card
in his hand.
Should a player play a card or cards designated by a pot (or BOODLE CARD)
he wins
the pot. If someone goes out, all remaining uncollected boodle cards'
pots stay in
for next game. Players holding cards after someone going out put 1 coin
for each card in their hand into the kitty after the winner collects it.
My card book, which I did not refer to in this post, puts this game in the
STOPS
genre of games like FanTan and others.
I think I've also seen other variations of this game, some totally unlike
this that
I describe. Also, I have seen something called TRIPOLEY similar to this.
The game has very little strategy. It is more luck of the draw.
Anyone else remembering other variations or something I missed, please
speak up!
William Priester
Mergle29ub @ aol.com
matthew g hudelson
The rules my family has played by (for about 30 years) are as follows:
You need a board or layout, easily made by using nine sheets of
paper. Write each of the following on the sheets of paper:
Ace of Hearts
King of Hearts
Queen of Hearts
Jack of Hearts
Ten of Hearts
King and Queen of Hearts
Six-Seven-Eight of one suit
Kitty
Pot
These sheets, representing the "boodle cards", are spread out on the table
for easy access to all players. They will soon have money, poker chips,
or whatever on them. (These boodle cards are the ones we've played with
for an eternity. There are other variants.)
To determine who deals first, we deal out the cards face up. Whoever gets
a jack first deals first. The deal then rotates clockwise from there.
While the cards are being dealt, everyone puts one white chip on each
sheet of paper, for a total of nine white chips, as their ante for the
hand. Before the dealer looks at his/her cards, the dealer must ante.
The dealer deals out one more hand than there are players, so, for
example, if there are four players, five hands are dealt. Everyone gets
one hand. If the dealer likes his/her hand, then that hand is kept by
dealer and the unseen hand is auctioned. The bidding proceeds clockwise
from the player to dealer's left. If the dealer does not like his/her
original hand, then dealer may trade it for the unseen hand, but (s)he can
not trade back. The dealer's old hand is auctioned among the other
players. Any proceeds from the auction go to the dealer. (These rules
are slightly different than those posted earlier.)
After everyone has the hand they will play with, the first order of
business is to play poker. Everyone looks for five cards in their
hand that they wish to play poker with (you are not obliged to play
your five best cards--this could be an issue if they involve the king
and queen of hearts or a six-seven-eight combo.) The way we play it
is that if you're playing poker, you are obliged to pull out the
five cards forming your poker hand from the rest of your cards before and
during betting. All poker bets go onto the sheet of paper marked "Pot".
The winner of the poker hand collects all of the money in the Pot.
If there is no winner, then the money in the Pot remains there for the
next hand.
The next order of business is to play the cards out a la "stops."
The cards are ranked, from lowest to
highest: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K,A. The suits are unranked, so all
the deuces, for instance, are equally high. The "successor" to a
card is the next higher card of the same suit; for instance,
the successor to the 10 of clubs is the Jack of clubs. Aces have
no successors.
Whoever won the poker hand is the opening leader. If there was
no poker winner, then the player to dealer's left is the opening
leader. The opening leader plays his/her lowest black card.
If there's a tie for this card, say (s)he has both black deuces,
then either may be played. Once a card is played, it is out of
play for the remainder of the hand. From this point on, whoever
holds the successor to any card played IS OBLIGATED to play
that successor. If nobody holds the successor to the last card
played, or the successor had previously been played, then the
player becomes the leader. The leader must then play the lowest
RED card in his/her hand. Another round of successors are played,
the last person to play then leads his/her lowest BLACK card,
and so on, switching colors every time a new string must be
started. Here's an example:
Player A wins the poker hand and leads the 6 of clubs. The
play proceeds as follows:
A leads 6 of clubs
B plays 7 of clubs
A plays 8 of clubs
A plays 9 of clubs
The 10 of clubs is in the unplayed hand.
A leads 2 of hearts
B plays 3 of hearts
The 4 of hearts is in the unplayed hand.
B leads 4 of clubs
C plays 5 of clubs
The 6 of clubs has already been played.
C leads A of diamonds
Aces have no successors.
C plays 2 of spades
and so on...
If a player becomes the leader and does not hold any cards of the
correct color, then the lead passes to the left. The color
remains the same, so for instance, if player A has nothing but
clubs and plays the 2 with nobody playing the 3, then player
A announces (s)he has no red cards, and then player B must then
play his/her lowest red card.
If anybody plays one of the high hearts (10 through Ace), they
collect all money on the corresponding sheet. If anybody plays
the Queen of hearts and the King of hearts together, they
collect the money on the "King and Queen of hearts" sheet.
If anybody plays a six, seven, and eight all in the same suit,
they collect the money on the "Six, Seven, Eight" sheet. These
are the boodle cards.
This continues until someone runs out of cards, at which time this
person collects the money on the "Kitty" sheet. Also, the other
players pay one white chip for each card they still hold to the
player who goes out. Any unplayed boodle cards remain uncollected
for this hand and the money on the corresponding sheets remains
there for the next hand. The "King-Queen of hearts" and
"Six, Seven, Eight" sheets often go uncollected for many rounds,
accumulating a hefty payoff.
It occasionally happens that it's time to lead a black card and
nobody has any black cards, or the same with red cards. In this
case, nobody collects the Kitty and everyone pays one white chip
for each card they hold into the Kitty which stays for the next
round.
At the end of the evening, there might be money still uncollected,
typically on the "King-Queen of hearts" and "Six, Seven, Eight"
spots. We divide this money into as many pots as there are players.
For each pot, we deal poker hands face up around the table, the
highest poker hand claiming the pot.
TC
Mixed in are my comments.
There are 9 pots. Mergle29ub covered eight of the nine. The last one
is called "Poker Pool." At the end of each hand, the player make the
best poker hand they can from the cards dealt to them. The one with the
highest hand claimed the pot. My particular group of friends would
sometime let this grow, and then declare a poker pool when needed.
Usually, you buy a board which has eight small spots surrounded by one
large spot in the middle, in which people place markers. Since our
cheap plastic board broke, my friend's mom took a piece of large
cardboard, sectioned it into a equal squares, and labelled them with
really good drawings. Always keep the Kitty in the middle
(traditional).
I remember the nine pots differently. We used to call the Queen of
Diamonds the "cash queen." [Diamonds are a girls best liquidation.]
The K-Q combo had to be in Hearts. The 10 of Hearts was the "booby
prize" because it allowed some cash flow in hearts since the K-Q was so
difficult to take.
KC | K-Q of H | QD
-------------------------------
AD | Kitty | JS
-------------------------------
Poker | 7-8-9 | 10H
Before dealing the cards, each player places one marker in each of the
nine pots. This is the ante.
Once everyone has ante-up'd, the dealer deals out all the cards, giving
himself two hands (we used to call the extra one the helping hand).
Everyone looks at their hands, and the dealer looks at one.
The dealer then decides if he wishes to take the hand himself, or put it
up for bid. If he takes it, his hand gets put aside, and play begins
with the 2 of Clubs (this is considered the lowest card in any deck of
cards - for those of you who don't know, the ranking of suits is Spades,
Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs - Backwards Alphabetical).
If the dealer doesn't want it, it gets put up for bid for one marker.
Bids are made around the table, and if no one offers a higher bid, then
the bidder pays the dealer for the hand. Play then starts normally with
the 2 of Clubs.
All played cards are placed in front of you face up.
The person with the three of clubs plays it, then the player with the
four of clubs, etc... until no one can play [i.e. the next card has been
buried in the extra hand], or the Ace has been played of that suit. The
last person to play has to start the progression again. He must play
the LOWEST card in his hand of the opposite color. If he cannot
alternate suit color, then the player to his left must alternate the
suit for him, etc... If no one can alternate suit color, the hand is
thrown in and the deal passes to the left. There is no more scoring
that game.
Ex. Play stops at the 7 of Clubs. The player with the seven then plays
a four of diamonds. The player with the five of diamonds plays his and
calls it out. This continues to the 8 of diamonds. Since this player
has all diamonds and hearts, he cannot change the suit color. The
player to his left can, and plays the 7, 8, 9, and 10 of Clubs.
"BOODLE CARDS" (Scoring)
The object of each round is to be the first person to play all their
cards.
When a player plays a card or sequence of cards that correspond to one
of the pots, then that player immediately collects the markers in the
pot.
Pot 1: The player who plays the Ace of Diamond collects the markers in
this pot.
Pot 2: The player who plays the King of Clubs collects the markers in
this pot.
Pot 3: The player who plays the Queen and King of Hearts together
collect this pot.
Pot 4: The player who plays the Queen of Diamonds collect this pot.
Pot 5: The player who plays the Jack of Spades collect this pot.
Pot 6: The player who plays the Ten of Hearts collect this pot.
Pot 7: The player who plays a 7-8-9 of any suit together wins this pot.
Pot 8: The player who plays all their cards first win this pot (the
kitty).
Pot 9: The player with the best poker hand wins this pot (after someone
wins kitty).
Also, when a player goes out and wins the kitty, all the other players
must pay 1 marker for every card they have in their hand.
That's everything I can think of.
Tom
Mergle29ub
>>>There are 9 pots. Mergle29ub covered eight of the nine. The last one
is called "Poker Pool." At the end of each hand, the player make the
best poker hand they can from the cards dealt to them. The one with the
highest hand claimed the pot. My particular group of friends would
sometime let this grow, and then declare a poker pool when needed.<<<
Yeah. I forgot that. :^)
__Mergle29ub