6 7 8 9 10!

the Players:

Two is typical, but three or four players variations work. This page describes the generalized rules of the game.

the Deck:

A standard 52 card deck of cards without jokers. Aces are high and the standard order applies (i.e. A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3). Twos are wild cards and may be played in substitute of any other card.

When playing with 3 players, a double deck may be used. When playing with 4 players, a double deck is required.

the Goal:

To have the lowest point total after the fifth hand.

the Deal:

A player is selected to deal. This person deals out 10 cards to each player and turns the top card of the deck face up on the table as a discard. If the revealed card is a Two, that card is shuffled into the deck and a new card is selected. The player to the left of the dealer goes first.

the Draw:

The player whose turn it is either accepts or declines the discard. If they accept, they draw the face up discarded card into their hand. If they decline, they pass that card to the player on their left, deal the top card of the deck to that same player, and draw the next card on the deck into their hand.

If there is only one card left in the deck, that card remains face down and the discard must be accepted. Note: the discard pile is never bigger than one card.

the Play:

After the draw, a player may play down melds. Standard melds are accepted as long as they exceed 3 cards: sets of the same numerical value of card and numerical order runs in the same suit.

	is a valid set
	is a valid run
	is also valid since twos are wild.
	Is not a valid meld: remember that Aces are high and Twos are wild.

However, each hand has a required meld which must be played first.

Hand	Required Meld
Six	Two sets of three
Seven	Run of four and a set of three
Eight	Two runs of four
Nine	Three sets of three
Ten	Run of seven and a set of three

After the initial meld, any other 3+ card meld may be played. Cards may also be played off of any previously played meld by any player. If any twos are in melds and the player has the appropriate card to replace them, the two may be replaced by that card and taken into the players hand.

E.g. if is a meld on the table, and the player has in hand, the player may play down the and pick up the .

the Discard:

A player may discard any card in their hand, provided they do not discard the same card they drew if they "accepted" the discard. Twos may not be discarded.

the End of the Hand:

A hand ends when a player discards a card and has no cards left in hand.

the Score:

When the hand ends, players are given points based on what cards are left in their hands. Remember, the object is to get the lowest score.

Card	Value
Two	20 points
Ace	15 points
Face Card or Ten	10 points
Any other card	5 points

E.g. if a player had the following hand they'd get 65 points:

(5 + 5 + 10 + 10 + 15 + 20 = 65)

the End of the game:

After the Ten round, players total up their scores from all the previous rounds. The player with the lowest total score wins the game.

Other sites of interest to 6 7 8 9 10 players.

• General Card info sites
  • Card Games has information and rules for many card games from around the world. In particular, the page on Contract Rummy would be of interest.
  • rec.games.playing-cards is a good place to find out info about card games in general.

Credits

• To my friend Sam Miller and his family for teaching me the game.
• To Oxymoron <[email protected]> for the card images. Check out Oxy's Egyptian RatScrew page, another of my favorite card games.

© Alan Hoyle <[email protected]>
Problems? Omissions? Suggestions? Stupid grammatical errors? Tyops? ;-) Please let me know.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.