Free Rummy: A History

Whilst the term “rummy” is generally used to refer to the specific game of “gin rummy”, it can also be used to refer to an entire genre or family of games that share a similar premise or design. It is essentially a group of card games which can include Mah Jongg, Canasta, and a wide variety of other rummy games. It is also widely believed that the Mexican game of Conquian (sometimes corrupted to Coon Can or Cooncan), allegedly derived from the Spanish “con quien” which means “with whom”, and is the ancestor to the majority of rummy games that are around today. The more traditional rummy variants or at least the more popular rummy variants that are around today are generally thought to be of Indian origin, with “Gin Rummy” being invented by a father and son team that were based in Brooklyn, New York.

The game of rummy itself is usually played with around two to four players, but it’s possible to have up to six players, if needs be. The object of the game and the idea behind playing it is that you have to get rid of all the cards in your hand, which can be done in a number of ways: discarding is where you just discard a single card at the end of each turn, taking it from your hand and placing it on the discard pile. Melding is taking a bunch of cards from your hand that are in either a sequence (same suit) or group (same number/rank) and getting rid of them. Finally, there is “laying off”, where a player may add additional cards to an existing meld.