This is a new activity - why not give it a go?  The game itself, once mastered, is easy to play, although instruction will be given. Experienced card players and beginners are welcome. It is proposed to run the group once a fortnight on  a Thursday afternoon - alterative weeks to the Backgammon group. The venue will be the Inn on The Coast which has free parking and a bus stop at the door. A minimum of four people are required to enable the group to go ahead. Please join up.                                         
Contract Rummy Instructions

Players: The optimum numbers of players is 4, although the game could be played with 3 or 5 players. A 4 player game normally takes about 2 hours to complete.

Cards: With 4 players 2 standard packs of 52 cards are used, along with 3 jokers. The number of jokers used should always be 1 less than the number of players.

The Game: Each game consists of 7 rounds. For the first 4 rounds the dealer deals 10 cards to each player. For the last 3 rounds each player receives 12 cards. The objective in each round is to form your cards into ‘Sets’ and/or ‘Runs’ as outlined in the table below.                          

After the cards have been dealt the remaining cards as placed face down in the centre of the table (the stock pile), with the top card turned face over, and placed in a separate pile (the discard pile). The person to the left of the dealer goes first, and can either take a card from the stock pile or the card in the discard pile. If he/she does not want the card in the discard pile it becomes available to other players to select, but if selected by another player, then that player must also take a ‘penalty’ card from the stock pile. At the end of each players turn they must discard 1 card and put it in the discard pile.

Once a player has achieved the contract for a particular round, they place their sets/runs on the table and players can add to these sets or runs to dispose of the cards in their hand. Play continues until 1 player has disposed of all their cards.

Players who are left with cards at the end of a round must total up their score using the following point values:

At the end of the seven rounds the player with the lowest cumulative score wins.