Required: Two decks of cards, including jokers (2 to 5 players).

The deal: Shuffle and have person to right of dealer cut the decks. If a joker shows on the cut, the all players/person cutting the deck receives the joker. Deal cards to each player, two at a time, with the first person to the left of the dealer receiving 3 cards in the first rotation. Deal a total of 14 cards to each player, 15 to the first person to the left of the dealer. When all players have received their cards, place the remaining cards in the deck face-down in the center of all the players. The player who received 15 cards chooses one card from his hand to discard, and lays it face-up beside the deck (leaving him/her with 14 cards).

The play: Each player, in turn, picks up either the last card discarded or the top card from the deck and discards from his/her hand. The object of the game is to make runs of three cards or more within a suit (3, 4, 5 of hearts) or books (3 or 4 Queens). Although two decks are used in the game, a book cannot contain 2 of the same suit (2 of clubs, 2 of diamonds, 2 of clubs is not a legal "book").

To "open", or begin to lay down runs and books, a player must show 51 points the first time. Points are calculated as follows for the open:

Face cards -- 10

2 through 9 -- the value of the card

Aces -- 10

Jokers -- the value of the card it represents.

When a joker is used in a book/run, any other player is free to take the joker from the board during their turn if they can replace the joker with the "real" card that the joker represented. That player is then free to use the joker to create any books/runs from their hand at any later time.

Players can "rummy" on other players' books/runs. However, for "books", the same rules regarding no duplication of suits applies.

Play continues until a player can make books and runs from all the cards in his hand, and go "out."

Scoring: The "game" consists of a number of sets, the number determined by the number of players. A set consists of 4 hands. Thus, if 4 players are playing, a game is 16 hands (4 players x 4 hands).

Each hand is scored when a player goes "out," as follows, with the goal being to score the fewest points:

The person going out receives -40 points. If they go out before anyone else has opened, they receive -40 points. If they go out "all at once" without having "opened," they receive -140 points.

Players who have not gone "out" can tally their points in one of two ways, either take a flat 100 points if they have not opened, or, if they have opened, total the point value of the remaining cards in their hand.

Point values for cards remaining in a players' hand follows the following values:

Face cards -- 10 points

2 through 9 -- the value of the card

Aces -- 10 points

Jokers -- 25 points

But, if a person goes out all at once (without being opened first,) the players that weren't opened before he/she went out receive 200 points, while the ones who were opened double the value of the points they have in hand.

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