Turkish Rummy (Okey)
Turkish Rummy Rules
Objective: To be the first to dispose of the cards in your hand. The game ends when one of the players lays down all cards, with the exception of the last card which is thrown to the discard pile.
Number of participants: Two to four players make up an Okey table, and larger scale tournaments are comprised of a certain number of Okey tables.
About the decks: The game is played with 106 cards: 2 regular decks and 2 jokers. The decks contain 4 standard suits of 13 cards each
Game play
A round starts with each player drawing a card from the stockpile in order to determine the round’s order of play. The player who drew the highest card will play first, the player with the second highest card will play second and so on.
In Turkish Rummy (Okey) players are dealt 14 cards in the beginning of the turn. The remaining cards form the deck or stockpile. The top card of the deck is placed face up, and it can be picked up by the first person to play. The card facing up forms the discard pile, where players must throw a card at the end of each and every turn.
| A set consists of 3 or more cards of the same rank |
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OR
| A run consists of 3 or more consecutive cards of the same suit |
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OR
Turkish Rummy turns are comprised of two mandatory phases, a potential bonus when the game starts, and one additional stage that only takes place in the final round.
After the deal:
- A random card is drawn from the deck to be used as the “up card”. If one of the players has the exact card in their hand, their opponents will all suffer a penalty of -1 points at the end of that round regardless of who wins.
Every round:
- Draw – The player chooses either to draw from the deck (face down cards) or pick up a card from the discard pile (face up).
- Discard – The player chooses a card from his or her hand and discards it. The discarded card will replace the topmost card of the discard pile.
Final round:
- Lay down – The player lays down all the cards in his or her hand in melds of any type (as seen above). The last, 15th card must be discarded to the discard pile during the discard phase in order to complete the turn. Unlike other rummy type games like rummy or kalooki, laying down is only possible when the player is able to lay down all of his cards, and once a player lays down his or her cards, the round ends.
Victory conditions, Stalemate and Score:
In Okey, players start the game with 0 points and accumulate penalty points as the game progresses.
Hunt – An Okey round normally ends when one of the players lays down all of his cards in valid melds and runs. When a player “hunts”, his or her opponents will all suffer a penalty of -2 points.
Stalemate – When the stockpile runs out of cards play stops and a new round begins. In this case every player shall suffer a penalty of -1 point.
7 pairs – Players can win the round even if they don’t have a hand with runs and sets. A special way to win a round is having 7 pairs, in which case the player can lay down to win the round. This special victory condition will allow the player to inflict -4 penalty points to his or her opponents.
Joker “Knocker” – If the last card thrown by a winning player is a Joker, the player’s opponents shall also suffer a penalty of -4 points.
Using jokers – Jokers can replace any card in the game in a run or a set.
