Two-player rummy with a wild rank that changes every round. One player starts a game, shares the link, and you play
from wherever you each happen to be.
How to play
Standard 52 card deck, no jokers. The dealer takes eight cards, the other player seven,
and the dealer opens the round by discarding one card. From then on each turn is draw
one, lay down whatever you can, discard one.
The wild rank changes every round
Aces are wild in round one, 2s in round two, 3s in round three, on through Kings,
then back to Aces.
Suit does not matter. Every card of that rank is wild that round.
A wild card can also be played at its own face rank if you would rather. In a round
where 5s are wild, 4-5-6 of one suit is a perfectly good run using a natural 5.
A meld can never hold more wild cards than natural ones, so a three card meld takes
at most one wild.
What counts as a meld
Three or four of a kind. Same rank, no repeated suit.
A run of three or more in one suit.
Where the ace sits
An ace can run low, as in A-2-3, or high, as in Q-K-A.
A run never wraps around the corner, so K-A-2 is not a run.
Adding to melds
You can add a matching card to any meld on the table, including your opponent's,
but only once you have laid down a meld of your own.
A set takes a fourth card of the same rank or a wild. A run takes a card at either
end.
When a run could sit in more than one place, the board asks where the wild goes
before laying it down. Holding 3 and 4 of a suit with a wild, you choose between
2-3-4 and 3-4-5.
Scoring
The first player with no cards left ends the round and scores the value of
everything still in the other player's hand.
The round's wild rank is worth 15 against you, so do not sit on one. Aces, face
cards and tens are 10, everything else is face value.
A match is thirteen rounds, one for each wild rank from Aces through Kings. The
higher total after the thirteenth round wins.
If the stock runs out it is reshuffled from the discard pile. If there is nothing
left to reshuffle the round is a wash.