Rules

How to play Rummy 500

Updated October 2026 · 2–8 players · About 45 minutes

Rummy 500 is a rummy game with one rule that changes everything. You may take any card from the discard pile, not just the newest one. But you must also take every card that was discarded after it, and you must use the card you chose before you do anything else.

What you are trying to do

A game is played over several deals. One deal is one dealing of the cards and everything played with it. In each deal you collect cards that go together into groups and put them on the table. A group is one of two kinds:

• A set is three or four cards of the same rank, each a different suit, such as 9♥ 9♠ 9♦.
• A run is three or more cards of the same suit, one right after another with no gaps, such as 4♥ 5♥ 6♥. An ace can go before the 2 (A-2-3) or after the king (Q-K-A). A run cannot wrap around: K-A-2 is not allowed.

Cards you put on the table score points for you. Cards still in your hand when the deal ends take points away.

What you need

You need two to eight players. Two to four players use one standard 52-card deck. Five to eight players shuffle two decks together and play with them as one deck, because a single deck is too small for that many players. Play moves clockwise, to the left. Hands of 13 cards or more get heavy, so you may like a card holder, and large-print cards help if the small numbers are hard to read.

How a deal starts

Choose the first dealer any fair way, such as each player turning up a card from the deck and comparing the cards. After every deal, the player on the left deals next.

1. Deal seven cards to each player, or thirteen cards each when only two play.
2. Put the rest of the deck face down in the middle as the draw pile. Turn one card face up beside it to start the discard pile.
3. Spread the discard pile out instead of stacking it neatly, so every card stays visible. The whole game depends on what is in that pile. The oldest card is at one end and the newest, discarded last, is at the other.

The player on the dealer's left goes first. If the cards are dealt unevenly, or a card is turned face up during the dealing, the same dealer shuffles and deals again. No one loses anything because of it.

Your turn

On your turn you take a card, put down what you can, and discard one card.

1. Take a card. Take the top card of the draw pile, or any one card from the discard pile.
2. If you took a card from the discard pile, two rules apply.
   • You must also take every card discarded after it, up to the newest card. If you take the newest card, you take only that one.
   • You must use the card you chose first, before you put down or add anything else. Put it in a new group, or add it to a group already on the table. You can make the new group from cards in your hand and the other cards you took with it. If you cannot use the card you chose, you may not take it.
   The other cards you took are extra cards. You can use them in groups this turn, or keep them in your hand.
3. Put down groups. Put down as many groups as you like, or none.
4. Add cards to groups. You may add cards to any group on the table, yours or another player's. Add them one card at a time. You can add as many as you like, as long as each one fits.
   • A card fits a set if it has the same rank, its suit is not already in the set, and the set has only three cards.
   • A card fits a run if it is the same suit and comes right before the run's first card or right after its last card. Nothing goes after Q-K-A or before A-2-3.
   Keep the card in front of you, not on the group, so everyone can see it scores for you, and say which group it joins. The card becomes part of that group, so the group is one card longer. For example, after you add the 10♥ to 7♥ 8♥ 9♥, the J♥ or the 6♥ fits it next. Once you have used the card you chose (if you took one from the discard pile), you can put down groups and add cards in any order, as often as you like, before you discard.
5. Discard. End your turn by putting one card face up at the newest end of the discard pile.

For example, say you hold the 4♥, 5♥ and K♣, and the newest discard is the 6♥. You take it, put down 4♥ 5♥ 6♥ (4 + 5 + 6 = 15 points), and discard the K♣.

If a player puts down a group that breaks the rules, such as a run that wraps around (K-A-2) or cards that do not really match, what happens next is up to your table, so agree on it before you start. A fair way: if someone notices while the deal is still being played, the group is broken up. Every card goes back into the hand of the player who put it there, so a card another player added goes back into that player's own hand. None of them score.

How a deal ends

A deal ends in one of two ways:

• A player uses up their last card, by putting it in a group, adding it to a group, or discarding it. If putting down or adding cards uses up your last card, you do not have to discard. Play stops at once, and nobody else puts down or adds any more cards.
• The draw pile runs out, and then a player cannot or does not want to take a card from the discard pile. The player who takes the last card from the draw pile finishes their turn as usual. After that, each player in turn may still take a card from the discard pile, under the same rules as always. As soon as a player cannot or does not want to take one, the deal is over, and everyone scores the cards they have at that moment.

Card values

Players disagree about aces, so agree on a value before you start. Some tables always score an ace 15, and some always score it 1. The values above are the most common. Under them, an ace stuck in your hand always costs you the full 15. It is worth only 1 once it is on the table as the lowest card of A-2-3.

Scoring a deal

Unlike most rummy games, you score your own cards, not the cards left in other players' hands. At the end of a deal:

• Add the value of every card you put on the table, including cards you added to other players' groups.
• Subtract the value of every card still in your hand.

Your score can be below zero. That is the danger of taking older cards: extra cards you never put on the table count against you. Using up your last card earns no bonus in the standard game. The reward is that the deal stops, so everyone else is left holding cards.

Winning the game

Add each deal's score to your running total. The first player to reach 500 points wins. If more than one player reaches 500 in the same deal, the highest total wins. If the highest totals are exactly equal, play more deals until one player is ahead.

Practice a game of Rummy 500

The rules are simple to read and hard to judge at the table: when is a card six deep in the discard pile worth the five you have to take with it? The practice game deals you in against a computer opponent and helps you see the cost of every pickup.

The practice game follows these rules, with these differences:

• When you add a card to a group, the game chooses the group for you. If the card fits more than one group, it goes on the group where it scores the most, or on the group put down first if the scores are the same.
• The game will not let you put down a group that breaks the rules.
• Nobody calls “Rummy!” (see Common variations below).

Three things beginners get wrong

Taking an older card without counting the cost

If you take eight cards to get the one you want, you will want the other seven on the table before the deal ends, because every card still in your hand is subtracted. Add up the points of those seven cards before you take.

Holding groups in your hand

Cards in your hand score nothing, and they cost you points when the deal ends. Putting a group on the table early shows the others what you hold, but holding groups back is how you end a deal below zero.

Discarding what the next player is collecting

The discard pile is face up, so everyone can see what you have taken, and you can see what the others have taken. A card that fits a group on the table is easy for the next player to use: they take it, add it and score it. Watch the discards before you make your own.

Questions people ask

Can you add cards to your own groups, not just other players'?

Yes. You can add a card to any group it fits, whoever put that group down.

Is Rummy 500 the same as regular Rummy?

It is a well-known version of rummy, also called 500 Rum or 500 Rummy. If you have never played any rummy game, start with the plainer basic Rummy. Its signature difference is that you can take any card from the discard pile, not just the newest one.

Do you need a partner to play?

No. In the standard game everyone plays for themselves. Four players can play in fixed partnerships instead. See Common variations below.

Common variations

• Ace value — always 15, always 1, or 15 as the highest card of a run and 1 as the lowest, as in the table above.
• Jokers as wild cards — a joker stands in for any card and is usually worth 15. Some tables let you take a joker back out of a group on the table by putting in the card it stands for.
• Taking only the newest card — rule books differ here. Many, Pagat's among them, let you keep it in your hand instead of using it, as you can with a card from the draw pile. The rules above and the practice game make you use it, so every card you take from the discard pile follows the same rule. Agree which way you play before you start.
• Calling “Rummy!” — in Pagat's rules, if a player discards a card that could have been added to a group on the table, the first player to call “Rummy!” may take it and add it themselves. Many tables leave this out, and so does the practice game.
• Using up your last card — whether you must finish with a discard. The standard game does not require one.
• When the draw pile runs out — some tables end the deal as soon as the player who took the last card has finished their turn, with no more turns taking cards from the discard pile. Other tables shuffle the discard pile, except the newest card, to make a new draw pile instead of ending the deal. The practice game follows the rules above.
• More than one player reaches 500 in the same deal — the usual rule is that the highest total wins, as above. Some rule books give the win to the player who used up their last card in that deal.
• Alternative names — you will also see this game called 500 Rum or 500 Rummy and, in some books, Pinochle Rummy. It is a different game from Pinochle.
• Four players in partnerships — two fixed teams, partners sitting opposite. Each player scores as usual, and the two partners' scores are added together to give the team's score for the deal. The first team to reach 500 wins.
• Playing with two decks (five or more players) — as above, shuffle two full decks together and deal as usual. Now there are two of every card. A set still has at most four cards, one of each suit, so a second 9♥ does not fit a set that already has a 9♥. It has to go into a different set. A run cannot repeat a card either: a second card with the same rank and suit as one already in a run must go into a different group.

If you like making groups but not taking older cards, try Gin Rummy, or practice a game of Gin Rummy against the computer.