Talk:Rummikub

To-do list
-- Ventura 05:40, 2005 Apr 24 (UTC)
 * Tie-breaking play after the first player is out.
 * More manipulations?
 * History

Ambiguity
I am trying to understand the rules from this page only and cannot tell whether each player has their own collection of sets and runs or whether they are all combined. This is probably obvious to anyone who has ever played the game, but it should still be stated explicitly. 72.183.253.227 (talk) 03:08, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

Rules dispute
It would seem there's quite a large dispute regarding the rules of the game surrounding the joker tiles. Older rules did not allow melds containing jokers to be manipulated beyond adding tiles to them, while newer rules do allow joker melds to be split and tiles to be removed from them. I have also encountered a group of people that allow the value and colour of a played joker tile to be changed by moving it between melds without requiring it to be freed with the relevant tile.

Some rules also allow jokers to be claimed with tiles that have already been melded, while stricter rules specify that the joker tile must come from your hand. The Extremist 23:28, 18 December 2005 (UTC)


 * To add my bit here, House rules for us dictate a fairly strict layout for tiles. Runs aligned by number going one direction and the sets in ascending numerical order above the runs.  Our rule for the joker is that once played it is glued to the table until it is "bought."  This effectively means that if a joker is played as a red 7 in a run, it must remain a red 7 in a run until exchanged for an actual red 7 from a players hand.  Jfmiller28 03:38, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

I revised the text which claimed that the rules in the article were the Sabra version. Actually the deletion of the restriction "A combination which contains a joker can have further tiles added to it, but nothing can be taken from it, nor can it be rearranged in any way while there is a joker in it" and the addition of "A joker that has been replaced must be used in the player's same turn with 2 or more tiles from his rack to make a new set" are pure Pressman '98, not Sabra '78. The Pressman '98 rules don't restrict you from rearranging a joker exactly as if it were the tile (or tiles) it represented when played, and is silent on the question of whether its identity becomes more ambiguous when it is moved (without replacement) from a run to a 3-tile set or if one member of its 4-tile set is moved. Does anyone know what rules are used in Lemada's WCT? Andyvphil 08:21, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Not sure at what point it was changed but the rules released with the 1987 print of the game state that a set with a value of 50 points is required to start, not 30. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gusperry (talk • contribs) 22:27, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Manipulation of played tiles
With the exception of the joker rules talked about above I believe the following would be a better description for melding. There can be some very complex changes made by "playing up" runs in to sets or "running out" sets into runs.


 * During a players turn tiles my be rearranged in any way which does all of the following:
 * Leaves all played tiles in play and adds at least one additional one from the players hand.
 * Leaves all tiles in valid runs or sets that contain at least three tiles

Then included the current description as examples.

Jfmiller28 03:38, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Pronunciation?
It's officially pronounced "Rummy" "cube". ★ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wSuVZtTrPU8


 * Why is this basic information not included in the article? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 04:44, 5 April 2021 (UTC)


 * It finally was. I've added "rummy cube" to the IPA pronunciation, seeing no harm in so doing. Bret Sterling (talk) 16:51, 24 June 2023 (UTC)
 * It is officially pronounced "Rummy" "cub" in the UK https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r1PtyWxj06U (1987) and https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WmHGBXU8uAE (2003)
 * 85.255.237.0 (talk) 15:37, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Another Rules Dispute
This article says that if you can't do anything on your turn, you have to pick up three tiles (in "Play" section). However, my rules (60th Anniversary Collector's Edition) say you only have to pick up one (unless you unsuccessfully moved around the tiles on the table, in which case you have to pick up three). Does anyone else have a different rulebook that agrees/disagrees with what the article currently says in this respect? --Runner5k 14:00, 26 June 2007 (UTC) Article has been fixed. Andyvphil 07:53, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Removed "This is somewhat unfortunate..."
I remove the text "This is somewhat unfortunate, because the colours are somewhat indistinct, and the tile moulds are of low quality, with a bevelled edge that makes them difficult to pick up. Pressman's "Deluxe Edition" solves these problems." from the equipment section. I just don't like it, it seems a bit like telling people to buy the (presumably more expensive) version. And there's no suggestion of a source, so it's essentially someone's opinion. M0ffx 12:18, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Removing tiles from the middle of runs
The article as of this writing (2009-01-01) states: "So long as the remaining tiles form a valid run, tiles can be removed from the ends of runs." The article also states that splitting a run is acceptable for the purpose of inserting a duplicate tile, for example if you have a tile numbered 5 in your hand of the appropriate color and there is a run of 3-4-5-6-7 on the table that you can play your tile leaving the table in the state 3-4-5, 5-6-7.

What is neither explicitly prohibited or allowed is removing a tile from the middle of an existing run outside of the previous example. To illustrate, consider the following play. The player holds two "5" tiles in  blue  and  orange . Already played on the table is the run 2-3-4-5-6-7-8 in  red . The player removes the  red  5 from the middle of the existing run to make a group of 5s, leaving the table in the legal state:  2-3-4 ,  6-7-8 ,  5 - 5 - 5 

Is this a valid play? -- 74.196.116.128 (talk) 18:01, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Duplicating colors in text.
The article currently has examples like this:

. This has several problems. Some people (myself included) find the colors indistinct. People using low end web browsers or simplified Wikipedia clients may not see the colors at all. Either way, it becomes difficult or impossible to read the examples. I propose changing the examples to look like this:. While this is unfortunately verbose, it's clearer. While I'm at it, I plan to change Template:Rummy to make writing these less complex and so that the colors can be tuned in one place, not repeatedly through the article. Currently you might write. My goal would be to say. Any thoughts for further improvement or objections? — Alan De Smet | Talk 05:13, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

In Hertzano's 'Official Rummikub Book', ... [citation needed]
The current edit states that "In Hertzano's 'Official Rummikub Book', published in 1978, he describes three different versions of the game: American, Sabra and International." and this has a [citation needed] tag. I'm not sure if it's the year of publication which someone thinks to be in need of citing or the part about 3 different versions of the game, but a quick search of Amazon lists the book as ISBN 0806949449, the publisher as Sterling Pub. Co and the year of publication as 1 Jan 1978. I don't know how to cite that part, but the book could presumably verify the bit about 3 different versions of the game. The book is expensive from Amazon's second-hand suppliers, but in the meantime I don't see any reason to question the veracity of the statement. --Stroller (talk) 08:25, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

History section
IN history section, there is "The game combines elements of rummy, dominoes, mah-jongg and chess.". I don't understand the relationship between Rummikub and chess. Does anyone know it?--Wolfch (talk) 03:39, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

Apparent contradiction
What does "If player has a play in hand it must be played or seven tiles must be drawn." mean? It appears to contradict the earlier "If the player cannot (or chooses not to) play any tiles, he must pick one random tile from the pool and add it to his rack.", unless I'm misunderstanding something here. Pam D  22:43, 17 October 2013 (UTC)

rummy-world.com
This was added as being the "old official site", but seems to fail at least one of the policies about only linking to one official site and not linking to sites that "require registration to view the relevant content" (it's an online game forum for Rummy where you have to register to play). I've removed the link. --McGeddon (talk) 11:18, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

Playing with cards
Looks like a paragraph about how "Rummikub may also be played using two decks of 52 playing cards, plus one joker per person..." has been added and removed a few times over the past couple of years. This seems WP:OR/WP:HOWTO (many commercial games may "also be played" by marking up some cards and making your own pieces), and shouldn't be part of "playing pieces", since it's not about how the commercial game of Rummikub is played.

Pagat compares Rummikub to the card game Vatikan, which is probably the better way to state that the game can be played with cards. I'll add that. --McGeddon (talk) 08:47, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

uniformity of spelling - an issue
15 November 2019 I am a first reader of this page, read in order to discuss the game with an established player. The page mixes the use of the words colour and color when describing the playing pieces. This makes searching the page to find out how and where colours count unnecessarily difficult. I suggest it's worth correcting. JontheDuke (talk) 18:12, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

To add to article
Basic information to add to this article: the etymology of the name "Rummikub." Where does the "-kub" part come from? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 04:45, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

Bing and ChatGPT on never using a preposition to end a sentence with
Someone I know received a Rummikub set as a gift yesterday, and being unfamiliar with the game I read the Wikipedia article on it. I'm not usually much of a stickler on things like split infinitives and sentence-ending prepositions, but I nonetheless had a negative feeling about "Point values are taken from the face value of each tile played, with the joker (if played) assuming the value of the tile it is being used in place of." My immediate correction would probably have been simply with "the tile in place of which it is being used", but I didn't like that either and so I asked Google Bard to edit the original sentence. It said:

''Sure, here is the edited sentence: ''The point value of a tile is taken from its face value, unless the tile is a joker, in which case it assumes the value of the tile it is replacing. ''Here are the specific changes I made: ''I removed the phrase "with the joker (if played)" because it is redundant. The phrase "if played" already implies that the joker is only used if it is played. ''I added the word "tile" after "point value" to make the sentence more clear. ''I changed the phrase "assuming the value of the tile it is being used in place of" to "assuming the value of the tile it is replacing." This is a more concise and accurate way of expressing the same idea. ''I hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions.''

I figured I'd check ChatGPT as well, which gave: Point values are determined by the face value of each tile played, wherein the joker (if used) assumes the value of the tile it replaces. I didn't like "wherein" in this and the Bard version looked generally superior (also, notably, to the edit I myself would have made), so I've inserted the latter into the article though without its first comma. Bret Sterling (talk) 17:10, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Rummikub online
This game also has an application you can download and play live with others 2607:FB91:184B:884E:24A9:6361:8F6:254A (talk) 01:46, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

Not a single element from mah jongg
Why is it described so? 64.99.245.189 (talk) 01:42, 13 September 2023 (UTC)