Rummikub

Goal: Be the first player to play every tile from your rack onto the table. The classic set contains 106 tiles: numbers 1–13 in four colors (black, blue, red, orange), two copies of each, plus 2 Jokers.

Setup

• All 106 tiles are shuffled face down. Each player draws 14 tiles for their rack.
• Play proceeds clockwise. On your turn you either place tiles or draw one tile from the pool.

Melds

Tiles are played in groups called melds. At the end of every turn, every meld on the table must be legal (at least 3 tiles):

• Group: the same number in different colors, e.g. black 7 + blue 7 + red 7. At most 4 tiles (one per color).
• Run: consecutive numbers in one color, e.g. red 6-7-8-9. A run never wraps around: 13 is never followed by 1.

The initial meld (breaking the ice)

Before you may use table tiles, your first placement must come only from your own rack and total at least 30 points (a tile is worth its number; 10-11-12 = 33). You may split the 30 points across several melds in the same turn. Once you have melded, you may immediately keep playing in that same turn.

Manipulating the table

After breaking the ice you may add tiles to any meld, split melds, borrow tiles, and rearrange the whole table — as long as every meld is legal again when you end your turn, and no tile ever leaves the table. If you cannot (or prefer not to) place anything, you draw one tile from the pool instead. When the pool is empty and nobody can play, the round ends and the player with the lowest remaining tile value wins.

Jokers

• A Joker stands for any tile it needs to complete a meld.
• A Joker on the table can only be replaced by a tile from your rack that exactly matches what it currently represents (in a 3-tile group, any missing color of the same number works).
• The taken Joker must be used in the same turn, in a new meld together with at least 2 tiles from your rack.
• By the official rule a Joker may not be used in the initial meld (this implementation offers it as an option).
• A Joker still on your rack at the end of the round costs 30 penalty points.

Winning and scoring

The first player to empty their rack wins the round. Every other player scores minus the value of the tiles left on their rack (Joker = 30), and the winner scores the sum of those penalties. Over several rounds, the highest total wins the match.

Opening: Sort your rack and hunt for the fastest safe 30 points. Two medium melds (e.g. a run of 10-11-12 and a small group) are often easier to find than one big one. Keep flexible tiles — a 5 of one color sits in more runs than a 1 or a 13.

Hold your Joker: A Joker is worth 30 penalty points if stuck on your rack, but it is also your most flexible tool. Use it to break the ice only if you enabled the permissive option and nothing better exists; otherwise save it to dump several dead tiles in one dramatic turn.

Manipulation is the real game: After the ice is broken, look for splits: a 4-tile group missing one color, a long run you can break into two runs with tiles from your rack, or a borrowed middle tile that completes a group elsewhere. Every borrowed tile must be replaced, so count before you commit — ending your turn with an invalid table means you must keep rearranging.

Watch the pool: Fewer than 10 tiles in the pool means what you see is mostly what there is. Track which numbers and colors appeared twice, and avoid holding the last copy of a tile your opponents are clearly collecting. When opponents are one tile from winning, avoid adding the exact tile that lets them go out — sometimes drawing deliberately is the safer line.

Rummikub was created by Romanian-born Israeli Ephraim Hertzano around 1950. When card games were banned under Israel's early government, Hertzano began hand-making tile sets and selling them house to house — the game combines rummy-style melding with mahjong-style tiles. His family company Lemada Light Industries still owns the brand today.

The modern international rules follow the Sabra version from Hertzano's 1978 book The Official Rummikub Book, which allows free manipulation of the table — the mechanic that gives the game its depth. Rummikub won the 1980 Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year) and became one of the best-selling family games in the world, popular far beyond its Israeli origins.

This digital implementation follows the mainstream 106-tile / 30-point / 2-Joker rules with a validated table-manipulation engine, an undo stack, and three AI difficulty levels. It is an unofficial, fan-made version for education and entertainment.