Although I am an avid Rummy Online player, I do on occasion play other online card games like poker, so was pretty surprised when I won $550 at the Bellagio tournament last December.
There were times during the game that I was feeling really “high” playing like a champion using all the skills I learnt while playing traditional rummy.
There were other times when the chip stack almost vanished and I felt down and out.
When the money rolled I was the chip leader and I guessed my chances of taking it down were pretty good.
And there was definitely something nice about holding the chips in your hand – something, I just can’t do when i play online rummy.
Anyway, I think I played some pretty good moves and some not so good ones but I have his nagging feeling that luck had more to do with my winning than my skills.

I started the day with less than four hours of sleep, a French café nearby was my source of breakfast and a pot full of coffee.
I logged into my usual online rummy portal and left messages informing my partners of plans for the day.
Having got that part out of the way, I headed for the tournament venue.
The room was packed with players and I could tell these were real pros.
I somehow felt that Lady Luck was on my side and played pretty aggressively. One of the players was very certain I was bluffing most of the time making it very easy for me to trap him when I got pocket aces.
Again, I felt the exhilaration that is so unique in a tournament, an exhilaration I rarely feel when playing online rummy.

I changed my tack and slowed down my game considerably – bad mistake. Considering I still had a good amount of fish on the table, I should have been picking up some extra chips.
To be fair to me, I had a problem getting good cards and also, the other players seemed really determined not to be run over by me.
I began dwindling down slowly but very soon started catching them again. When I started getting some nice starting hands, I felt I could breathe again and tightened my play.
With lady luck on my side, I ended up richer by $550.

Playing in a tournament sitting around a table is quite different from playing at any of the online rummy sites.
For now I think I will continue to stick to Rummy Online and only occasionally play a real live tournament when I feel the suicidal need for a new high.
By the way, one of my friends (who in turn got the news of its availability while playing rummy online), just tried to snag an official WSOP bracelet that found its way on eBay.
I warned him it might be a dummy.
After all, which bum would sell the real thing?
However, the owner of the bracelet owns a pawn shop, and claimed the item was the real McCoy, and is pure gold with real diamonds and stuff and further claims he got it from T.J. Cloutier himself!
Can you believe that? Damn!
My friend says the bids started at over $3K and folks, this auction is due to end soon, so hurry up if you fancy owning the hottest collectible in poker and while at it, never forget to keep those eyes open when you play online rummy because there are times when you can get some really good news.
My friend meanwhile gave up after placing a few bids – says he would have loved to own the bracelet but his “disposable cash surplus” as he puts it, does not stretch beyond $3.5K tough uh?

Oh, I almost forgot – when I was playing rummy online yesterday, I heard about this big online rummy tournament at Rummyroyal.com
It is scheduled for Sunday, March 14^th 2010 at 20.30 GMT and players will compete for, hold your breath, $30,000 cash prize!
So, just like the World Series of Poker tournaments which are huge affairs on the online poker scenes, rummy tournaments are equally famous and popular. The World Series of Gin Rummy is being held for the past twenty years in Las Vegas.
Although this tournament is held by the traditional rummy venues in Las Vegas, online rummy portals usually participate by sending one or two of their expert online rummy players.
Last year, two of Rummy Royal’s online rummy players were sent to compete at the World Series of Gin Rummy tournament.

Well, in case you feel you do not possess the level of expertise to compete with world champions of rummy, there are plenty of smaller online rummy tournaments that offer more fun and excitement than you would think. 
They offer you the chance to test your skills and practice your game with other like-minded opponents who play rummy online.
If you enjoy the traditional rummy games, you will surely enjoy yourself when you play online rummy, because there isn’t much that has changed during the transition from the brick and mortar casinos to the computer version of the game.

The most obvious change that could be considered is the fact that online rummy has made the game much more accessible to more number of people, which is surely a fantastic development for rummy fans.
You can now play online rummy and its variations with people located all over the globe at any time of the day you prefer.
Now coming to rummy online tournaments, they follow the same procedure as the land-based casinos.
You might have to resister yourself to participate in an rummy online tournament, a simple enough process; registration will be a quick affair if you are familiar with online gaming since you may already have an account with the site.

The buy-in for Gin Rummy tournaments is usually a modest amount, while the cash prizes may run into thousands of dollars, depending on how much you are willing to stake.
The odds of winning when you play rummy online are always the surprise factor, because rummy is more a game of skill and not much depends on Lady Luck. 
So, go ahead and take up that challenge – Rummy Online is such great fun!

Play Online Rummy Tournaments today – Click Here

Play Rummy Online: Gin Rummy Rules, Tips and Strategies

Card games are exciting and their online incarnations have made playing the games even more fun. Gin Rummy is one such card game that is most popular among all the variations of Rummy.
Today, with the introduction of the internet, you can play Rummy Online, particularly Gin Rummy, either for money or for free, and enjoy the thrill of the game from the comforts of your home. 

The best place to Play Rummy Online, is at Rummyroyal.com
You play against other online rummy players, and you can play rummy for fun, or you can play rummy for real money.
To get started they even give you $5 free as a new player to try their games.
That is because they take a small fee when you play, and they want you to become a real money player.
You dont have too though.
You can play there for free as much as you want, and there are also “freeroll” tournament where you can win real money without paying a entry fee.
If you want to play for real money right away, they offer depositing players a bonus of up to $200 for free.
Click Here to Visit Rummy Royal

However, to enjoy the thrills of Rummy Online, you must win your games, and you cannot do that unless you have complete knowledge of the game including its rules.
Knowing the tips and strategies of Gin Rummy Online and knowing how to play the right way is an immense advantage.
Whether you play rummy online or whether you play with a buddy the traditional way, you must master the rules of the game before you venture into the competitive online gaming world.

There are two parts to the game of rummy, the first being to draw a card and the other being discard. The player begins the game by first drawing a card from the stock pile or the discard pile.
There are advantages and disadvantages for both these choices.
If you draw from the discard pile, your opponent knows the card you have drawn and can plan his move.
If you draw from the stock pile, you don’t know which card you will draw, which is a disadvantage. The advantage however is that your partner does not know the card you’ve drawn.
So when you draw the card, you must carefully consider your options.

In the second part of the game, the player will discard a card.
You must place the card face up on the discard pile.
You cannot discard the same card you drew out from the discard pile at the beginning of your turn. This can be done at your next turn of play.

When you want to discard, you must make the right choice as to the card you want to let go. Sometimes when you draw a card, you may find that you make enough sets or runs so that you can discard a card face down in the pile and expose the rest of the cards to the opponent.
Any extra or unmatched cards that are left over are known as deadwood.
If the value of these cards is ten points or less, you can knock.
This is another way of ending your turn and is known as knocking. 
Traditionally this was actually declared by the player by knocking the table.
These days, if you Play Rummy Online, simply placing the card face down is good enough.
If you have no deadwood, you can go gin and earn a special bonus.

Your opponent will lay down the cards on the table, face up once you knock.
After this, the other player will have to formulate the sets and runs.
Any unmatched cards can be added to those of the player who knocked, provided the opponent has not gone gin.
If they did indeed go gin, then neither of them is allowed to add the cards.

Scoring in traditional or online rummy is simple enough.
When you play online rummy, your scores are maintained by the computer.
However, it is important to understand the scoring process to keep track of your play.
When the game ends, each player counts the points on the deadwood or unmatched cards.
If the knocker has a lower total than the other player, he can add the difference of both the players’ points to his own total.
The knocker is said to have been undercut, when his points are more than or equal to those of the opponent, provided he did not go gin. 
Additionally, the knocker gets a bonus of ten points.

Any player going gin gets a bonus of twenty points plus the opponent’s point value, even if he does not have any unmatched cards.
The other player will, of course, score zero points.
You continue to play rummy till one of the players gets hundred points.
He also earns another hundred points as a bonus. Hands won by each player are counted and a twenty point bonus is added to the score of each winning hand.
If you play rummy online for money, as per the rules, the loser owes the winner the difference of scores for each hand.

Apart from knowing the rules of rummy online, it is worthwhile to know of some of the rummy strategies that can be adopted to multiply your chances of winning the game.
Always try to create triangular hands so that you have as many meld cards as is possible.
For instance, you hold a 3 of hearts and a 3 of diamonds along with the 4 of diamonds.
You have the potential to form a meld if you get either of these cards: 3 clubs, 3 spades, a 2 of diamonds or the 5 of diamonds.
Such hands known as triangular hands increase your likelihood of forming a meld or allow you to knock as soon as you get hold of the required card.

When you play rummy online, you must always keep your options open by not relying on a specific card.
To explain, suppose you have a 7 of spades and a 9 of spades.
If you wait to get an eight of spades to complete your meld, you are giving your opponent the chance to knock before you.
Another tip to keep in mind is that it is easier to make sets rather than runs.
Runs are three or more cards of the same suit in progression; often a difficult combination to achieve.

Playing Rummy Online can be pretty engrossing and addictive.
If you’re not confident you might want to then stick to playing the free version of rummy online until you perfect your skills.
Play at sites like rummyroyal.com for practice.
Playing rummy for money is best done only when you are an expert player.
However, if you play rummy at a traditional casino, you can observe the experts playing the game and pick up a few good strategies and tips that might make all the difference between winning and losing.

Click Here to play Rummy Online Today

There are so many interesting versions of Rummy that are being played around the world today. These variations of Rummy are all the more exciting as many of them are being offered online by various gaming sites.
The best place for playing online rummy is Rummyroyal.com
One popular variation is Rummy 500, which is also known as 500 Rum, Pinochle Rummy, Persian Rummy or 500 Rummy.
The game has apparently been named after the fact that a player must reach a total of 500 points to win.
Although the rules of the game are similar to the basic rummy game, there is a distinction in that the player can draw more than one face-up card from the discard pile.
This feature makes the game a little more complex, requiring a certain strategy to play it well.

According to the general rules to play online rummy, points are scored for melds and points are lost for cards that remain in the player’s hand when one of the players goes out.
These rules are considered the standard and they have been used to design the online rummy games which you can play at your favorite Rummy Online sites.
I can recommend Rummyroyal.com where you can play for fun or for real money against other players.
At the moment new players get $5 just for opening an account, and you dont have to deposit or anything.

Click Here to claim the free rummy bonus
If you decide to play rummy online, information about the basic rules shuld be good enough for you to get going.
For a game of Rummy 500, you would need a standard deck of 52 cards with the 2 Jokers.
The game can be played with a minimum of two players and a maximum of 8.
If you have a group of 5 or more players, you need to use two card decks totaling to 108 cards.

In Rummy 500, if only two persons are playing, one deck is used and each player gets 13 cards.
If there are 3 or 4 players, one deck is used and each player gets 7 cards.
Two card decks are used if there are more than 5 players and each player will receive 7 cards.

The dealer will deal the cards one at a time, clockwise starting from his left.
When your turn to play comes, you must either draw from the stock pile or the discard pile.
When you draw from the stock pile, you must hold the card in your hand without disclosing it to anyone.

Drawing from the discard pile is different in Rummy 500 as compared to other rummy games.
The discard pile is spread out and you can pick out a card from the entire pile.
However, if you take a card from the lower portion of the pile, you must take all the cards above it. The card drawn from the discard pile must be melded right away.
Either you can form a new combination and place it on the table or add the card to an existing meld on the table.
The other cards that you picked up can be added to your hand or used in a meld during the same turn.

There are three methods to get rid of your cards when you play rummy online and these are Melding, Laying Off and Discarding.
Let us understand each of these terms and how to go about it.
When you place a combination of cards on the table, it is known as Melding.
You can either place sets or runs – a set is a group of 3 or more cards of the same rank, while a run is a sequence of three or more cards of the same suit. Melding is optional – you may choose to hold the melds in your hand.

Laying off means adding cards to existing melds placed in the melding area.
These could be melds that you or the other players have placed on the table.
For example, if there is a run of 4, 5 and 6 of spades on the table, you can add 2 and 3 of spades, just 3 of spades or a 7 of spades to continue the meld.
However, you are not allowed to move already melded cards to form new melds.
Laying off cards is optional, hence, as a matter of strategy, you may choose not to lay off cards even if you are in a position to do so.
Often, the card you wish to lay off could be attached to more than one meld.
You might have to make a choice as to which meld to expand.

Jokers are wild cards and can take the place of any card in a meld.
However, the player must declare which card the Joker stands for at the initial stage, since this cannot be changed later.
Discarding a single card face up on the discard pile completes the player’s turn of play.
This is compulsory unless you have melded all the cards in your hand.

You will continue to play rummy till either of the following situations arises: A player runs out of cards, or if a player wants to draw from the stock, but no cards are left.
When either of these two things happens, play ends and no more cards can be melded.
The scores for each player will be calculated at this stage. 
As mentioned earlier, there is positive and negative scoring in this variation of Rummy 500.
The value of all the cards left over with the player will be subtracted from the points he has earned for the melds.

So if your count for the leftover cards is more than that of your melded cards, you have a negative score.
The game usually continues till someone scores 500 points.

In Rummy 500, the face cards, i.e. King, Queen and Jack are valued at 10 points each.
The Ace and Joker will fetch you 15 points each.
However, there is an exception to this rule.
If you meld an Ace with the 2 and 3 of the same suit in a sequence, you get only one point instead of 15.
Cards from 2 to 10 are equal to the face value.
For example, a 2 of hearts will equal 2 points and a 9 of hearts will equal 9 points.
The person scoring 500 points will be the winner of the game. However, if there is a tie among two players, then the play will continue until a clear winner emerges.

When you play rummy online, you must be alert and observant of the cards being discarded and melded.
As a matter of strategy, take stock of the situation by guessing which cards your opponents would need by keeping note of the cards in the discard pile.
If you have been holding on to high value cards, and you observe that your opponent has few cards left, you must get rid of the high value cards as soon as possible.

Rummy Online is a relatively new concept which is constantly improving.
Several websites offer online versions where you can play online rummy for fun or for money.
The rules are basically the same as the online games are a take off from the physical card games that people would play sitting around a card table. 
Rummy online tournaments allow you to compete against thousands of players, at any time of the day besides, if one of your usual buddies can’t make it, there are thousands of other players always available.

Click Here to get start playing Rummy Online

Last weekend when I was playing a game of Rummy Online, my 8 year old son Adrian who was watching me for a few minutes, asked me if he could play the game as well.
I told him to first go “Google the rules for playing online rummy“.
A few minutes later, he was back saying he had difficulty understanding the rules of rummy online.
Sure enough when I checked, I found that most sites did not have the rules written in a manner that was easy to understand so I thought I’d write something myself so anyone who reads it can play rummy online or traditional rummy within a few minutes.
So lets get started with How to play Gin Rummy Online

Let me start off with a little background to Gin Rummy:

Ask any card player which is the most popular card game and 8 out 10 times he is likely to say “Gin Rummy”.
Indeed, Gin Rummy has become an extremely popular form of internet gambling, specially in the last 30 years and if statistics are to believed, then over 50 million people who play Gin Rummy today and most of this rummy is now online rummy.
So when my friends call me up and say “let’s play online rummy” I know exactly what they mean.

It is said that Gin Rummy took off as a major card game sometime in the 1900’s, but it was not until the 1930’s that it actually became popular.
Strangely though, Gin Rummy gained in popularity more during great depression than at any other time in the past.
During the depression, people had a lot of time in their hands and could play Gin Rummy all night long.
These days of course, you don’t even need a deck of cards – you can simply play online rummy.

I think the reason for Gin Rummy’s popularity is not hard to deduce.
The game could be played with varying number of people, was easy to learn and could be played at any time either for money or just for fun.

Over the years, supplementary rules were added and slowly the game took on a more serious turn with emphasis on player skill and observation.
Very soon, there were competitive tournaments offering large sums of cash prize to the winner.
Soon, folks not only enjoyed playing Gin Rummy at home, but also traveled to Gin Rummy centers where the setting was more conducive to serious play.

Gin Rummy developed further when experts began to author books to officiate the rules.
Very soon the game had written rules that were strictly enforced at all official Gin Rummy centers.

Object of Gin Rummy:

In its simplest form, the objective of Gin Rummy is to be the first to reduce the cards to the barest minimum number of points.
These points are very simple to score. Ace is 1 point, a 2 signifies two points, a 3 signifies three points, and so on.
Cards from 10 through to King are valued at ten points each.
To win the game you have to “meld” the highest cards you have first so that you are left with the least amount of points.

Melds:

You have a “Meld” when you have a matching set of cards.
For example, if you have 3 Queens, you have a meld.
Any card that forms part of a meld does not have any value.
A meld will typically have three or more cards, all with the same face value as described.

A Meld can also consist of three or more cards in a sequence.
So if you have 3, 4 and 5 of hearts or 4, 5 and 6 of clubs you have a meld.
The ideal situation is to get rid of all cards in your hand.
This is called “Gin”.

Dealing the cards:

Dealing the cards involves shuffling and dealing the cards to the players.
I make special mention of this because a lot of people get this part completely wrong.
If you intend to play with 4 or more players, you might find it worthwhile to invest in a relatively inexpensive automatic card shuffler.
Unless offcourse you are playing rummy online at a site like Rummyroyal.com
Basically, the dealer shuffles first, and passes the deck to a non-dealer.
The non-dealer shuffles last.

After shuffling the cards, spread them face down and each player than draws a card from the cards in the middle i.e. ignoring the six cards on the left and six cards on the right.
The player picking the card of the lowest value will deal the first hand.
Then the cards are shuffled a second time.
The non-dealer will cut the pack and hand it over for the dealer to deal.
When you play rummy, one important point to remember is that the dealing of cards is not passed around the table as in other games.
The first deal is done by the one who draws the lowest card, while the subsequent deals will be done by the loser of the previous hand.

The dealer deals the cards alternately to the other player first and then to himself.
In this manner, each player gets 10 cards each.
The twenty first card is dealt to the non-dealer so that he has a total of 11 cards.
The remaining pack of cards forms the stock pile, which is placed face down in the center of the table or in a special box if you prefer it.

Playing Gin Rummy

The basic game of rummy consists of the drawing and discarding of the cards in hand.
The player draws a card from the stock pile or the face up card in the discard pile and places it among the cards in his hand.
The person with 11 cards or non-dealer will begin the game by discarding a card which forms the discard pile.
The discarded card is placed face up, which can be picked up by the dealer if he so wishes.
The player can draw from either the stock pile which is face down, or the discard pile.

During the game you if you happen to pick any card from the discarded pile but find you don’t want it, you cannot discard that card in the same play.
You have to discard it in a subsequent hand of play.
You can pick up any players discarded card but remember only the card at the top of discarded pile can be picked up.
The other cards in the pile cannot be picked up.

Once you pick up a card, see if you can make a meld or better still, declare a Gin.

Once you’ve understood the basics of how traditional rummy is played, it is very easy to play Rummy Online.

Get started today at Rummyroyal where you can play online rummy for free or for real money against other people.

Click Here to visit Rummy Royal

To receive this no deposit rummy bonus proceed according to the following simple instructions:

1. Download Rummy Royal here and Open the Rummy software.
2. Click on “Cashier”.
3. Fill in the required information and the bonus code: 5WELCOME
4. As soon as you have validated your email address, you will receive $5 directly to your account!

Now you are ready to play Rummy Online and use your $5 Bonus!

Good Luck at the Rummy Tables!

*Note: You can use this bonus at: “Welcome Table” – marked in the lobby in purple with the letter (W). These tables are available in the “Single Tourney” and “Quick Games” tabs. If you make a first deposit, you can use the bonus in any “real money” table in the application.

Join the RummyRoyal’s members club.

As a new rummy player, the online rummy site rummy royal want you to start off your RummyRoyal experience the right way, so they are offering beginners Royal Star Tourneys!
These tourneys are only for new depositing members so check out the online rummy games  and win the prizes!

Click Here and Join Today

Each week rummy royal are holding two special tournaments with a buy-in of only 5 Royal Stars and cash prizes of $20.
The winnings will be credited to your balance automatically as soon as the tourney is over!

You can see your real money balance in your cashier as well as your Royal Stars Balance.
You start earning Royal Stars right away. For every $1 you spend in fee you receive 1 Royal Star (the fee is cumulative).

To receive our Royal Welcome bonus follow the steps below:

1. Download the RummyRoyal FREE software.
2. Register a RummyRoyal account.
3. Make your first deposit.

* Please note: you do not need a bonus code!