Three-Thirteen

Setup

Deal each player a three-card private hand. Set the remaining cards face down in the center of the table to form the stock. Place one card face up to start the discard pile. Each round, the starting hand size increases by one, until the last hand of the game where it is 13.

Gameplay

As with other rummy-type games, the goal of play is to create melds -either runs (cards in sequential order of the same suit), and sets (cards of the same rank). To begin a turn, a player draws a card, either from the top of the stock or from the top of the discard pile. To end a turn, that player discards. Melds must be at least three cards in size. Sets do not need to be entirely unique suits. Runs cannot wrap "around the corner," so K-A-2 is not a valid meld. Once all cards but one in a player's hand can be melded, on their turn, they may lay down their hand, then discard the final card. A player cannot lay down their hand unless they are able to discard. After that, each other player can take one more turn to try to minimize the amount of unmelded cards in their hand. There is no "laying off" other players' melds.

Each round, one rank is wild. The first round it is threes, then fours, fives, etc. until the last round, when kings are wild. Wild cards can stand in for any rank and any suit. Runs that pass by that rank cannot skip it, however. For example, 2-4-5 is not a valid meld even if threes are wild.

Scoring

Once a player has laid down their hand and all other players have taken their final turn, all players show their hands. Unmelded cards are scored at their face value. Jacks are 11, queens 12, and kings 13. The player with the fewest points after all ten rounds wins the game.

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