I need some help in identifying a card game mt grandmother, “Mom-Mom”, taught me when I was a kid. I’ve got some rules questions . . .
I’m trying to teach my Significant OTHer (SIGO) based on memory, and SIGO seems to have seen this game before. The problem is, SIGO is making ‘clarifications’ on rules I don’t remember. . . Mom-Mom taught me this game 30+ years ago, and has since passed on, my Hoyle’s rulebook is no help (close though), and neither this thread, this one, nor this one recommended by Discourse seem to be a match. . .
–
Here goes:
Each player is dealt five cards face down, and the remainder of the deck is set aside (the “fresh pile”), with the top card beIng turned over to start the “discard pile.” Each player starts their turn by either drawing from the freh pile, or drawing from the discard pile1. The goal is to accumulate sets of at least three-of-a-kind (3♠, 3♣, 3♥) or ‘runs’ in sequence of the same suit (6♣, 7♣, 8♣) earning points along the way until you get rid of all the cards in your hand (I’ll call it ‘turning out’). Players end their turn by dropping one card of their choice into the discard pile2.
Non-face cards are worth 5 points, 10s & face cards are worth 10, aces are worth 11 points. Cards left in your hand when someone else turns out are deducted from your played sets, and you can go negative on your overall score. When someone turns out, points are calculated, cards are gathered & reshuffled, and a new deal starts. First player to 250 or 500 wins the overall game.
Here’s some twists though:
- (1) Players don’t have to pull just the last card from the discard pile–they can pull a bunch (I’ll call it a “snake”). This is good in that you can pick up multiple cards to build sets with, but it’s bad 'cause it adds extra cards to your hand. SIGO says your turn-ending discard may not be from the head or tail of the snake (i.e. the first or last card picked up in the snake), but I don’t think this is true.
- (2) I say if you can turn out you do not have to play a discard. SIGO says you must have at least one card in your hand at the end of your turn out because you must discard.
–
I’m not sure if this is “gin,” 'rummy," some mix of the two, or some weird variant of either. Mom-Mom’s long gone, and her memory wasn’t the best at the time, but damn skippy she consistently locked onto those rules for the 25+ years I got to play cards with her.
So . . . what game is this? Have I been playing a heavily-house-ruled version of something formal?
Tripler
Many, many fond memories with this game.