| Online Rummikub - Rules and History |
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Rummikub History Rummikub was invented by Ephraim Hertzano during the 1940s, and was developed into three variations: American, International, and Sabra. It was first manufactured in Israel, hand-made in Hertzano’s backyard and sold door to door. As the game’s reputation and distribution grew, it became apparent that it offers excellent play value and customer s were very satisfied. Rummikub was later exported to United States and Europe. Nowadays, the most popular version of Rummikub includes the Sabra rules. It is the 3rd best selling pastime game, and the number one best selling tile game. Over 40 million sets of Rummikub were sold in over 50 countries worldwide. The game was also translated to dozens of languages. Rummikub Rules The most popular Rummikub rules belong to the Sabra Rummikub variation, which were published in the game book in 1978. There can be 2, 3, or 4 players in a game, and the game is played clockwise. There are 104 tiles in the game, numbered 1-13 in 4 colors – Black, Orange, Blue and Red. There are also 2 Joker tiles. All the tiles are shuffled face down and each player takes 14 tiles, which he places on a rack, concealed from the other players. The remaining tiles are kept and are used during the game. The object of the game is to be the first player to lay down all 14 tiles on the table, in sets consisting of the following combinations: - Groups – three or four tiles with the same number but different colors. - Runs – Three or four tiles with consecutive numbers and the same color. Each tile can be used only in one set, and tiles are numbered from 1 to 13. Runs consist only of consecutive tiles (i.e. 2-3-4), and the number ‘1’ tile cannot be used with 13 (i.e. 12-13-1). Jokers can replace any numbered tile in the game in order to be included in a valid tile combination. |