Play العربية

Hand

The meld game: gather your cards into melds, put them down once they add up to 51, then get rid of the rest before the others.

4 players
2 teams, partner opposite
Two full decks and two jokers
Five rounds, lowest total wins

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These are the rules with a fixed minimum. If you turned on the Saudi rule before, turn it off in the game's options.

How to play

Everyone gets fourteen cards; the player on the dealer's right gets fifteen and starts without drawing. Play goes anticlockwise.
On your turn, draw from the stock, or take the last discard if you put down at least one new meld that same turn, with or without the card you took. Then put down what you like, and end by discarding a card.
A meld is three or more cards in sequence in one suit, or of one rank in different suits (four at most). A meld may hold one joker, standing for any card.
Your first time down must add up to at least 51: numbers at face value, jack, queen and king 10, ace 11, even at the start of a sequence (1 there under the Saudi rule).
Once down, you may lay off cards on any meld on the table, and take a joker by putting in the card it stands for.
Whoever plays their last card ends the round.

Scoring and winning

Whoever ends the round takes 30 off their team's total.
Putting every card down in one turn, never down before and without laying off on others' melds or taking a joker from them, is a Hand: 60 off, and everyone else's points double.
The other team counts the cards left in hand: joker 15, ace 11, jack, queen and king 10, the rest at face value. A player who never went down pays 100, or 200 if chosen. The finisher's partner's cards do not count.
After five rounds, the team with the lower total wins.

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