How to play Riverside Rommí

Put as many points as you can on the table in runs and sets, and close before the others do. Cards on the table count for you; cards left in your hand count against you. The first to reach the target score, 500 by default, wins.

One ordinary 52-card deck, no jokers. With two players each gets 10 cards; with three or four, 7; with five or six, 6.

The rest of the deck goes face down as the stock. Its top card is turned up to start the discard pile. Only the top card of the discard pile can be seen. The player to the dealer's left starts, and play goes clockwise. The deal moves one seat to the left each hand.

1. Draw. Take the top card of the stock, or pick up the whole discard pile.
2. Put down as many runs and sets as you like, and add cards to any run already on the table, yours or anyone else's.
3. Discard one card face up. That ends your turn.

On your first turn of each hand you only draw and discard. You can put cards down from your second turn on.

A run is three or more cards of the same suit in order.

Runs go round the corner: after the king comes the ace, then the 2. A run can be up to 13 cards long.

A set is all four cards of one rank. Three of a kind is not enough.

You can extend any run on the table at either end, on your own turn. Once cards are on the table they stay where they are: melds are never split or rearranged.

Every 2 is wild: it can stand for any card in a run or a set. Where you place it shows which card it stands for.

• You may use as many 2s in a meld as you like, even a meld made only of 2s. Then you say what each one stands for.
• A 2 in its own place in its own suit, like the 2 in ace-2-3 of clubs, is simply a 2.
• All four 2s together are a set of 2s.
• A 2 can never stand for a card that is already on the table.

Swapping. If you hold the real card a 2 stands for, you may swap it in on your turn, after drawing, and take the 2 into your hand. It works on any meld, and you can keep the 2 or use it straight away. While a 2 stands for a card, that card can only come to the table this way. In a set, any of the missing cards can replace any of its 2s.

When you can put down every card but one, do it and discard that last card face down. You have closed, and the hand is over. You always need a card to discard: you can't close by putting down your last card.

The top card of the discard pile stays where it is. The rest of the pile is turned over, without shuffling, to become the new stock. This can happen three times; after that, or if there is nothing left to turn over, the hand ends with no one closing.

At the end of each hand, every player scores the cards they put on the table, including cards added to other players' runs, and loses the value of the cards still in their hand. A 2 is worth 50 whether it is wild or not, so one left in your hand costs you 50. If you swap a 2 away, the real card you put down counts for you.

Scores carry over from hand to hand and can go below zero. When someone reaches the target, the highest score wins. If two players tie for the lead, one more hand is played.

Run (röð)

Three or more cards of one suit in order.

Set (samstæða)

All four cards of one rank.

Stock (stokkur)

The face-down pile you draw from.

Discard pile (kastbunki)

The face-up pile you discard onto.

Closing (að loka)

Ending the hand by getting rid of all your cards.