Player guide

Getting to a table

• Join a table: type the four-letter code you were sent (or open the link, which fills it in), then your name and the table password, and press Join the table. The “I’m not a robot” box under the form ticks itself within a second or two; the button waits for it.
• Start a new table: your name and the password, then Start the table. You get a code and a link to send to everyone else, and you are the host.
• Share this game sends the site to someone new, so they can come and play too.

Waiting in the lobby

1. The table code, and Copy link to send it to the others.
2. Who has sat down. The host can take someone off the table with Remove; a player who is away has a Rejoin link to send them.
3. House rules: the host picks a regional style, then changes any rule to match how your table plays.
4. The rules we are playing and How to play explain, in plain words, what the settings add up to.
5. Deal starts the match once enough people have joined. Seats are drawn at random.

Cutting the deck

Before each hand one player cuts: choose how many cards to lift with the slider, a quick pick or Anywhere, then press Cut. If nobody cuts within a minute the deck cuts itself, and the last fifteen seconds are counted down. If the cutter is away, anyone at the table can cut instead.

The table at a glance

1. Nameplates. The player to move is outlined, with a clock for how long their turn has taken; below are the cards in their hand and whether they have opened.
2. A player who has stepped away is marked AWAY, and after a minute a Rejoin link appears to send them. If the player to move takes two minutes, Skip appears beside the clock on their name and two taps move the turn on — sooner each time the same player has to be skipped again. A joker kept from the cut shows on a line of its own.
3. The stock. Tap it to draw.
4. The discard pile. You can also drag a card onto it to discard.
5. The cut card, in styles that use one. You may take it instead of drawing, but only keep it if you can go out that turn.
6. How long this round and the match have run, the turn number, and which hand of the match this is.
7. Whose turn it is, and what to do next.
8. Melds on the table, squeezed so the left edge of each card shows its rank and suit. A blue star marks what the last player put down.
9. Your hand. Tap a card to pick it; tap it again to let it go.
10. The moves nearly every turn is made of. Each stays in the same place; one you cannot use yet is hidden.
11. Everything else, shown only while you can use it.

Beside the table, or below it on a phone: the scores, with the totals at the top and the newest hand under them, and the log of every move. Tap Scores to fold it down to the totals alone.

Taking your turn

1. Draw: press Draw or tap the stock, take the top card of the discard pile, or take the cut card.
2. Make melds: pick the cards. As soon as they make a meld, a button appears with its points.
3. Until you have opened, Add meld lines each one up above your hand. Once they reach the opening score, Open lays them all down at once; Clear starts again.

4. Lay off: pick a card, then press the arrow on the side of the meld where it would go.
5. Swap a joker: pick the card a joker stands for. A violet ⇄ appears under that joker; tap the joker to swap.

6. Discard: pick one card and press Discard, or drag it onto the discard pile. That ends your turn.

In styles where you knock, Knock appears once your count is low enough to end the hand.

Arranging your hand

• Manual 1 and Manual 2 keep two arrangements of your own; By suit and By rank sort for you. On a phone they are one Sort menu.
• Pick a card and use ◀ ▶ to move it one place, or ◀◀ ▶▶ to send what you picked to either end. With a mouse you can drag cards too.
• Hold pins a card (◆) so it cannot be discarded by mistake, and Release lets it go. ✕ lets go of everything you picked.

Changing your mind

Take back puts your hand and the table back as they were at the start of your turn, except a card drawn from the stock, which only you have seen. Put it back returns a card taken from the discard pile, and Put the cut card back returns the cut card.

When a hand ends

A window shows who went out and the scores. The host presses Next round; when the match is over, Back to the lobby takes everyone back, where people can join or leave before the next match. If the host is away, anyone at the table can.

Leaving and coming back

• Leave match, at the foot of the table, signs you out but keeps your seat and your cards. Anyone at the table can send you its Rejoin link: open it on another phone, or pass it to someone taking your place.
• Closing the browser tab is fine: open the site again and you are back in your seat. Close this table ends the game for everyone.

Language and rules

The flags in the top corner change the language. The rules we are playing, at the foot of the table, lists the rules in force, and How the world plays Rummy explains every style. The round ? in the corner of the table opens this guide.