Hollywood Rummy

If simple is boring for you, then Hollywood Rummy, aka Hollywood Gin Rummy or simply Hollywood Gin, is just the right thing for you. It will treat you with interesting twists and turns in a single game. Unlike the standard Gin Rummy game, the scoring in Hollywood Rummy gives you a chance to play three games simultaneously. Fun, right! It gives you the feeling of playing a rummy tournament or rummy championship without waiting for new games to start or going to different rummy tables.

In Hollywood Rummy, you can enjoy the delight of having rummy triplets along with playing three games in a row. Before we dig deeper to know more about this glamorous rummy game, you must know Hollywood Gin Rummy is a close relative of card games like Gin Rummy, Oklahoma Gin Rummy, and Three-handed Gin Rummy. 

Let’s begin the Hollywood Rummy rules tour before you move to the tables to play:

Players: Two players are perfect to start a game.

Deck: Hollywood Rummy just needs a single standard 52-card deck to begin the game. However, take note that the net worth of an Ace is just one point in Hollywood Gin Rummy unlike 10 points in Indian Rummy. Apart from that, face cards are worth 10 points each and number cards are worth their face values.

Goal: Collect sets (three or four of a kind or three or more consecutive cards of the same suit) to earn points. The game is played for several rounds.

Arrangements to be done to start Hollywood Rummy

• Start by choosing a dealer randomly to deal the first round. After that, the winner of each round deals for the next game.

• Shuffle the deck and deal 10 cards to each player. Players should sort their cards once they have received them.

• Now the next card is placed face-up in the middle of the table to form the discard pile/open deck. The remaining cards are placed face down next to the discard pile to form the draw pile/closed deck.

Hollywood Gin Rummy Play

Just like in other online rummy games, each turn consists of two parts. You pick a card—either the top card from the draw pile or the top card from the discard pile. Then you discard a card, facing up, to the discard pile.

Remember: As the game begins, on the very first turn of each round, the non-dealer decides whether or not to pick the first face-up card. If that player declines to pick, the dealer may take that card and complete his/her turn by discarding a card.

If both players decline to pick the card, the non-dealer starts the game by drawing the top card from the draw pile.

Knocking in Hollywood Rummy

Each round of Hollywood Gin Rummy ends when a player "knocks." The best part is you can knock even on your first turn after drawing a card. But there’s a twist as you have to knock after drawing but before discarding.

A player may knock as soon as he forms sets, discard one card, and has 10 points or fewer remaining in his hand. Also, keep in mind that a single card cannot belong to more than one set.

After knocking and discarding, the player who knocks arranges and puts all of his/her cards face-up on the table. Likewise, all the players who do not knock do the same.

If the knocker does not go gin, the opponent is also allowed to lay off any unmatched cards by adding to the knocker's sets (adding a fourth card to a group of three of a kind, or adding further consecutive cards of the same suit to a sequence).

So, remember you're never required to knock and you may continue playing as long as you are not sure that you have a better hand than your opponent.

Going Gin

If the player who knocks first has no unmatched cards in his/her hand, it's known as going gin and gets the player 25 or 20 bonus points. Moreover, now the opponent cannot score any points, even if he/she has no unmatched cards either.

Basic Scoring

To calculate scores, each player calculates the value of their unmatched cards. If the knocker's count is lower, then he/she scores the difference between the two counts.

But if the knocker does not go gin and the value of both players’ cards is equal—or the knocker's card value is greater than his/her opponent's—then it is a case where the knocker has been undercut. Here, the knocker's opponent scores 10 points plus the difference between the values.

Hollywood Gin Rummy Scoring

In Hollywood Gin Rummy, three games are played simultaneously. As soon as a player wins his/her first game, that score is credited to his/her first game scorecard. His/Her second win accounts for the total score of the first and the second games; the third win and all subsequent wins are credited to all the three games.

Example of Holiday Gin Rummy Scoring:

Varun wins by 12 points. This is recorded as his first score in the first game.

Aditi wins by 16 points. This is recorded as her first score in the first game.

Varun wins again, this time by 30 points. This is used twice: as his second score in the first game, and his first score in the second game.

Varun wins again, this time by six points. This is used three times: as his third score in the first game, his second score in the second game, and his first score in the third game.

So the scores over the three games would be:

Aditi: 16 / 0 / 0

Varun: 48 (12+30+6) / 36 (30+6) / 6

Hollywood Rummy Draws

If only two cards are left in the draw pile after a player discards and neither of them has knocked, then the round ends in a draw.  A new game begins and the same player deals again.

Winning at Hollywood Gin Rummy

Additional rounds are played until one of the two players’ cumulative score reaches 100 points or more in a game. The player to reach 100 or more points first is the winner of that game. The overall winner is the one who wins two of the three games.

Get ready to play this all-new version of rummy to boost your glam quotient at the rummy tables.  

If you want to add more glitter and gold to your account balance, try playing different variants of online rummy on India’s most loved and trusted rummy site, Junglee Rummy.