Marriage: A Rummy Variant

Marriage is a rummy variant popular in Nepal and Bhutan. It is played by all card buffs, especially during Diwali and Dussehra, everyone loves to play this game with their friends and family. The game is played by 2-5 players with 3 decks of 52 cards each. The game does not use the printed Jokers per se, but in every deal, a number of wild cards are selected which are sometimes collectively known as Jokers.

While the basic objective of Indian Rummy is also to form sequences of consecutive cards of the same suit and sets of same-value cards of different suits, in Marriage these conditions are fulfilled with three cards only. After 21 cards are dealt to each player, one card is picked from the remaining deck and it is called tiplu. The card immediately below the tiplu in the same suit is called the nichlu and the card immediately above the tiplu is called the paplu. These cards are called point cards. This sequence of the paplu, tiplu and nichlu is called a marriage. A marriage is always worth the most number of points.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, it is as simple as it can be. The game starts with 21 cards being dealt to each player. A player turns the next card face up to start the discard pile and places the remaining cards face down, forming the closed deck. If you are dealt 3 identical cards, you can immediately show them. But if you haven’t shown them in the beginning (because of various reasons like if you chose not to or you acquire them later), then they have no point value

The game can end in 2 ways. One, if you have laid down 3 combinations called tunnels (which are 3 identical cards) or pure sequences and are able to form 4 more valid 3-card combinations after drawing a card, you can lay these down, discard your remaining cards and end the game. Second, after drawing a card, if you have 8 dublees (pairs of identical cards), you can lay them down and end the game. 

Try out this variant of the rummy game and let us know if you had fun in the comments below. Happy gaming! :)