Michigan Rummy: Your Guide to the Game

Michigan Rummy or Boodle is a popular card game. It is often considered confusing and complicated, but it isn’t as much, at least not for us. The game can be played by 3-8 people. The objective of the game is to discard all your cards and collect the most chips in each hand/round. 

Ranks of Cards 

The ace is the highest-ranked card followed by K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. 

The layout of the game

The ace of Hearts, the King of Clubs, the Queen of Diamonds, and the Jack of Spades are taken from another pack. These four cards, called "boodle" or "money cards," are placed in the center of the table and they’re to remain there throughout the game. An interesting point to note here is that before the game begins, each player places a chip on the boodle, but the dealer places two chips on each card. 

Deal 

Cards are dealt face down one at a time starting to the left. An extra hand is dealt to the immediate left of the dealer and no player is allowed to see the extra hand unless any one of the players exchanges their hand for it. Cards are dealt as far as they may go and it is acceptable if all of you may not receive the same number of cards. 

Play

The player to the left of the dealer starts the game with the lowest card (any suit). If you’re holding the next higher card in the same suit, you will play next and so on. The sequence is continued until it is stopped by a card in the dead hand or by the ace. The player who played the last card has the next turn. So if you are the player who played the last card, you need to start by playing the lowest card in the new suit. If you are not left with any new suits, the turn passes to the player to your left. It is to note that, if at any time you play a card that is the same as the boodle cards, you take all the chips from that card. 

If you start a suit without using the lowest card in the suit, you must pay one chip to each opponent and you cannot collect any boodle cards played after that. 

We hope that helps you understand the Michigan Rummy card game and it does not sound as complicated to you anymore. If there is something else you would like us to cover under Michigan Rummy, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section below, and we will get back to you. Happy gaming! :)