Mood:  bright

India’s unofficial national time pass – the 13-card rummy game – is now available to you online at your fingertips, within the comfort of your home, or anywhere really, if you’ve got one of those snazzy apps! But in the words of Spider-man: with great power comes great responsibility! So make sure you’re gaming responsibly, and while you’re at it, also make sure you know what all the words being tossed around actually mean…

There’s no reason for online rummy jargon to be jargon, and after you’ve read this post, you’ll know exactly what to expect when you sign up at brilliant sites like Taj Rummy, etc. and start to play.

Obviously the first thing you ought to do is Sign Up/ Register/ Join the site – all these terms describe the very first step in getting started. The process is usually a multi-level but simple one; follow all the instructions and set yourself up with an account. Most of the sites offer sign up bonuses which help you kick-start your account, it’s in your best interest to check everything out and claim all of them!

In the games lobby/ client, you will see several “join” options again. These are just different tables you have the choice to play on. Sometimes you might have to wait for a bit before other players join in, but if you’re on a popular site, you shouldn’t have to wait too long.

Now when you’re actually playing a game, you’ll be dealt your set of cards. You’ll see that most sites give you the option to Sort or arrange your cards. If you’re old-fashioned, you can do it manually yourself. The next thing you would have to do is pick a card from the open/ closed pile and then put an unwanted card down – this is known as Discarding, by the way.

Life could often deal you a wrong hand, but sometimes so does your rummy dealer. In this case, if you’re not happy with your cards, you have the option to “Drop” out of the game when it’s your turn to play.

Another term to remember is Show (it means literally that!). When you’ve got your winning combinations of cards, you must Place a Show to request all players to show what cards they’re holding close to their chest.

Now here’s a term you don’t use every day – Meld. When you’ve placed a Show, you’ll need to arrange your cards in the correct combinations to actually bag your win. This is called Melding, and it requires you to be careful, as you could have the best cards but a wrong meld could cost you your win.

Some sites make the best of technological advancements and help you as much as possible with amazing features. For e.g. Taj Rummy uses Artificial Intelligence (self-explanatory!) and a super cool Smart Correction tool among other stuff to keep you at the top of your game when it spots a slip up!

Why should offline card parties have all the fun? Especially if you can play rummy online and enjoy it twice as much!