Israeli game gives Rummy Scrabble twist
It was already time for a farewell dinner for Priya. Sadly, work and travel hadn’t allowed time for intense board game sessions like we used to. We decided to give Rummikub a pre-dinner whirl. Picked up from a local Hamley’s store for around `300, this “made in Israel” challenge, looked like the card game Rummy played with numeric Scrabble-like tiles. As the instruction sheet warned, initial stages of Rummikub were slow. But as each player made their first moves (called a “meld” and which adds up to at least 30 points), pace of play quickened.
Priya explained the similarity with a card game, “Shanghai”, where Rummy sequences are placed on the table, for others to build on. I slowly got better at remembering the basic difference between a group (3 or 4 tiles of the same number, but in different colours), and a run (3 or more consecutive numbers of the same colour). My best laid plans were often ruined by an irksome inability to register this basic instruction.
The double-tiered tile racks have charmingly designed clip-on stands. Starting with 14 tiles each, and racing to be the first to get rid of them, we journeyed through splitting runs, combined and multiple splits. Every turn you find yourself unable to play, you collect another 3 tiles from the pool. Midway through our fourth game, the floor space around my rack was smothered with tiles that choked any possibility of a quick win.
The author may be contacted at arup_kavan@yahoo.com
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