Lyn Rummy is a card game with a little luck, a lot of fun, and one defining trait: intelligent, analytical players excel at it. It works for one or more players. Most games are two or three players taking turns; larger groups work fine with fewer cards per hand. Solitaire works too.
Each player holds a hand of cards, and all players play their cards to a shared board on the table. On your turn you play cards from your hand and rearrange the board as much as you like; finding the right rearrangement is where the skill comes in. One requirement: before your turn ends, the board must be clean, meaning every stack on it is a legal meld. That shared, endlessly rearrangeable board is the heart of the game.
You can play at a kitchen table with real cards, or right here at /game (the hosted game is the two-player version). It's the same game either way, and this page teaches it from scratch.
The whole game, in six steps:
A♠ K♠ 8♠ 5♠ Q♥ J♥ 7♥ K♣ 9♣ 4♣ 6♦ 2♦
Cards on the board sit in rows, each card laid side by side with its neighbors. Different players will call a row of cards a row, a meld, or a stack, or just say runs and sets, depending on the rummy games they've played before. The words are all synonyms, and this page uses several of them; it mostly says stack. A stack is legal when it has three or more cards and forms one of three shapes. Learn the three definitions precisely; every move in the game leans on them. Each category below sits on its own little table, arranged loosely, the way melds land mid-game.
Three or four cards of the same value. No suit may repeat, so a set never grows past four cards: one per suit.
at (24,20): A♠ A♥ A♦ at (31,90): 7♣ 7♦ 7♥ 7♠ at (19,162): Q♥ Q♠ Q♣ at (22,236): 10♠ 10♥ 10♦ 10♣
Three or more consecutive values, all in a single suit. Runs may also turn the corner at the ace: the king is followed by the ace, and the ace by the two, so the last example below — J♠ Q♠ K♠ A♠ 2♠ — is a perfectly legal run. A run never repeats a value, so 13 cards is as long as any run can get.
at (26,20): 5♣ 6♣ 7♣ at (18,90): 9♦ 10♦ J♦ Q♦ at (30,162): 3♥ 4♥ 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ at (21,236): J♠ Q♠ K♠ A♠ 2♠
Three or more consecutive values whose colors alternate red and black. Hearts and diamonds are the red suits; spades and clubs are the black ones. Which suit each card has doesn't matter, only its color. Red/black runs can turn the corner at the ace too, like the Q♦ K♣ A♥ 2♠ 3♦ example.
at (22,20): 9♥ 10♠ J♦ at (33,90): 3♠ 4♥ 5♣ 6♦ at (17,162): 8♣ 9♦ 10♠ J♥ Q♣ at (26,236): Q♦ K♣ A♥ 2♠ 3♦
The little board below is caught mid-turn: three unfinished stacks and three loose cards. Analyze the shapes to see where each loose card belongs, then drag every card home to finish all three melds. While you drag, a green zone appears beside any stack that could legally take your cards; move into the zone until it turns purple, then let go to merge. Two more moves worth knowing: click or tap a card to split its stack at that card, and press and hold a card to pull it out of the middle of its stack.
If you've played other rummy games, here is the twist that changes everything: melds on the board are never locked. The board is shared by all players, and on your turn you may rearrange it freely — split any stack, steal a card out of one meld to finish another, rebuild whole rows — as long as the board is clean again by the time your turn ends. Here's a board from the middle of a real game. (With two decks in play, don't be surprised to spot the same card twice.)
at (152,80): T♦ J♦ Q♦ at (19,467): K♠ K♣' K♦ at (48,200): 7♥ 7♦ 7♣ at (157,467): K♣ A♣ 2♣ at (320,268): 4♣ 5♥ 6♠ at (187,152): A♠ 2♥' 3♠ 4♦ 5♣' 6♦ 7♠ 8♥' 9♠' at (260,343): T♥' J♥ Q♥ K♥ at (443,347): 2♥ 3♥ 4♥ at (19,92): A♥ A♦ A♣' at (52,392): 4♠' 5♦' 6♣ 7♦' at (345,418): 9♠ T♦' J♣ Q♦' K♠' A♦' 2♠ 3♦ 4♣' at (52,272): 8♠' 8♣' 8♥
Every stack up there is a legal meld right now, but nothing is frozen. Look at the long red/black run that starts with the A♠. That ace isn't stuck: the run reads 2 through 9 perfectly well without it, and the three-ace set near the top-left corner has room for exactly one more ace: a spade. The board above is live, so try the move yourself: click the A♠ to break it off the run, then drag it over to the aces.
The chain doesn't have to stop there. The set now holds all four aces, so it can spare one: pull out the A♥ and use it to join the 10♥ J♥ Q♥ K♥ to the 2♥ 3♥ 4♥. That's an eight-card run around the corner, built from three melds' spare parts. When the board doesn't offer an obvious play like this, analyze it: look for a stack that can spare a card, a stack that needs one, and the moves that connect them.
One more thing every new player asks: what if you tear the board apart and can't put it back together? Tinkering is part of the analysis. Mid-turn mess is completely legal: partial stacks, stray cards, half-finished ideas. You only have to leave the board clean. So if an experiment fails, put the cards back the way they were. The online game gives you a real Undo button; at the kitchen table, the undo button is your memory.
Now find a chain yourself. The board below comes from the site's puzzle collection, and it is one card from clean: the Q♥ sits alone, and no stack will take it as it stands. Work out what the Q♥ needs and which stacks can spare it. Break what you must; just leave the board clean.