Lyn Rummy is a card game played with two decks — a little luck, lots of fun, and an unexpected amount of skill. It works for one or more players: solitaire is a perfectly good way to play, most games are two or three players taking turns, and larger groups work fine too — just deal fewer cards per hand and bring a little patience.
The shape of a game will feel familiar: the dealer gives each player a hand of roughly 12 to 15 cards, and a shared board sits in the middle of the table. On your turn you try to play cards from your hand onto the board, rearranging what's already there as much as you like — but before your turn can end, the board must be clean: every stack on it a legal meld. That shared, endlessly rearrangeable board is what sets Lyn Rummy apart from other rummy games, so that's where we start.
You can play at a kitchen table with real cards, or right here at /game — the hosted game is the two-player version, but it's the same game either way. This page teaches the rules from scratch.
Got a table, two decks, and some players? Here's the whole game:
A♠ K♠ 8♠ 5♠ Q♥ J♥ 7♥ K♣ 9♣ 4♣ 6♦ 2♦
Cards on the board sit in stacks — contiguous rows of cards. A stack is a legal meld when it has three or more cards and forms one of three shapes. Each category below is laid out the way it might look mid-game on the kitchen table, its examples sharing one little square.
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.
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 (the suits themselves don't matter, only the colors). 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♦
Each loose card below belongs in exactly one of the three stacks. 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 a stack to split it at that card, and press and hold a card to pull it out of the middle of a 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. (Lyn Rummy is played with two decks, so 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 is missing exactly one 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. Plays like this — melds feeding each other — are the heart of every Lyn Rummy turn.