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THREE IN ONE RUMMY — Rummy card game rules

Three in One Rummy
Three in One or Tripoley is a casino style game played in three stages: The collection of relevant stakes, Poker and the final stage is a Stops game similar to Michigan or Boodle.

Number of players
Best for 4 to 7, possible 2 to 9

Items of play
1 board cloth marked to receive stakes
4 stacks of betting chip (96 Pcs.)
1 standard deck of 52 playing cards

How to play Three in One

Play begins with each player placing nine chips on the game cloth... one chip en each of the labeled spaces of the game cloth. Card ranking is from low to high: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A.

The deal

The dealer deals the cards one-at-a-time, to each player plus a spare hand that does not belong to anyone. The dealer has the right to exchange his hand for the spare hand. The dealer cannot see the contents of the hand before the exchange. If the dealer decides to exchange hands, he must lay his hand face down. That hand now becomes the spare hand. Cards between the two hands cannot be combined.

Alternatively, the dealer can offer the spare hand to the highest bidder (if any). The buyer places his hand face down on the table and pays the dealer in chips the amount bid for the spare hand.

Players keep the same cards for all three stages of the game, there will be no new deal from here on.

Stage #1 — Collecting stakes for pay cards

Anyone holding an or takes all the chips from that space).

If a player has a and , that player takes all the chips from the King-Queen space and also takes the chips from the K and Q spaces.

The chips in the 8-9-10 space can be taken by a player who has an 8-9-10 sequence in one suit such as . If two or more players have 8-9-10 in different suits they share the chips equally leaving any remainder for the next winner.

Stage #2 — Poker

All players select 5 cards from their hand that they wish to play poker with. The remaining cards are temporarily placed aside. You may not want to pick the best poker hand especially if you do not want to reveal your cards until the stops part of the game. Refer to Ranking of poker hands to brush-up on poker combinations.

Poker bets are then placed in the pot area. Betting starts with the player on the dealers left. That player can either bet by putting additional chip or chips in the pot, or he can check. If the first player checks, the next player can bet or check. This continues with the other players clockwise around the table. If everyone checks, all pokers hands are exposed and the player with the highest hand wins the pot.

If a player bets, subsequent players cannot check. After the bet, players have three options:

1. Pass or fold — Drop out of the betting and relinquish the chances to win the pot. Any chips placed into the pot by this player will go to the winner.
2. Call or see — The player places into the pot enough chips to equal to the total number the previous player bet or raised
3. Raise — The player places into the pot enough chips needed to call, plus additional chips

Betting continues clockwise around the table until one of the following two things happens.

1. All players except one have folded. This player takes all the chips in the pot. Since none of the players hands are exposed, it does not matter who had the best hand
2. All players who have not folded put in equal stakes. This happens when after a bet or raise, all players fold or call. In this case there is a showdown between these players. Hands are exposed with the highest hand winning the pot. Players who have folded do not expose their hands. They cannot win even if their hands were superior to the players taking part in the showdown

After a showdown and two or more players have equal hands, the pot is split equally between them with any remainder carried over to the next deal.

It is good practice to establish a limit on the bets, and limit on raises.

Stage #3 — Michigan

After the poker stage, all players unite their poker hands with the remainder of the hand and play the game Michigan. Go here to brush-up on the game of Michigan. The winner of the poker stage begins play by leading a card face up. If there was a tie for the pot, the first winning player clockwise left of the dealer begins play. The card led can be any suit, but must be the lowest card held in that suit.

The player holding the next higher card of the led suit must play it, by laying it down face up in front of them. This continues with the remaining players until an ace is laid down or until no one holds the next higher card of the suit. The last card played is the stop card. This can happen because the next higher card in the suit is in the spare hand, or been played previously.

When the end of sequence is reached the player who laid down the ace or stop card begins again. Any suit except the suit just played can be played. This goes on until another stop is reached. Play continues until a player runs out of cards. The player who ran out of all his cards wins all the chips in the kitty and also wins from each player a number of chips that are equal in number to the number of cards left their hands.

If a player who has played an ace or top cannot lead again, because all their remaining cards are in the same suit that was just played, the turn passes to the player o his left. If that person also only has the suit just played, the turn pass to the left until a player has a suit to lead. If no one has another suit the play ends. Everyone then places a chip for each card they hold. The chips remain on the layout to be won by the winner of stage three of the next deal.

End of game

The game can continue as long as the players wish. Rather than sharing the remaining chips among the players, it is usual that they be played for. This can be done by playing an extra round of poker. Whoever wins takes all the chips.

Where to buy the board cloth and Three in One game

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