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Drawing for First Deal
Tap the deck to draw your card.
Your turn
Your Games
Draw
My hand
Chat
Game Over
Game Ended
Rummy Rules
Match Start
Before the first hand of a match, each player (and bot) draws one card from a shuffled deck — tap the deck
to reveal yours. No card is drawn twice.
Once everyone has drawn, the highest card wins the draw and that player takes the first turn (suit breaks a
tie in rank, high to low: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs).
This draw only happens once, at the start of a match — later hands within the same match start with
whoever's turn comes next in rotation, not a fresh draw.
Turn order then proceeds clockwise from the winner, in the order players joined the game.
Top card of draw pile is flipped to start the discard pile.
If the draw pile ever runs out, it's immediately reshuffled from the discard pile — the current top card of
the discard pile stays put, and everything beneath it becomes the new (shuffled) draw pile.
Draw: tap the draw pile or discard pile, or drag a card from either into your hand.
Discard: drag a card from your hand onto the discard pile, or tap the card then tap the
Discard button (if enabled).
Select multiple cards (new meld, or laying several off at once): tap each card to select
it, then either drag any one of the selected cards to the destination — a blank spot on the table for a new
meld, or onto an existing meld (yours or an opponent's) to lay off — or, if the "Show meld/lay-off/discard
prompt" setting is enabled, tap the meld you want to lay off onto (skip this step for a new meld) and then tap
the "Meld Selected" / "Lay Off Selected" button that appears.
Rearrange your hand: drag a card to a new position within your hand.
Draw — one of: top of the draw pile, top of the discard pile, or multiple cards from the
discard pile (the bottom card of the group taken must be immediately played this turn).
Meld / Lay off (optional) — create a new meld (3+ card run or set), and/or lay off cards
onto any meld already on the table (yours or any other player's).
Discard (mandatory) — ends the turn, including when going out. You have a few seconds
afterward to hit Undo and take the discard back if you change your mind (see below); other players won't see
it until that window passes.
Melding/laying off cannot happen before a card is drawn.
A gold box around a hand shows whose turn it currently is — yours or an opponent's. It only moves to the next
player once the current player's turn is genuinely finished (their discard has landed), so it's a reliable
indicator of who can act right now.
Everything you meld or lay off during your turn stays private on your own screen only — other players see none
of it until your discard's grace period actually elapses. At that point your hand, your melds, and your discard
all become visible to everyone at once. This also means undoing a meld or lay-off before then is instant and
free, since nothing was ever sent to anyone.
Card values: A = 15, K/Q/J/10 = 10, all others (2-9) = 5.
Game ends the instant a player goes out.
Winner's score = value of all cards they've melded or laid off during the hand — not just
this final turn's play, but everything they've put down across every turn (doubled if one-turn out).
Non-winner's score = (value of cards they had already played this game: melds + lay-offs) −
(value of cards remaining in their hand). Can go negative.
When creating a game, you can optionally set a target score (100 / 200 / 300 / 500), shown in the header as
"Race to N" once the match is underway.
The match ends the moment any player's running total reaches that target.
The overall match winner is whoever has the highest total at that point — not necessarily
the player who reached the target, since another player's total can also rise on a hand they didn't win. If
two or more players are tied for the highest total, the match ends in a tie between them.
Leave it on "No limit" to just keep playing hands indefinitely.
"Leave Game" (from the table) or "Cancel" (from the waiting screen) marks the game so everyone else's screen
detects it and freezes — the game doesn't quietly continue without you.
This can't be undone from inside the game — if you want back in, whoever's still there would need to start a
new one.
The ⤢ button at the bottom of the table toggles a distraction-free view: it hides the GameShack menu above
and the scores/turn bar at the top, leaving just the board, melds, and your hand.
Tap it again to bring the header and menu back.
This choice is remembered on this device, so the game reopens the same way you last left it.
The 💬 button at the bottom of the table opens a chat panel where you and the other players can send
messages during the game.
When you receive a new message while the panel is closed, a small red number badge appears on the 💬 button
showing how many unread messages are waiting.
"Sign in to sync games & stats" on the lobby screen signs you in with just an email address and a
one-time code sent there — no password to create or remember.
It's entirely optional. Everything else in this guide works the same whether or not you sign in.
The main benefit: any game you're actively in becomes visible and resumable from your account on any device
or browser you sign into — not just the one you started it on. Without signing in, a game is only remembered
on the device/browser where you're playing it.
Your stats and match history (see the Stats screen) are already tracked by whatever display name you're
playing under, whether or not you're signed in — signing in doesn't change how those are looked up.
The ⚙ button — on the lobby screen and next to the rules button once you're in a game — opens Settings.
There you can set your default name and emoji (used automatically the next time you create or join a game),
your card back color, whether sounds play, whether chat opens automatically on a new message, and whether the
meld/lay-off/discard prompt appears when cards are selected.
Changes save automatically and apply on this device across every tab and game — there's nothing to confirm
before closing the window.
💡 Hint suggests a move — before drawing, whether the discard pile's top card looks worth
taking; after drawing, any melds or lay-offs available (highlighted gold in your hand) and a suggested
discard.
Sort arranges your hand by suit, then rank.
↺ Undo is one button that covers two different situations:
Right after you discard (bright yellow): you have a few seconds to take it back before
the other players ever see it — nothing is sent to them until that window passes. After it passes, the
button disappears and the turn has genuinely moved on.
After melding or laying off, earlier in your turn (normal color, no time limit): each
click reverses one action, most recent first — meld twice, click twice to undo both, one at a time.
Undo can never put back a card you drew blind from the draw pile — once you've seen it, it stays in your
hand. Only melding/laying off done afterward, or the discard itself, can be undone. (A card picked up from the
discard pile is fair game either way, since everyone already saw it sitting there.)
Checking "Practice mode" when creating a game fills every other seat with a computer opponent and starts the
game immediately — no waiting for anyone else to join.
Each bot gets a random name and emoji, and plays for real: it evaluates its own hand, decides when picking
up off the discard pile (including multiple cards at once) is actually worth it, plays defensively against
melds already on the table, and adjusts how it plays based on how the match score stands.
Bot difficulty (Easy / Medium / Hard, chosen when you check Practice mode) scales that
behavior: Easy only avoids the single most obvious mistake (handing an opponent a card that completes their
meld) and otherwise plays straightforwardly; Medium adds a memory for which ranks other players have shown
interest in and a bit of forward planning on pickups; Hard adds everything else described above — tracking
specific opponents' likely holdings, weighing whether a discard would hand someone a free meld out of the
discard pile itself, and shifting its whole risk appetite based on how the match score stands.
Bots always show as online — there's no connection to wait on or lose.
One-on-one matches only, name-based — no login. Practice games against bots aren't included.
By Opponent
Sign In
Sign in to resume your games on any device and keep a real record of your stats. Playing
without signing in still works fine — this is optional.
Enter the code emailed to .
Pick the name that'll show for you in-game (you can change it later in Settings).
Settings
These apply on this device, across every tab and game — and save automatically as
you make each choice, so there's nothing to remember to confirm before closing.
