We love our card games and whenever travellers gather together you are sure to hear someone ask “Anyone for a game of cards?” Bush Rummy is one of our favourites and it’s pretty easy to learn.

You need two decks of cards, jokers included and a score sheet that looks like this.

Wild Cards

• Jokers are wild and can be used to help form a set of cards ie 3 or more of a kind eg three 10’s or can substitute for a card in a run of three or more eg 4,5,Joker,7. Runs have to be in the same suit, ie all clubs ♣️or all spades ♠️or all diamonds ♦️or all hearts ♥️
• Other wild cards change with each round eg Round 1 the 3 is wild, Round 2 the 4 is wild, and so on to Round 15 when the 2 is wild. The score sheet reminds you what round you are up to, how many cards to deal and what the value of that card.

The Play

Shuffle the cards. Each player then cuts the cards to see who deals. We play lowest card deals first – then play moves clockwise throughout the game.

• First Dealer deals three cards to each player. This round the 3 card is wild as well as the joker
• The balance of the cards that haven’t been dealt form the Deck. The top card of the deck is turned over to start the discard pile.
• Players take it in turns to pick the top card from either the deck or the discard pile. They then discard any unwanted card from their hand so they only have three cards.
• A player can go out when they can lay all their cards down in one turn.
• Each player then gets one more turn to lay down as many cards as they can that make a valid set or run.
• When play has finished for that round any cards left in a players hand are added up to form their score.
• The next dealer deals 4 cards to each player and 4 becomes the wild card along with the Joker.
• The number of cards dealt increases each round and the wild card changes each round to reflect the number of cards held eg 5 cards then 5 is wild, 11 cards the Jack is wild and on the last round of 15 cards the 2 is wild.

Scoring

• Cards 3 – 10 are scored at face value
• Jack, Queen, King are scored 11,12 & 13 respectively
• Ace is scored 14
• 2 (two) is scored 15
• Joker is scored 20 although some people play it is scored at the value of the wild card for that round. Others score it as 50. You need to decide at the start of the game how you will score the Joker.

And the Winner Is …

The person with the lowest score at the end of Round 15!

This is a great game for 2 or more players and I hope you have as much fun playing it as we do.

Let me know how you go!