OBJECTIVE OF ARLINGTON: The objective of Arlington is to earn the most points in a game by scoring melds.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2-4 Players

MATERIALS: 2 52-card decks (and one jack added), and a flat surface.

TYPE OF GAME: Rummy Card Game

AUDIENCE: 13+

OVERVIEW OF ARLINGTON

Arlington is a version of Rummy where players can either play individually or 4 player games can choose to play in two partnerships. In Arlington, you will play a total of 7 hands and score and lose points in each hand. The player with the most points at the end of this has won the game.

You can score points by playing melds to the table. Players also get points for going rummy by discarding their whole hand.

SETUP

The two decks and the joker are shuffled, and each player is dealt a 13-card hand. The remaining cards go into a draw pile in the center of the players. In this game, there will be no discard pile. All cards will either be held in hand or played into melds.

Cards’ Rankings, Scores, and Values

The ranking of the cards is King (high), Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (low).

Each hand has a bonus for the player(s) that go rummy. For the first three hands, the bonus is 100 points. Then it increases by 100 until it reaches 500 points for the seventh hand.

Cards that are melded also have point values attached to them. For jokers that are used as wild cards, they are worth 50 points. 2s used as wild cards are worth 25 points. Aces are worth 15. Kings through 10s are worth 10 points. 9s – 3s are worth 5 points.

If a player still has cards in their hand after the end of the hand, they lose points. If they have a joker, they will lose 100 points. 2s result in 50 points lost, Aces 15, King through 10s lose 10 points, and 9s – 3s lose 5 points.

GAMEPLAY

Arlington is played over 7 hands. Each hand can end one of two ways, either a player goes rummy or the last card of the draw pile is pulled. Either way, the hand will end, and points will be scored.

During the hands though players will go around in a clockwise manner and take turns.

Each turn a player will draw a card from the draw pile, and then they may choose to exchange a none wild card that fits into the meld for any Jokers or 2s played as wild cards in melds. For example, if my opponent played a meld of 3, 4, joker, 6 and I have a 5 in my hand. I can trade the five from my hand for the joker in the meld. You can only do this with opponent’s melds, not your own or a partner’s. You also cannot trade for 2s or Jokers that are not used as wild cards. Any cards exchanged can then be played whenever.

A contract meld is needed to interact with other melds so if a player has not played one, yet they will now.

If they have played their meld in a previous turn, then they may either play another now or play 1-2 cards from their hand onto other melds that they or their partner own.

Then if the player has more than a single card in hand, they will pick one to show to the table. Starting with the player on their left they will ask if that player wants the card revealed. If yes, it is given, if not then the remaining players are also asked. If no one takes the card it remains in the player’s hand.

If you only have one card in your hand, you will state you only have one card and not offer it to other players.

Aces and wild cards (jokers and 2s) are special. If offered they are only offered to the player on your left. If they take it that player will then skip their draw step on their turn. Otherwise, the player keeps it in their hand.

END OF GAME

The game ends when all 7 hands have been completed. The player with the most points wins the game.

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