Players can rid their hand of cards in three ways: they can meld, lay off, and discard. The goal of Rummy is simple: get rid of all your cards first. Players then are permitted to look at their cards and sort them. The dealer then places the rest of the deck face down next to it, forming the stock. The dealer deals cards one by one then begins the discard pile by placing the following card face-up in the middle of the table. The player who deals first is chosen at random and how many cards dealt to each player depends on the total number of players. When playing with three or more players, whose turn it is to deal rotates clockwise every round. Players take turns dealing when playing a two-player game.
