Rummy is the king among card games. Despite the prevalence of several other card games in India, rummy enjoys a unparalleled popularity among the masses. Whether it was the offline version that was enjoyed by people in person or the online version, where you can play with an opponent at a remote location, the game is entertaining and incredibly rewarding.
With the arrival of online rummy, millions of gamers all around India play Indian rummy online, a popular variant of rummy with each other. The game which by itself is enjoyable adds a dash of excitement with the cash factor. If you play the game skillfully, you can win huge amounts of money unlike games where luck plays the factor. It is perhaps for this reasons as to why so many people prefer online rummy compared to other card games.
If you want to win consistently in rummy, you should be familiar with the rummy rules and rummy strategies. This is an exercise in that process as we are about to mention the use of face cards and how they should be handled in a rummy game.
Face Cards
A standard deck has 52 cards in addition to two printed joker cards. The cards that have faces embedded on them are referred to as face cards. The king, queen and jack considered as face cards. Each of these cards carry 10 points and are considered as high-value cards. Though joker card too has a face embedded to it, since it has no value of its own, we shall deal with the other three cards.
In the modern deck there are 12 face cards. Four cards of King, Queen, and Jack respectively in four suites, namely, spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds. King is considered as the highest card in virtually all games. Whereas the Ace card is considered as the highest in rummy. However, ace card can combine with both high value and low value cards.
The King card traces its roots to France, where the images of kings represented the importance of French Monarchy.
How to deal with Face cards
Discard when unpaired
As mentioned, face cards are high-value cards which may cause you to lose by a heavy margin, if they are not bound in a set or a sequence. If your opponents declare the game, then you are losing by a heavy margin. In order to avoid that precarious scenario, it’s better to discard high-value cards as the game progresses, if they do not fit in a set or sequence. Retaining such cards with the hope that they will eventually be a part of sequence and/or a set is not such a bright idea.
Retain when pairs
Though it does not have much utility, at times when they pair in a run or a set, it can contribute to your victory. You can use these combinations to advance your moves. For example, a jack, queen, king, and ace of spades is a good sequence. Similarly, if you have three queen cards from three different suits, you can use it as a set. There is no need to disturb this set just for the sake of discarding high value cards.
Combination with Joker
If the printed joker or wild joker is available which can combine with your existing high-value cards, do not let go of this opportunity. For example, if you have two king cards belonging to spade and clubs respectively, if you find a printed joker or a wild joker, you can combine the two kings and the joker respectively to form a set. However, do remember such combinations may be helpful only when you have a pure sequence in hand. Without making a pure run in a 13 card rummy game, no matter what combination you have you will end up losing heavily with 80 points.
