Tripoley
How to Play Tripoley Rummy online
A combination of Rummy, Hearts and Poker, the game known as Tripoley is as popular today as it was when first invented in 1935. It was once strictly a pre-packaged variety of board game, but today it can be played online too.
Any game of Tripoley begins with two to nine players seated around a table. The game involves a progression of rounds that include the Hearts round, the Poker round, and finally to the round that most resembles a game of traditional Rummy. The game always involves a “pot” where chips accumulate, and as the rounds are played the winner takes the total chips in the appropriate area.
Tripoley requires the available chips to be divided equally among the players around the table, and then each player is required to place a single chip on each area of the board. This includes the pot, the kitty, and the ten, Jack, King, Queen and Ace areas. There are also the eight and nine areas as well.
There is a dealer selected from the players and this person uses a single fifty-two card deck with the Jokers removed. They distribute the entire deck between the players at the table – and this might mean that some players end up with one more card than the others, but this is not an impediment to winning any round.
The first round is Hearts and anyone holding the “money” cards, or the cards in the suit of Hearts will take all of the chips from the appropriate area. For instance, the person holding the Jack of Hearts and the nine of hearts would win all of the chips on those areas of the board.
Once this is completed, the game progresses to the Poker round, and each player selects their five strongest Poker cards from the hand they were originally dealt. The dealer then bets or checks and the play continues around the board until the last player calls. The hand that is the best will then win all of the chips placed into the pot area at the beginning of the game.
For the last round in the standard game of Tripoley the players all return their Poker cards to their original hands and the dealer begins the round by placing their lowest card on the table, like other Rummy games. All of the other players must do so as well, but the cards they use must be in the same suit as the one placed by the dealer. The game continues in this way until all of the cards in a single suit are revealed.
When this occurs the next player places their lowest card on the table and the process continues, and the first player to lay their final card on the table wins the chips in the kitty area of the board. The remaining players are obliged to pay the winner one chip for each card they have remaining in their hand. This ends the round, but not the game of Tripoley, and players will usually continue until one player has no chips remaining.