Chinchón rules

The Spanish and Argentine rummy, played with seven cards and settled by cutting. Fast, and unforgiving of a bad hold.

Players

Two to six, each for themselves.

The deck

40 or 48 Spanish-suited cards, or a 52-card deck with two jokers. Seven cards each.

The rest of the deck is the stock, with one card turned up beside it to start the discard pile.

The melds

Sets of three or four of the same rank, and runs of three or more in the same suit. Seven cards means either two melds of three with one card over, or a meld of three and a meld of four with nothing over.

Jokers are wild.

Your turn

Draw the top of the stock or the top discard, then discard one card. Nothing is laid down during play.

Cutting

When the cards left over from your melds total 5 points or less, you may cut: lay your hand face up and discard your last card. Everyone else shows their hand and scores their unmelded cards.

Card values

Court cards 10, aces 1, number cards face value, joker 25 when left in hand.

Chinchón

Seven cards in a single run of the same suit. Lay it down and you win the entire game outright, regardless of the score — which is why players chase it when they are already losing.

Most tables do not allow a joker to stand in for one of the seven: a chinchón has to be the real thing.

An example

You hold the five, six and seven of one suit, three kings, and a lone eight. The run and the set are both melds and the eight is 8 points left over, so you may not cut. Draw a card that turns the eight into a fourth king or extends the run, and you can.

Scoring

Points are penalties and accumulate. When a player passes 100 they are eliminated, but may buy back in once, re-entering at the current highest score.

The last player left wins. A player who cuts with zero left over deducts 10 from their own total.

Some tables play to 50 or 70 instead, and some play the elimination without any buying back. Agree which before the first deal.

Playing well

The discard pile is the whole of the information in this game. Take from it only when the card finishes a meld, because every card you take tells the table what you are building — and the player after you is the one who decides what you see next.

Chinchón: an example game

One game of Chinchón followed from the deal to the finish, move by move, with the reason for each choice.

The deal

Three players — you, Ada and Bo — out at 100. You are dealt 5♥ 6♥ 7♥, K♣ K♦ K♠ and 8♣. The card turned up on the pile is 2♠.

The run of hearts and the three kings are both melds, so only the 8♣ is left over: 8 points. Too many to cut.

Taking the two

The 2♠ on the pile would replace the 8♣. You take it — the others see you do it — and you now hold eight cards.

The table shows what each throw would leave: throw the 8♣ and you are left with only the 2♠, which is 2 points. That is 5 or less, so you can cut.

Cut now, or wait?

You could wait for the 4♥ or the 8♥ to extend the run, or a fourth king, and cut clean for −10. But Ada and Bo are drawing too, and either of them could cut first and catch you holding the 8♣.

You throw the 8♣ and put the hand down: two melds and a 2 left over.

The count

You score 2. Ada has one meld and is caught with a 9, a 4 and an ace: 14. Bo has a joker he never placed and a jack: 25 + 10 = 35. The joker was the most expensive card at the table.

The scores: you 2, Ada 14, Bo 35.

A clean cut

A few rounds later you hold 3♣ 4♣ 5♣ 6♣, 9♦ 9♠ and a joker: a run of four and a set of three with the joker as the third nine. Nothing is left over.

You cut clean, and your score goes down by 10. Bo, caught again, passes 100 and is asked whether to buy back in at the worst score still in play, Ada's 87. He takes it.

What the game shows

Cutting early on 2 cost you two points and cost the others far more. Bo's joker, left loose, cost him 25 on its own.

Bo is back in, but at the bottom of the table and with no second chance. If he passes 100 again he is out for good.