| The rummy is member of the very large classification of games known as draw and discard games. The object of these games is to improve one's hand by forming it into sets of matching cards (either same rank or sequence in a suit). The basic move is to draw one (or more cards) from an undealt deck or from the discard pile, possibly meld a set or sets, and discard a card. Historically, these games appear to be Chinese origin. Although they are now widespread, they were unknown outside the orient until the 20th century.
The basic rummy game is to simply form your entire hand into sets as soon as possible. Whenever someone succeeds in this and goes out, players loose a fixed amount, or may be penalized according to the number of unmelded cards they have left.
There exist also knock rummy games. In these games, it is not necessary to have all of your cards in sets before going out. Instead, you may knock when you think that the value of the unmatched cards (deadwood) is less than that of the other players. If you are right, you win, but if any other player can do better, you are very penalized.
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