Progressive Rummy

My parents visited, so I played a few hands of Progressive Rummy with my mom (the card game played with two standard decks of 52 cards, not Phase 10). We have been playing this since childhood, and I would be hard pressed to say why this is the rummy game we played the most. Two decks, 5 rounds, each player is dealt 11 cards. In each round you have to meld (straights are always 4 cards):

1st round - straight, three of a kind
2nd round - 2 straights
3rd round - 3 three of a kinds (or as we call it, Go Fish)
4th round - straight, 2 three of a kinds
5th round - 2 straights, three of a kind.

Melds can go from ace up to ace. Red aces are wild, and a player may "May I" out of turn, picking up the discard and a penalty card if the player whose turn it is doesn't take it (and other players before him don't "May I" it). After melding, you can then add cards from your hand onto your own or other player's melds. When someone goes out, other players score negative points for what is left in ther hand: face value, pictures are ten, black aces 15, and red aces 20.

I guess it was a reasonable multi-player game for kids when we didn't have four for bridge. My brother Ben perfected the art of going down and out in one swoop.

The other rummies we played most often were 500 rummy with my grandmother, and gin with ourselves, when we had nothing better to do. Thank god I can always find something better to do now.

After Progressive Rummy, my mom and I played some bridge, each of us picking up two hands each.

When Tal was around, she begged to play my new game, which we did a few times, and then I taught my mom, who also enjoyed it.

No PR game, since we went for a little tour in the afternoon around the neighborhood learning about early 20th century residents of the area. A nice shabbat walk.

Yehuda