What is Indian Marriage?

This article could be about the elusive and complex thing that we call the “Indian Marriage” but thankfully, we are referring to Indian Marriage the card game—a popular version of 21-card rummy, also known as Marriage Rummy. It is played amongst 2-7 players online as well as offline using three or more packs of cards.

Though the basics of rummy variations do not vary much, there are a few unique aspects you need to know about Marriage Rummy: Objective: Make the largest number of points after playing all hands. The trick is to show the game as early as possible to get these maximum points.

Game Play: Three 52card decks are used with no Jokers. And no other wild cards are called out

either. 21 cards are dealt to each player. The other game play requirements such as stock piling, melds, draws and discards, making sets and sequences are the same as the regular 13-card rummy.

Hidden Joker: The uniqueness of this rummy version is in the ‘Hidden joker’. Once 21 cards are dealt to each player, a random card selected from the pile is hidden from all players. This is considered the ‘joker’. Apart from the joker card, two more wildcards called ‘value cards’ are designated. These cards are one value above and below the joker value, and from the same suit. These are popularly referred to as the Cut Joker, Upper Joker and Lower Joker. For example, if 4 of hearts (4H) is chosen as ‘joker’ then the ‘value’ cards will be 3H—4H—5H and all the 4’s across suits will be jokers. These three different value cards will have different values assigned to them. All ‘jokers’ and ‘value’ cards can be used as wild cards in the game. This ‘Hidden Joker’ is only revealed when a player shows 3 pure sets or 3 pure runs and gets them validated by the rest. After this, the player can begin to use the joker or other wildcards.

Final Show: A player can only go down or show when they are eligible to see the joker.

Scoring: The numeric value of the cards is counted from 2 to 10. Face cards and Aces count as 10 points. ‘Value’ cards carry a special place in scoring. Now, each rummy portal has a different method for calculating the valuecards. In fact, each rummy portal has a different name for these value cards. Nichlu, Taplu, Paplu, Jhiplu are some of the names which are used. The concept however remains the same. The combination of the Low Value+ Joker+ High Value = Marriage Players may trade their value points with each other in this game.

Here’s a handy tip for playing Indian Marriage rummy: Watch out for what cards are being discarded or picked by the eligible players. They will never discard a joker or wildcard and will always pick jokers and wildcards from the discard pile.

So, ultimately, Indian Marriage Rummy does prove to be an enjoyable affair! Why don’t you play it on your favourite rummy site and tell us about your experience!