Tile Rummy Games

In Romania and Turkey, and maybe in other countries of south-east Europe and the near East, there is a tradition of playing games of the Rummy family with a set of 106 numbered and coloured tiles.

In principle the identical games could be played with a double pack of standard cards including two jokers. It is not clear why tiles came to be used instead. Maybe it is just that they were found more robust and convenient for certain games, or perhaps, as in some other parts of the world, tiles were used to evade some regulation prohibiting playing with cards.

On this site, there are descriptions of

• Okey, a popular Turkish tile rummy game.
• Romanian Tile Rummy
• Rummikub®, a commercial version of tile rummy introduced to the West from Israel by Ephraim Hertzano.