How to Play Frustration Rummy

Sometimes you want to play a quick game and then sometimes you want to settle in a really get into a ­­­game. Today we have one of the second kind: Frustration Rummy.

Frustration Rummy (sometimes called Extreme Rummy) is a very old, popular game so it has many variations. It is also similar to the commercial Phase 10 card game. It is played in several rounds like the Canadian Salad game and Sticks.

Let’s get into what you need, the rules, how to play and the variations of Frustration Rummy.

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What You Need For Frustration Rummy

First you will need two decks of playing cards with the jokers. If you need some new cards, shop here; Canadians here, the sloth and Crazy Chicken Lady cards look like a lot of fun. You also need something to keep score with. Luckily, we have a scoresheet that you can get in our free Fun Library. (You can get your password in the black box below.)

If you are playing with 5 or 6 players, then you will need 3 decks of cards.

Playing Frustration Rummy

To start, you need to know that there is a list of missions that you need to accomplish to win. These missions must be done in order, so everyone starts at the first one. We’ll cover the missions later.

To start, each player is dealt 13 cards.

Jokers and 2s are wild and aces can be either high or low but can’t wrap. That means you can’t go 3 -2 –ace – king or Jack – queen – king – ace.

On your turn, you may either pick up off the deck or the top card of the discard pile. You are trying to complete your current mission. This mission can be different for each player, depending on what missions they have been able to complete. You can lay cards down in either runs or sets. The runs are three or more card in sequential order in the same suit. The sets are three or more of a kind. For runs, the suit must match. You may only put cards down if you have completed your mission. To end your turn, you choose a card to discard.

Some missions have more than one component to it so you must have all of the mission done before you can place the cards down. After you have placed your mission down you may continue laying sets or runs down from your hand. Also, you may add to the other players’ cards that are on the table.

A round is done when one player has played all of her cards.

The Rounds

The following is the list of missions. You need to complete the first mission before you can move on to the next mission. You may also only complete one mission in a round. Runs and sets must have more natural card in them than wild cards. You need to have a discard card to go out.

1 – 3 sets of 3
2 – 1 set of 3 and 1 run of 4
3 – 2 sets of 3 and 1 run of 4
4 – 2 sets of 4
5 – 2 runs of 4
6 – 4 sets of 3
7 – 1 set of 3 and 1 run of 7
8 – 3 sets of 4
9 – 3 runs of 4
10 – 2 sets of 5
11 – 2 runs of 5
12 – 2 sets of 4 and 1 run of 4
13 – 2 runs of 4 and 1 set of 4
14 – 1 set of 3 and 1 run of 9

Example Hands:

For the first mission you could have the 8 of spade, heart and clubs with the 10 of hearts, clubs and spades.

For the third mission you could have the 4 of clubs, spades and diamonds with the 6 of hearts, clubs and spades with 9, 10, Jack and queen of spades.

Ending a Round

When one player has played her last card, the round is over. Any players who were able to complete their mission move onto the next mission. Any players who were not able to complete the mission must try again to complete it in the next round.

Winning Frustration Rummy

The first player to complete all of the missions is the winner.

Frustration Rummy Variations

There are almost too many variations of Frustration Rummy to count. There are so many that different line of games has been created from them under the Contact Rummy Name. We’ll cover only the ones that we found for Frustration Rummy.

The first variation is that when a play places his cards for his mission down, ne is no longer able to pick up cards from either the discard pile or the draw pile. Instead, he is only allowed to add to the cards on the table that he has in his hand.

The next rule change would be to play with no jokers. That means that only the 2s are wild.

The last basic rule change is that when a wild card is on the table and you have the card that it is taking the place of, you may swap it and take the wild card. You have to use the wild card on the turn that you take it.

Frustration Rummy For Points

To add to the frustration, you can play for points. To do this, you play as normal but when a round ends, players take points for cards left in their hands. The cards 3 to 9 are all worth 5 points each. Tens, Jack, Queens and Kings are all worth 10 points each. The aces, jokers and twos are all worth 20 points each. The player with the lowest score wins.

You can either play that everyone plays the same mission and everyone ends at the same time and it’s only the points that matter. Or you can play where players only advance when they complete the mission they are working on. In this case, a 10 point deduction could be given to the player who reaches and completes the last mission.

Different Missions

There are several different sets of missions that we found to play Frustration Rummy with as they are mostly similar we have listed only two of them below.

Frustration 10

1 – 1 run of 7
2 – 2 sets of 3
3 – 1 set of 3 and 1 run of 4
4 – 1 set of 4 and 1 run of 4
5 – 1 run of 8
6 – 1 set of 5 and 1 set of 2
7 – 2 runs of 4
8 – 2 sets of 4
9 – set of 5 and a set of 6
10 – 1 set of 5 and 1 set of 4

School Rummy

The next one we found has a fun twist on it. You have to pass your grade in school to pass on to the next one!

First grade – 2 sets of 3
Second grade – 1 set of 3 and 1 run of 3
Third grade – 3 sets of 3
Fourth grade – 1 set of 4 and 1 run of 4
Fifth grade – 2 sets of 4
Sixth grade – 2 runs of 4
Seventh grade – 1 run of 7 and 1 set of 3 of a kind
Eighth grade – 2 runs of 4 and 1 set of 3
Ninth grade – 3 sets of 4
Tenth grade – 4 runs of 3
Eveleth grade – 3 runs of 4
Twelve grade – 1 run of 9 and 1 set of 4

Run Away Fun

The Frustration Rummy card game is one that you can play for hours. Don’t forget to get you free score sheet in the Fun Library!

For other games like this try out Canadian Salad, Sticks and if you like dice games try our original Dice Sticks game! Be sure to visit the Family Game Shelf shop for tons of fun with all kinds of card, dice and original games!