Machiavelli
Machiavelli is a game from Italy. Like Carousel, Machiavelli is a Rummy game that allows manipulation of the melds after they have been laid on the table. Machiavelli shares many features with Carousel, so understanding how that game works will help with learning this one.
Setup
Players: 2 to 5 players can play this game.
Cards: Use 2 standard decks of cards, without Jokers, for a total of 104 cards. Aces can be high or low but not both (2-A-K is not valid).
The Deal: The dealer deals 13 cards each one at a time; the remaining cards are placed face down to form a drawing stock.
Objective: The object of the game is to get rid of all your card by forming cards into valid combinations of standard Sets and Runs.
Game Play
Play commences with the player to the left of the dealer taking a turn and continues clockwise until the hand ends.
On each turn players can do one of the following:
- Play one or more cards from their hand to form or extend melds on the table. As in Carousel existing melds can be rearranged as needed as long as all the melds on the table are valid when finished.
- Take the top card from the stock pile and add it to their hand.
Only one of these can be done per turn, either play a card or cards, or take one card from the stock, then it is the next player's turn.
End of Round
Players continue taking turns until a player is able to get rid of all their cards. The other players get one penalty point for each card remaining in the hand.
Players continue playing rounds until a player reaches a predetermined score. The player with the lowest score at that point is the winner.