Isn't it funny how times change but some things don't? Gambling used to be illegal in South Africa so people got very inventive as to how one could continu to play and gamble. From what was known back then as "Joints", (somebodies flat or at the back of a tea room) or "Bridge clubs", (where Bridge was played in the front of the club whilst at the back we used to play Poker and Portuguese Rummy).

Portuguese Rummy being very different from Gin Rummy. Portuguese Rummy is played with two or more people and usually with two decks if there are more than four players. No Jokers are included in the deck. Each player is dealt 13 cards (face down) and the top card is placed face up with the rest of the deck being face down on the table. The face up card (say it is a black queen) the opposite colour becomes the jokers or wild cards. Each player puts in an agreed amount into a kitty which is won when the same player wins a hand twice in a row.

A dealer is chosen by each player cutting a card and the player with the highest card becoming the dealer. Play begins with the person to the left of the dealer picking up a card first. Players can collect 3 or four of a kind, (no duplicates, one card of each suit only) or runs AKQJ or 1234 (of the same suit) of course the joker or wild card can be used as a replacement for any card. The first player picks up a card and either keeps it or discards it but after picking up a card, one card must be discarded.

A discarded card can only be picked up by the next player. The winner is the first person to put down all 13 cards at once. Each other player then puts down whatever runs or suits they have and for the rest of the cards they will pay an agreed amount per card to the winner.

Portuguese Rummy needs to have a prearranged time limit as you could continue playing for ever. We often played for more than 12 hours at times.

We used to play on a Wednesday night and a Saturday afternoon through to Sunday morning. We played at a different players home each week and the host player would provide the snacks and the drinks, we had great fun and you could also get lucky and go home with quite a substantial win.

Well things have come the full circle now with Poker becoming such a popular social game, we are seeing little poker clubs popping up in each suburb with regular nights being set aside for a game of Texas Hold'em, they are based on the similar host player system as of old. What fun! Do you play any of these games regularly?