Others hold that Rummy was derived from Poker which originated with French Settlers in the west. That is, it is believed that Rummy was developed from a game called “Whiskey Poker” which later became known as “Rum Poker“, and later just “Rum” and then finally “Rummy“. Today, Gin Rummy is often referred to as Gin Poker although it is unlikely that there is a connection there.

Rummy is also believed to have originated in China. There is a Chinese card game called “Khanhoo” and another known as “Kon Khin“, which were first reported in the late 1800’s, and which contain the distinctly Rummy characteristic of creating combinations of cards. Many Chinese domino games are also built on this mechanism, such as the Chinese game of Mahjong. Also, the Japanese Rummy game of “Hanafuda” (“flower cards”) combined traditional Japanese games with western playing cards and is said to have evolved when the Portuguese travelled to Japan.

Another variation of why Rummy became famous is that during the Great Depression people turned to home forms of entertainment of which Rummy was one of the games. Other variations on the game subsequently appeared in other countries and so clearly there is no definitive answer as to the exact origin and history of Rummy.

There is probably an element of truth to all the various theories discussed and irrespective of the exact origins, Rummy has been around now for hundreds of years with the same basic concept of drawing and discarding in order to create sets or runs in your hand. Besides this unique play pattern, the main goal is to get rid of all of the cards in your hand by forming either sets or runs. All of the Rummy games contain some kind of a scoring system making the play for money much more attractive and all forms of the game offer people a great form of entertainment and potential to compete.