Altinstar Düz Okey Rules

Okey is a popular Turkish game of the Rummy family. The game is played with a set of 106 tiles. The faces of the tiles are numbered from 1 to 13, with the numbers printed in 4 different colors. There are eight tiles of each number: two red, two yellow, two blue and two black (colors may vary according to the Okey set used). In addition there are two special tiles without numbers - these are known in this game as 'jokers'. There are numerous variants in the rules of Okey, the most popular being Düz and 101. Okey can be played with a different amount of players depending on the variant.

The following topics will be explained on this page:

• Official rules of düz okey
• Starting the game
• The joker
• Sets and opening your hand
• Doubles
• Point scoring and end of the round
• Additional penalties
• Additional rules

Official rules of düz okey

Düz Okey is played with 4 players over multiple rounds. The object of the game is to have the most amount of points left of the starting points that you received at the beginning of the game. The player who has the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

A game is played with a predetermined amount of starting points (e.g. 6, 12 or 20). A round is completed when there are no more tiles left to draw from the bank or when 1 of the players has completed his/her hand (tiles on the rack). If one of the player reaches 0 or less points at the end of a round the game is finished.

Starting the game

After a random dealer is chosen, each player is given 14 tiles (your hand) and the dealer gets 15 tiles. The rest of the tiles go face down into the bank and 1 tile which indicates what the joker (indicator tile) will be is turned face up. The game is played anticlockwise. The dealer starts the game by throwing away 1 of his tiles. The turn then goes to the player on his right.

A player starts their turn by either taking a tile from the bank or taking the tile thrown away by the previous player. The player then either 'opens' (puts his sets on the table) or they finish the turn by throwing away 1 of the tiles from their hand. A player must always throw away a tile to finish the turn, even when finishing their entire hand.

The joker / The indicator tile

The tile that indicates what the joker will be changes each individual round. The 2 joker tiles (also called 'false jokers') are the same value as this tile's value plus 1. These jokers look different from the standard tiles and vary in appearance according to the Okey set used.

The actual jokers (which can represent any tile in the game) are the actual tiles that get replaced by the false jokers. If for example the indicator tile is a blue 5, the actual jokers are the two blue 6 tiles and the joker tiles (or false jokers) have the value of the blue 6.

The indicator tile has another important function. If a player has the same tile in his hand as the indicator tile, the player can show this tile at the first turn of the player. The other players then get one point reduced of their starting points. This can only be done in the first turn of the player.

Sets and opening your hand

In order to open the player needs to create sets of either 3 or 4 identical numbered tiles of different colors (e.g. black 5, red 5 & blue 5) or running numbers of the same color (e.g. red 7, red 8 & red 9). A set must have a minimum of 3 tiles.

The 1 can be placed behind a 13 (e.g. red 12, red 13 and red 1). The serie stops after the 1, 11 - 12 - 13 - 1 -2 is not allowed. 13 – 1 – 2 is also not allowed.

Doubles

Another way to open your hand is with doubles. This means that you need 7 double sets and 1 extra tile you always need to throw away to end your turn. If you want to play double press the 'Double' button and then the 'Done' button.

The 'Double' button can also be pressed earlier. It will give the player a chance to see all the discarded tiles in the game. This gives the advantage that you know which tiles are already out of the game. Only the player that presses the 'double' button can see the discarded tiles.

Caution: Pressing the 'Double' button is not reversible, the player must open with doubles! If a player presses the 'Double' button but fails to open with doubles before the round is over, the player gets double points deducted. Normally if a player can't open he/she will receive -2 points, in this case -4.

Point scoring and end of the round

In order to complete a round, a player must play all the sets from their hand and finish with discarding a tile. The first player to have 14 tiles in a set (set consists of 3 or more tiles), opens with straights or doubles (consisting of 7 double sets) and clicks the 'Done' button will win. The other players will get points deducted.

• When a player finishes their hand the other players get 2 points deducted.
• If a player finishes their hand by discarding the joker all deducted points get doubled instead. The other players get 4 points deducted.

Additional penalties

Players will receive additional penalties for the following actions.

• If a player tries to open but has their sets in a wrong order (e.g. 2-3-5) when he/she presses the 'Done' botton, this player will receive -2 penalty point
• If a player discards the joker they receive -2 penalty points.

Additional rules

• If the indicator tile is a 13 the joker then becomes a 1.
• Sets of the same number are not allowed to have the same color in them (e.g. A blue 10, a red 10 & a blue 10 is not allowed). They must be different colors.