How to play Jo

Getting started

1. Get the Jo app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Pick a name. No account, no password, no signup. Just choose the name other players will see.
3. Pick how you want to play. Play joins an open table if one is waiting, or opens your own with 2 to 4 seats. Start whenever you like, and the computer fills any empty seats. Or create a private table, share its six letter code, and friends join you.
4. Play a full game of seven rounds. Points count against you, and the lowest score at the end wins.

Games are live and never played for you: take all the time you need on your turn. Your game is saved while you're away: lose connection or close the app and it pauses, resuming right where you left off when you're back. When other players are waiting, the computer covers an absent player's turns after a short grace, and a turn that stalls too long can be skipped by a vote of everyone waiting. If you leave a game entirely, the computer finishes your hand.

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The rules of Jo

Jo is the version of contract rummy most commonly played in Australia (played here without jokers). Each of the seven rounds has a goal: the exact groups of cards you must put down, all at once, before you can start getting rid of your cards.

The seven goals

Round	Goal	Cards dealt
1	Two threes	10
2	A three and a four	10
3	Two fours	10
4	Three threes	10
5	Two threes and a four	12
6	A three and two fours	12
7	Three fours	12

Threes and fours, the groups

• A three is 3 or more cards of the same rank. Suits don't matter, and duplicates are fine: several decks are shuffled together.
• A four is a sequence of 4 or more consecutive cards of the same suit.
• Aces can be high or low, but never both: A 2 3 4 and J Q K A are legal, K A 2 is not.
• No jokers. Every group is built from natural cards.

Your turn

1. Draw one card from the stock or the discard pile.
2. Go down if you can. Once you hold the round's whole goal, every group complete, lay it down in one go. Partial goals can't be put down, and until you've gone down you can't add cards to anyone's groups.
3. Add to groups (after you've gone down): add as many cards as you like onto any group on the table, yours or anyone else's. Three more aces onto a three of aces, if you have them.
4. Discard one card to end your turn. You may not throw back the card you just took from the discard pile.

Buying

Want the top discard when it isn't your turn? Ask to buy it. If the player on turn passes on the card by drawing from the stock, the buy is granted: you take the discard plus one penalty card from the stock. If several players ask, the seat closest to the left of the player on turn wins the buy. The player on turn always has first claim, you can't buy once you've gone down, and you can't buy back the card you just discarded. Each player gets at most three buys per hand. Once they're used, no more buying until the next deal. Computer players pause a few seconds before drawing so you have time to buy.

If the stock runs out, the discard pile (except its top card) is shuffled into a new stock.

Going out & scoring

• You go out by playing every card in your hand: go down, add to groups, discard. Every round works the same way, round 7 included.
• Going out scores you zero for the round. Everyone else adds up the cards still in their hand and counts them against themselves: aces 15, court cards (J / Q / K) 10, and number cards at face value. A 2 counts 2, a 10 counts 10.
• After round 7, the player with the lowest score wins.

Quick tips

• Watch the goal. Pairs are gold in the rounds of threes and dead weight in the rounds of fours.
• Once an opponent goes down, every card in your hand is a point risk. Dump your aces and court cards fast.
• Taking or buying a discard tells the table what you're collecting. Sometimes the blind stock card is the safer play.
• Every buy costs a penalty card. Buy the card you need, not every card you like.