History of rummy is an unclear one. The actual origins of rummy are unknown, but there are different theories. Some say that it originated from China, some say it evolved from poker, other people say it originated from Spain. Here we will take a look at all these theories and you can decide which one you like best.
China theory
There is more than one game of chines origin similar to Rummy. Een van deze spellen is Mah Jong, dat is eigenlijk gespeeld met tegels, maar heeft bepaalde gelijkenissen aan rummy. Interesting thing is, that it dates back more than 1000 years, so it could very well be the actual origin of Rummy. The second similar game would be Khanhoo, which also shares characteristic with rummy (like forming combinations), but is much younger dating back to the beginning of the 19th century.
Poker theory
One theory says that rummy originated from poker (check out poker history here ). Dette er på grund af at de to spil deler visse ligheder, ligesom de samme kombinationer (løber i rummy er ligner en lige flush i poker og sæt er det samme i begge spil). Også, navnet Rummy and the game itself was supposed to develop from Whiskey Poker, which was later called Rum Poker and finally only Rum and then Gin. So the history of Rummy is closely linked to poker history.
Spanish theory
It says that rummy games are a decedent of a Spanish game called Conquian. Supposedly the game was developed in Spain and then made its way to Mexico from where it spread across north America. Der er en anden teori om at det var faktisk den anden vejen rundt, at Rummy var dannet i Amerika og eksporteret til Mexico, hvor det var navnet Conquian.
Conclusion
Experts mostly agree that rummy games are a direct decedents of Conquian, but since the game of Mah Jong is the oldest, who knows, it could be that Conquian was somehow evolved from Mah Jong. Det er virkelig opp til deg å bestemme hvilken teori du skal stole på.
