The Rummikub game originated from Isreal, and bears remarkable resemblance to Mahjong. Mahjong is a much more common game, and many people are already familiar with it. When you think about Mahjong, the first thing that comes to mind is that it's played with tiles. Similarly, Rummikub is also played with tiles. Like Mahjong, they usually come in a wide range of cases, each carrying a set of hundred and six playing tiles, complete with playing racks for up to four people. Each rack will hold up to twenty four tiles for each player.

Every set of tiles include two jokers, with the rest of tiles being colored tiles. There are four colors - red, yellow, blue and black. For each color, there are two sets of tiles from one to thirteen. When you lay out the tiles, they actually take up quite a fair amount of space. So the Rummikub is usually played on card tables.

Besides the physical similarities, even the game play appears similar to Mahjong. To start the game, each player will have a rack in front of him. Then all the tiles are placed on the table, facing down, and shuffled with the hands. The clashing of the tiles make it sound as if a game of Mahjong is played. The players will then arrange the tiles in stack of seven, and these tiles form the pool. The pool is where the players will draw the tiles from during the game. As the game continues, the pool will eventually be drawn down.

But these are just general rules. The actual rules depend on the version that you are playing. The Rummikub game has three versions: American Rummikub, Sabra Rummikub, and International Rummikub.

American Rummikub is the simplest of the three versions. If you are new to the Rummikub game or rummy games, this is the ideal game to start with. The rules are simple, and once you pick them up, you can easily apply what you learn to other versions of the Rummikub game. That is, if you are ready for more sophisticated versions, like the Sabra Rummikub.

The Sabra Rummikub is easy to learn as well, but it allows extra manipulation, which makes the game a little harder to play. More skill and luck is involved in this version, and the game play is often faster and more aggressive. This is natural because the Sabra Rummikub has a strict time limit. That means you are forced to think fast. Although this version requires more thinking and skills, it is also more exciting due to the aggressive nature of the game play.

Finally, the International Rummikub is the most sophisticated of all the three versions. This version has the greatest number of winning combinations, and many players find this version very challenging. You have to beat the other players by forming one of the winning combinations before anyone else does. And like Mahjong, if you play the wrong tile, that could spell disaster. With a large number of winning combinations, it's harder to guess what your competitors are thinking or doing. So for this version, experience is very important.

It is recommended that you start with simpler versions such as the American version and the Sabra version, and slowly progress to the International version.