The Rummy Group

On card games, one of the popular are the Rummy group.

The forerunners and many of the modifications of this game have come out of Latin America; it was originally called 'rum poker' - queer poker - and first became known in the United States at about the time of the Mexican war.

It is one of the few games where you can directly exploit your opponent's gains to your own advantage; if he has sequences or several of a kind on front of him, you can add to this grouping on your own in order to add to your score.

These fifth-column aspects of rummy are appropriate both to the Latin American countries, which exploited many factors already existing in the Indian societies which the Spaniards came to dominate, ad to American methods of territorial expansion during the nineteenth century.

California, Texas, and Hawaii were all gained by fifth-column tactics - a group of American nationals became powerful enough in the country to foment a revolution.

It was ostensibly internal, and subsequently ask to become attached to the United States as between corporations, which may explain the great revival of popularity of Rummy (particularly in Hollywood and among corporation executives) in the 1930s.

Sequences are fairly important in the Rummy group - the family structure is fairly highly valued - but peer groups are becoming increasingly important, especially in the newer variations such as Canasta.

Modern variants have a tendency to use an increasingly large number of packs; this probably represents the individual's feelings of being swallowed in an increasingly large number of duplicates in an industrial society.

Deuces are wild in some versions - the lowliest individual can have immense strategic importance in this type or organization. So can the joker, the erratic individualist.

One modern form that is much played in the card rooms of California is 'panguinguie.' This uses between five and eight packs - the individual feels himself really submerged in an overpowering number of duplicates.

It also drops out the eights, nines, and tens. This is common in many Latin American games; United States games tend, like Pinochle, to drop out the low-ranking cards instead when cutting down the pack.

The Latin system probably represents a self-identification with the poor - wealth is no longer expected ot perhaps even hoped for, since it may be feared as too dangerous a distinction.

Ace ranks low - again, the individual has settled for a relatively humble position. Sequences (called stringers or ropes) are valued, but sets of cards all-of-a-kind are also valued.

They must be of different suits except in the case of aces or kings (called non-commoquers). This represents a certain identification with the male head of the family, unlike the common American identification with the jack.

The king of Spades is especially highly valued, and spades in general, rank high. This represents a valuing of the family with an aggressive male at the head, poor, and accepting a rather low status.

The game arose among the Mexicans in this area, but has spread to many other lower-class non-Mexican groups, whose situation and values may be similar.