How to Play Okey

Tiles

Okey is played with 106 tiles. There are 13 numbers across 4 colors (yellow, blue, black, red), and every tile exists twice. That makes 104 numbered tiles. The remaining 2 are special tiles called fake okeys.

Distribution

Each player receives 14 tiles at the start of a round. The starting player gets 15 and begins the round by discarding one tile. The starting position shifts to the right (counter-clockwise) each round.

Indicator Tile

Before tiles are dealt, one random tile is drawn from the pile and placed face up. This is the indicator tile. It determines which tile becomes the okey for that round.

If a fake okey is drawn as the indicator, it is set aside and another tile is selected instead.

Fake Okey Tiles

The 2 tiles with the special symbol are called fake okeys. They count as the okey's number and color, but they are never wild. A fake okey is only ever the tile it represents, and it can sit in melds and pairs on that basis.

Melds (Per)

A valid group of tiles is called a meld (per in Turkish). Every meld needs at least 3 tiles. There are two types:

• Sets: Same number in different colors, three or four tiles. No repeated colors allowed. For example, red 7, blue 7, black 7.
• Runs: Consecutive numbers in the same color. For example, yellow 4, 5, 6, 7.

In runs, the sequence 12-13-1 is valid, but it cannot continue further. 12-13-1-2 or 13-1-2-3 are not valid.

Playing a Turn

The starting player begins by discarding one tile from their 15 tiles. After that, every turn follows the same pattern: draw one tile, then discard one tile.

When drawing, a player can either take the last tile discarded by the previous player or draw the next tile from the pile. Play continues counter-clockwise.

Finishing a Round

To finish, all 14 tiles on your rack must form valid melds. Since you always need to discard a tile to end your turn, the math works out to specific combinations. For example, four melds of 3 tiles plus 2 leftover tiles is not possible because 2 tiles are not a meld. Common valid finishes are two melds of 4 and two melds of 3, or one meld of 5 and three melds of 3.

When your hand is complete, you discard your last tile and the round ends. Nothing is revealed until that moment.

Going for Doubles

Instead of forming melds, a player can try to collect 7 pairs of identical tiles. This is called going for doubles. Pairs and melds cannot be mixed when finishing with doubles. It has to be exactly 7 pairs.

Finishing with doubles scores higher than a regular finish. See the scoring page for details.

Kafa (Single Color Straight)

At a real table, if a player forms a single color sequence of 1 through 13 plus another 1 (14 tiles total, all the same color), the game ends immediately. That player wins outright. No more rounds are played. This hand is called Kafa, from the Turkish "kafa atmak".

Kafa is a real-table rule that okey.gg does not have yet. For now, a Kafa hand scores as an ordinary finish.

Empty Round

If the pile runs out and nobody finishes, the round ends with no score changes. Nobody scores and the deal passes on.

Winning the Game

Okey is played to an agreed winning score. Each finish adds points to the finisher's score, and the first player to reach the winning score wins. At real tables, 20 is the common choice.

On okey.gg, the host sets the winning score in the lobby, from 7 to 31 (21 by default). There is no round limit: the game runs until someone reaches the score. The host also sets the turn time, from 15 to 120 seconds or unlimited (45 seconds by default). A game against bots alone is never timed.

Duo (2v2)

At real tables, okey is also played as Duo: two teams of two, with partners sitting across from each other. Only one player finishes a round, and their points count for the whole team. On okey.gg, Duo is available for 101 only for now. Classic okey Duo is not in the game yet.