Bluke 11 cards are dealt on the third hand, and so on until only 1 card is dealt, after which 2 are dealt, then 3, and so on all the way back to 13 (see more about ending the game below). Thus for a standard game of Bluke, a total of 25 hands are dealt. One player needs to be designated as score-keeper and will record bids, tally scores and keep track of how many cards are to be dealt for each hand. Once a hand has been dealt, the remaining cards (2 or more) are passed face down to the
Contract rummy begins as dealer for the first hand, and then the person to the dealer's left becomes dealer for the next hand, and so on. Each player is dealt ten cards for the first four-round and then 12 for the last three. The rest of the deck is then placed face down in the middle of the players; this is referred to as the "stock". One card is taken from the top of the stock and placed face up next to it. This card is called the upcard and becomes the beginning of the "discard pile", other wise known as "dead",