Yaniv Card Game

Yaniv is rather unusual card game. This game, very similar to rummy, became very popular among travelers and many believe that it was invented by an Israeli traveler by the same name. the truth is that Yaniv is a variation of other south-American card games but the Israelis improved it a bit and added new features.

In this game the players must get rid of their cards by forming them into sets and sequences, just like in rummy. When the player achieve the goal (having the lowest total value of cards in the hand), he must call "Yaniv" in order to announce the other players about his hand. If another player has a lower total, he must announce "Asaf". Both are Israeli names, and this is why many people think that it's an Israeli card game.

Set-up

The game is played by 2 or more players and a standard deck of card is used. If there are many players playing, you can add more decks to the game.
Aces are worth 1, number cards are worth their face value, J, Q and K worth 10 and jokers worth zero.

The Game

All the players can act as the dealers in the game.
Each of the players receives five cards, face down. The other cards are stacked and the top card on the stack is turned face up.
In every turn a player can either discard one of his cards and pick one card up or to call "Yaniv" if he wants to end the game because he thinks that he has the lowest total value of cards.
The player can throw any card or a set of two or more cards of the same rank or a sequence of three or more consecutive cards of the same suit.
No matter how many cards the player threw, he must pick up a new card either from the draw pile or from the dump pile of the previous players.

Winning

A player that has 5 points or less in his hand and thinks that he has the lowest total can call "Yaniv" and everyone must expose their cards.
If the "Yaniv" caller succeeded he scores 0 points and the other players score as many points as they have in their hands.
The object of the game is to have as least points as possible.