How to Play Mille for Money

Mille is a rummy card game that is extremely popular in Canada. It’s almost always played for money. In order to divvy up the cash at the end of a game, there are multiple factors that must be taken into account. The score, of course, will determine the winner. Adding up Naturals and Chapeaus, and the distance between the final scores, will help decide the total payout.

Before I go any further, please note that this page only details how to read the game’s final score card and determine how much money the winner should get. This page does not detail the actual rules of Mille. For that, you’ll need to read over our previous Mille rules page, found here:

• How to Play Canadian Mille

You may also be interested in our variant rules page:

• Rule Variations for Mille

How To Play Mille for Money

Before the game begins, both players should agree on a particular set of stakes to wager. The stakes should be defined as two numbers; the second being three times larger than the first. Some examples include:

$1-$3
$2-$6
$5-$15
$10-$30

Note that the actual payment is often higher—sometimes much higher—that the size of the stakes, as you’ll see below. For a friendly game, lower stakes are recommended. In my experience, the higher the stakes, the more likely people are to argue over scoring, if not outright accuse each other of cheating.

For the remainder of this tutorial, we’ll assume your staking the lowest $1-$3.

Calculating the Larger Stake

The larger stake of $3 is applied to three areas of the game; winning by score, the winner’s Naturals, and the loser’s Chapeaus. Note that the winner’s Chapeaus and the loser’s naturals do not count towards payment.

• The Winner of the game receives $3.

• Each Natural recorded throughout the game by the Winner awards an additional $3.

• Each Chapeau recorded by the Loser awards the winner an additional $3.

Calculating the Smaller Stake

The smaller stake of $1 is applied to the difference in score. When the game is over, each player will round their total score to the nearest 100. For every 100 points in the score difference, the winner receives $1.

For example, a score of 1234 to 859 would be rounded to 1200 to 900. 1200 – 900 = 300. Therefore, the winner receives $3 for the difference in score.

2x & 3x Payments for Skunk

A Skunk occurs when the losing player has less than 600 points at the end of the game. Because the score is rounded, this requires a score of 549 or less, (550-599 would round up to 600). The winner will receive a bonus payout of 2x or 3x the total winnings if this happens.

• If the loser’s score is 0-549, the winner’s total payout is doubled.

• If the loser’s score is negative at the end of the game, the winner’s payout is tripled.

Sample Payment Scenario in $1-$3 Mille

Let’s say the game ends with a score of 1309 to 642 (rounded to 1300 to 600). The winner has accumulated 6 Naturals (marked as asterisk on the score sheet) throughout the game. The loser has accumulated 2 Chapeaus (negative scores with a circle around them) throughout the game.

The winner receives $7 for the score, $18 for the Naturals, and $6 for the Chapeaus, for a grand total of $31.

As I said, playing Mille for money can get pretty expensive, especially in a one-sided game. If the loser had scored 500, the payout would have been $62. With that in mind, you might want to take a loot at our next page:

Advice and Tips for Winning Mille