Gin Rummy

How to play Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy is a game of building a hand. You hold ten cards and try to arrange them into melds: sets of the same rank and runs in one suit. The cards that fit into no meld are your deadwood, and the lower it counts, the better. When it is low enough you may knock to end the hand, and whoever has less deadwood scores the difference.

Here you play against Otto. The first player to 100 points wins the game.

The deal

Each player is dealt ten cards. The next card is turned face up to start the pile, and the rest are the stock, face down beside it. The winner of a hand deals the next one, so the loser has first choice of the turned-up card.

Melds

• A set is three or four cards of the same rank, such as three 9s.
• A run is three or more cards of the same suit in order, such as the 4, 5 and 6 of spades.
• The ace is always low: ace, 2, 3 is a run, and queen, king, ace is not.
• A card can be in only one meld at a time.

Your hand sorts itself. The melds sit together on the left with a band along the bottom of their cards, and the cards that are in no meld are on the right. When a card could go into either of two melds, the table chooses whichever leaves you the least deadwood.

Deadwood

Your deadwood is shown above the table all the time. While you are holding eleven cards it shows the least you could be left with after throwing one away.

The first turn

The player who did not deal may take the turned-up card or pass. If they pass, the dealer may take it or pass. If both pass, the first player takes the top card of the stock and play goes on from there. Whoever takes a card then throws one away, as on any other turn.

Every turn after that

• Take one card: either the top card of the stock, which nobody has seen, or the top card of the pile, which is the card the other player has just thrown.
• Then throw one card away, face up on the pile. You may not throw back the card you have just taken from the pile.

Tap the stock or the pile to take a card. To throw a card away, click it or drag it onto the table; on a touch screen the first tap lifts it and a second tap throws it. The card you have just taken is ringed until you have thrown one.

Knocking

When you can throw a card and be left with 10 or less in deadwood, a Knock button appears, with the count you would be left with. Knocking ends the hand: you throw that card and both hands are laid out.

• The other player lays down their own melds, and may also lay off loose cards on yours: a fourth 9 on your three 9s, or the 7 of spades on your 4, 5, 6 of spades.
• If you then have less deadwood, you score the difference.
• If the other player has the same or less, they have undercut you, and they score the difference plus 10.

You do not have to knock. You may play on in the hope of a lower count, or of gin. The Knock button throws whichever card leaves you least; if you have lifted a card first on a touch screen, it throws that one.

Gin

If all ten of your cards are in melds, the button reads Gin. You score the other player’s deadwood plus 20, and they may not lay anything off.

When the stock runs low

If a player throws a card without knocking and only two cards are left in the stock, the hand is over and nobody scores. The same player deals again. This is rare.

Scoring

At the end of a hand both hands stay on the table until you press Next hand, with any cards that were laid off standing a little above the meld they joined. The melds and lay-offs are worked out for both players, and they are always the best that can be done. The Scores button shows the game hand by hand.

Tips for winning more often

• Knock when you can, early in a hand. In our test games a player who never knocked and always waited for gin lost about 60 games in 100 to the same player knocking at the first chance.
• Be warier late in a hand. When fewer than fifteen cards are left in the stock, Otto is probably close to knocking too, and a knock with 9 or 10 risks an undercut. Otto himself waits for 5 or less by then.
• Throw high cards that are not going anywhere. A lone king costs 10 if Otto knocks first. Low cards are cheap to keep and they are what a knock is made of.
• Middle cards make more runs. A 7 can sit in three different runs of three (5-6-7, 6-7-8, 7-8-9). A king can sit in only one.
• Take from the pile only when it really helps. Otto sees what you take, and it tells him what you are collecting. A card that completes a meld is worth it; a card that only makes a pair usually is not.
• Watch what Otto takes and throws. If he picks up the 8 of hearts, think twice before throwing another 8 or the 7 or 9 of hearts. A rank he throws away is one he is probably not collecting.

How good is Otto?

Otto plays fair. He sees his own ten cards, the pile, and whatever he has watched you take from it, and nothing else: not your hand and not the stock. The Hint button uses exactly the same thinking for you.

For each card he might throw, he works out what his hand could expect to count after one more draw, over every card he has not seen, and throws the one that leaves the best prospects. He takes from the pile only when that beats what the stock promises, he leans away from throwing cards next to ones he has seen you take, and he knocks at the first chance early in a hand and more carefully late on.

Over thousands of test games he won about 60 in 100 against a straightforward player who takes only cards that complete a meld, throws the highest loose card and knocks as soon as possible. Gin Rummy has enough luck in the draw that a careful player will still win plenty of games against him.

Other ways to play

Gin Rummy has many house rules, and this table plays the plain game. There is no bonus for each hand won and no game bonus: the first to 100 simply wins. Gin is worth 20 here and an undercut 10, the classic values; many players now use 25 for both. We tried 25 for the undercut and found that it then pays never to knock at all, which is not much of a game. There is no “big gin” for melding all eleven cards, and no Oklahoma rule, where the turned-up card sets how low you must be to knock.