Gin Rummy

About Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy is the classic two-player card game of sets and runs. Draw, discard, and tidy your ten cards into melds until the leftovers (your deadwood) are small enough to knock, or go gin with none at all. Play free against the computer at three levels, first to 100 points.

Also called: gin, rummy.

How to play Gin Rummy

1. You and the computer get ten cards each. One card is turned face up to start the discard pile; the rest are the stock.
2. On your turn, draw one card: tap the stock, or take the top card of the discard pile.
3. Then discard one card: tap it to raise it and tap it again, press Discard, or drag it up onto the pile. You can’t throw back a card you just took from the pile.
4. Your hand sorts itself into melds (the coloured bars under the cards). Drag cards left or right, or pick one and use the arrow keys, if you like your own order; Sort into melds puts it back.
5. When your deadwood is 10 or less after discarding, you can knock. With no deadwood at all, you go gin.
6. After a knock the other player lays off any cards that fit the knocker’s melds, then both hands are counted and the hand is scored. Keep dealing until someone reaches 100.

Rules

• Melds are sets of three or four cards of the same rank, or runs of three or more cards in a row in one suit. Aces are low: A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not.
• Each card belongs to one meld at most. The game always counts the arrangement that leaves you the least deadwood.
• Card values: aces 1, number cards their number, jacks, queens and kings 10.
• You may knock when your unmelded cards total 10 or less after your discard. Your melds are laid out face up, and your deadwood is counted.
• The defender then lays off: cards that extend the knocker’s runs or complete a set of three. Laying off is not allowed on a gin hand.
• Knock: the knocker scores the difference between the two deadwood counts.
• Gin (no deadwood): the knocker scores the defender’s deadwood plus a 25-point bonus.
• Undercut: if the defender’s deadwood is equal to or lower than the knocker’s, the defender scores the difference plus a 25-point bonus.
• If only two cards are left in the stock and the player who drew doesn’t knock, the hand is dead and nobody scores.
• The deal alternates each hand, and the player who didn’t deal goes first. The first player to reach 100 points wins the game. This version keeps score simply: there are no extra game or per-hand box bonuses.

Gin Rummy tips and strategy

• Knock early. A quick knock with 8 or 9 deadwood usually beats waiting for gin, because every extra turn gives the other player time to build.
• Late in a hand, the risk of an undercut grows. If the computer has been picking up from the pile, knock only with very low deadwood.
• Throw high deadwood early: a lone king costs you 10 points if the computer knocks.
• Watch the discard pile. If the computer takes a card, it is building with that rank or suit, so don’t hand it the neighbours.
• Cards the computer threw away are fairly safe to throw back: it probably doesn’t want that rank.
• Pairs and two-card runs with live cards left (the ones you haven’t seen) are worth keeping; those whose partners are already in the pile are not.