How To Play Gin Rummy

Gin rummy (or Gin for short) is a popular and very simple two-player card game created by Elwood T. Baker in 1909. Gin Rummy, which evolved from the 18th-century game of Whiskey Poker (according to John Scarne), was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy, but not as spontaneous as knock rummy.

The Deck
Gin Rummy is played with a standard pack of 52 playing cards. Cards in each suit rank, from low to high:

• Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King.

Dealing
The first dealer is chosen randomly, and the turn to deal alternates between the players. The dealer deals a ten-card hand to each player. The 21st card delt is turned face up in the middle of the players to start the discard pile and the remainder of the deck is placed face down beside it to form the stock pile.

The non-dealing player has the option of taking the upcard and playing first. If he or she does not, the dealer plays first.

Object of the Game
The object of the game is to collect a hand where most or all of the cards can be combined into sets and runs and the point value of the remaining unmatched cards is low.

A run or sequence consists of three or more cards of the same suit in consecutive order, such as 4, 5, 6 or 8, 9, 10, J.
a set or group is three or four cards of the same rank, such as 7, 7, 7.

A card can belong to only one combination at a time. You cannot use the same card as part of both a set of equal cards and a sequence of consecutive cards.

Note that in Gin Rummy the Ace is always low. A-2-3 is a valid sequence but A-K-Q is not.

Play
A normal turn consists of two parts:

The Draw: The player begins by taking one card from either the top of the stock pile or the top card on the discard pile & adding it to your hand. The discard pile is face up, so you can see in advance what you are getting. The stock is face down, so if you choose to draw from the stock you do not see the card until after you have committed yourself to take it. If you draw from the stock, you add the card to your hand without showing it to the other players.

The Discard: To complete your turn, one card must be discarded from your hand and placed on top of the discard pile face up. If you took the top card from the discard pile, you must discard a different card - taking the top discard and putting the same card back is not permitted.

All cards in the discard pile, except for the one on the top, are never redrawn into play and are sometimes called dead. Some players use the rule that players may not look through the discard pile to determine whether or not a given card is dead, and that the discard pile should be kept "squared up" to prevent inadvertent access to that information.

Evaluation of the hand
As mentioned above, the objective in gin rummy is to improve one's hand by forming melds and eliminating deadwood. Two types of melds exist:

• Sets of 3 or 4 cards sharing the same rank. For example, 8?-8?-8?.
• Runs of 3 or more cards in sequence, of the same suit. For example, 3?-4?-5?-6?-7?.
• Aces rank only as low, so A-K-Q or 2-A-K "runs" are not recognized.

A player's deadwood cards are those not in any meld. His deadwood count is the sum of the point values of the deadwood cards - aces are scored at 1 point, face cards at 10, and others according to their numerical values. Intersecting melds are not allowed; therefore, if a player has a 3-card set and a 3-card run sharing a common card, he can only count one of them and must count two cards as deadwood.

A low deadwood count is desirable, so players usually work to lower it by forming melds and, secondarily, replacing high cards (such as face cards) with lower ones.

Knocking
In standard Gin Rummy, a player may not knock until he has less than 10 points of deadwood, and must knock if he has 0 points of deadwood (known as going Gin).

The knocking player lays his hand out with the melds clearly indicated, and deadwood separated. The other (defending) player has the options of:

• forming melds from his own hand, and
• laying off cards from his hand onto the knocking player's melds, assuming they fit appropriately.

If the knocking player has gone gin, however, the defending player usually does not have the ability to lay off.

Scoring
In the United States, the most common scoring system for gin rummy is the 20/25 system of scoring, though the 10/20 system is more traditional.

10/20 System
If the knocking player has gone gin, that player scores 20 points, plus the deadwood count of the defending player.

If the knocking player has not gone gin, and the defending player has an equal or lower deadwood count, that player has undercut the knocker, and scores 10 points plus the margin by which his deadwood count was lower.

If the knocking player has not gone gin and is not undercut, she scores according to the margin by which their deadwood count was lower than that of the defending player.

20/25 System
The 20/25 scoring system is the same as that above 10/20 system, except for the fact that the gin bonus is worth 25 points instead of 20, and the undercutting bonus is 20 points instead of 10 - simple.

Single Match
When a single match is to be played, the players will continue to play rounds until one player has 100 points or more. This player wins the match.

Multi-Match
In multi-match games, it is typical to keep track of both the match and game scores. Match scores are reset to zero with the start of each match, but the game scores accumulate from match to match and are ultimately used to determine the winner. A match ends when one player scores 100 match points.

At the end of the match, players' match scores are credited toward their game scores, as well as:

• 25 game points for each round won,
• 100 game points to the winner of the match, and
• 100 additional game points to the match winner if the loser won no rounds.

Variations
Some people begin gin rummy games differently: the non-dealer receives 11 cards and the dealer 10, and no card is turned up. The non-dealer's first turn is simply to discard any card from their hand, after which the dealer takes a normal turn, drawing a card from the discard or stock pile, and play alternates as usual.

Some people say that the bonus for going gin is 25 (rather than 20) and the bonus for an undercut is 20 (rather than 10). Some say that the bonus for an undercut, the bonus for going gin, and the box bonus for each game won are all 25 points.

Other players say that if the loser failed to score during the whole game, the winner's entire score is doubled (rather than just doubling the 100 game bonus to 200).

Oklahoma Gin
In this popular variation of gin rummy, the value of the original face up card determines the maximum count of unmatched cards with which it is possible to knock. Pictures denote 10 as usual. So if a seven is turned up, in order to knock you must reduce your count to 7 or fewer.

If the original face up card is a spade, the final score for that deal (including any undercut or gin bonus) is doubled.

The target score for winning Oklahoma Gin is usually set at 150, rather than 100.

Some say that if an ace is turned up, you may only knock if you can go gin.

Some say that a player who undercuts the knocker scores an extra box in addition to the undercut bonus. Also, a player who goes gin scores two extra boxes. These extra boxes are recorded on the scorepad; they do not count towards winning the game, but at the end of the game they translate into 20 or 25 points each, along with the normal boxes for hands won. If the face up card was a spade, you get 2 extra boxes for an undercut and 4 extra boxes for going gin.

Playing with 3 or 4 Players
When 3 people play gin rummy, the dealer deals to the other 2 players but does not take part in the play. The loser of each hand deals the next, which is therefore played between the winner and the dealer of the previous hand.

4 people can play as 2 partnerships. In this case, each player in a team plays a separate game with one of the opposing pair. players alternate opponents, but stay in the same teams. If both players on a team won at the end of each hand, the team scores the total of their points. If one player from each team won, the team with the higher score scores the difference. The first team whose cumulative score reaches 125 points or more wins.