How to play Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy is one of the best-known two-player rummy games. You each hold ten cards and take turns drawing and discarding, trying to form sets and runs. Cards that don't fit, your deadwood, count against you. With low enough deadwood you can knock to end the hand, and with none at all you go gin for a bonus.

It is a game of reading and timing as much as luck: every card your opponent picks up or throws away tells you something, and deciding when to knock is where most hands are won or lost. Here you play a match to 100 points against the computer.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings popup appears. Choose a difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy), check your record at that level and press PLAY.

• Your hand is sorted for you: sets and runs sit on light trays, loose cards follow, and your deadwood count is shown beside it. You can drag cards to rearrange them.
• The upcard: at the start of a hand you may take the face-up card or press PASS.
• Drawing: tap the deck or the discard pile to take its top card.
• Discarding: tap a card twice, or tap it once and then tap the pile, or drag it up off your hand.
• Ending a hand: when your deadwood is 10 or less, a KNOCK button appears; pressing it discards your best card automatically and ends the hand. With no deadwood it says GIN, and with all eleven cards in combinations it says BIG GIN.

At the end of each hand both hands are shown, lay-offs are made, and a summary shows the points scored. Press NEXT HAND to continue.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game, starts a new match or turns the sound off. The match is saved at every turn, so you can leave and press CONTINUE later. At 100, the results screen shows the final score, hands played and your gins, plus your statistics for that level.

Rules

The cards. A standard 52-card deck. Aces are low (an ace counts 1), number cards count their face value, and jacks, queens and kings count 10.

Combinations.

• A set is three or four cards of the same rank, such as three 7s.
• A run is three or more cards in sequence in one suit, such as 4, 5, 6 of hearts. The ace is low only: A-2-3 is a run, but Q-K-A is not.
• Each card belongs to only one combination. Leftover cards are deadwood; your hand is always counted in the arrangement with the least deadwood.

The deal. Each player gets ten cards and one card is turned face up to start the discard pile. The deal alternates between you and the computer from hand to hand.

The upcard. The non-dealer may take the upcard or pass, then the dealer gets the same choice. If both pass, the non-dealer starts by drawing from the stock.

A turn. Draw one card, either the top of the stock or the top of the discard pile, then discard one card face up. You may not discard the card you just took from the pile in the same turn.

Knocking. Instead of an ordinary discard, you may end the hand by knocking if your deadwood after discarding is 10 or less. Both hands are revealed, and the defender may lay off loose cards onto the knocker's sets and runs (a fourth 7 onto three 7s, an 8 onto 5-6-7 of that suit) to reduce their deadwood. Lay-offs are made for you in the best possible way.

Scoring a hand.

• Knock: the knocker scores the difference between the two deadwood counts.
• 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.
• Gin: knocking with no deadwood at all scores 25 plus the defender's deadwood. The defender may not lay off against gin.
• Big Gin: if the card you draw makes all eleven of your cards fit into combinations, you go Big Gin without discarding, for 31 plus the defender's deadwood.

A drawn hand. If a turn ends without a knock and only two cards remain in the stock, the hand is over and nobody scores.

The match. Hands continue until a player reaches 100 points or more. That player wins the match.

Strategy tips

• Throw away high deadwood early. Unmatched kings, queens and jacks cost 10 points each if your opponent knocks.
• Keep flexible cards. A pair (two 8s) or a two-card sequence (6 and 7 of clubs) can be completed by several different cards.
• Watch the pile. If your opponent picks up the 9 of spades, avoid throwing 9s or spades near it.
• Use what they throw away. Neighbours of your opponent's discards are often safe to throw.
• Knock early when you can. Early on your opponent's hand is still messy, so even an 8 or 9 knock often wins. Later, a high knock risks an undercut.
• Know when to chase gin. One card from gin early on, the 25-point bonus is worth waiting for; late in the hand, take the safe knock.
• Count the outs. If the cards that would complete a near-combination are already discarded, it is just deadwood.

Difficulty levels

• Easy: the computer often throws a random loose card and overlooks useful pile cards about two times in five. Your best discard glows to help you learn.
• Normal: the computer discards well and only occasionally misses a useful pile card or throws a careless card.
• Hard: no careless play. The computer keeps cards with live chances to combine, remembers what you picked up and avoids feeding you, and throws ranks and suits you discarded.
• Crazy: everything Hard does, plus it times its knocks: early while your hand is rough, holding out for gin when close, only low knocks later, and anything it can when the stock is nearly gone.