Play Gin
Gin is a popular card game for two players that involves, discarding, melding and knocking. To begin playing Gin the dealer will deal 10 cards to you and 10 cards to himself. The remaining cards will be placed into two piles. The first pile will be face up and contain one card. This will be the discard pile. The second pile will be face down and include the remaining cards. This is the draw pile.
Four versions to play - Gin Rummy Classic, Oklahoma, Straight rummy and Hollywood Gin! Gin Rummy card game is a form of the rummy game where players place cards into sets and runs. 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. Click Here to get started! Have fun, Play the game, If you win, Get paid Nothing required, no login, no email, no advertising, no tracking. No gambling Welcome to the world of blockchain! Game Room: LETS PLAY GIN 2 February 11, 2021 8:00 AM EST megz86's Tournament (200) SE LS (TDD: 0) 1vs1 (Register).
Melding
In Gin, you are constantly reviewing your hand of 10 cards for possible melds. Melds refer to card combinations that yield you more points than individual cards. There are two main card combinations in Gin melding: sets and runs.
Sets: A set is also called a group. It refers to three or four of the same cards from different suits. For example, if you have a six of Clubs, six of Spades and six of Hearts, you have a set or group of six. This can also be referred to as three of a kind.
Runs: A run is also called a sequence. It refers to three or more chronologically ordered cards from the same suit. For example, if you have the Ace of Hearts, two of Hearts, three of Hearts and four of Hearts, you have a Heart run or Heart sequence.
Note the low value of the Ace in Gin. It would not be accurate to create a run with a Queen, King and Ace. As well, keep in mind that when creating sets and runs, you cannot use one card four double duty. In other words, you cannot use the six of Clubs to create a run with your seven and eight of Clubs and to create a set with your six of Hearts and six of Diamonds.
Knocking
Another aspect of Gin is the concept of knocking. Knocking essentially refers to you challenging your opponent to end the game due to your hand. To be able to knock, your hand must meet a few requirements:
It must be your turn, and you must have discarded a cardYou must have created viable sets and runs with your cardsThe remaining cards in your hand (those not part of sets or runs) must have a total value no greater than 10
If you have no remaining cards after creating sets and runs with your cards, it is referred to as 'going gin.' You will get bonus points, and your knocking cannot be challenged by your opponent.
Otherwise, your opponent can use any remaining cards from his or her hand (i.e. those cards not part of sets or runs) to try to create sets or runs with your remaining cards, thereby increasing your remainder card point value to try to beat your hand.
Playing Gin
Play Gin On Aol
The actual play in Gin is comprised of drawing and discarding. You will draw a card, evaluate whether or not you can use it to create a set or run with the existing cards in your hand and then either keep that card and discard another one into the discard pile or discard the card you have just drawn.
Winning a game of Gin
You can win Gin in two ways: You can knock your opponent once you are confident with the sets and runs you have created and have remainder cards whose point values total no more than 10 or you can 'go gin.' You can also win by reaching the maximum score (which can be 100 or whatever you and your opponent have agreed upon prior to the game's start) first.
Gin Rummy Terms & Concepts
| Set | 3 or 4 cards of the same rank, e.g. KKK666 |
| Run | a sequence of 3 or more cards in the same suit. Ace & King do not count as consecutive, but Ace and 2 count, e.g. 345 |
| Meld | A common term for both Sets and Runs. You may have 3 melds of which two are sets and one is a run. Each card can only be part of one set or run, for example if you have a 4, it cannot be a part of both 4,4,4 and 3,4,5. |
| Stock | A deck of closed (face-down) cards in the middle of the table. Players draw one card from the Stock or from Discard (below) on every move. |
| Discard pile | A pile of face-up cards next to the Stock. Players discard one card onto the Discard pile on every move. |
| Deadwood | Any cards in a hand that are not parts of a meld. |
| Knocking | Ending the round by placing a last discarded card face-up on top of the Stock pile. |
| Gin | Knocking when all 10 cards in your hand are parts of melds with no Deadwood. |
| Lay off | Adding your deadwood cards to an opponents' meld when opponent knocked without Gin. |
| Upcard | The very first face-up card next to the closed Deck pile. |
Gin Rummy Variations
In all 3 Gin Rummy variations below, picture cards count as 10, Aces as 1 and other cards count as their numeric values.- Standard Gin Rummy: A main gin rummy variation where knocking is allowed when the value of deadwood points is 10 points or less.
- Gin-Only: A popular gin rummy variation where only knocking without any deadwood is allowed (Pure Gin).
- Oklahoma: A popular gin rummy variation where a maximum allowed knocking value is determined by the value of the first open card. For example, you will only be able to knock with deadwood value of 2 and below if the initial upcard is 2. If an nitial Ace is an upcard, the knocking can only be with 0 points in deadwood - Pure Gin.
Objective
The objective in Gin Rummy is to collect cards into melds and have as little deadwood as possible at the end of each hand (aka round). A game usually consists of several hands, and each hand is scored separately depending on how much deadwood opponents have at the end of a hand. The hand ends with one opponent knocking, ginning or with a draw. The full game ends when one player reaches an agreed-upon number of total points (e.g. 100 points).
Gameplay
For every hand, each player gets 10 cards. The remaining deck is placed on the table between the players face-down, and one card (sometimes called upcard) is put face-up next to the deck as the 1st card of the discard pile.
On each player's turn, that player must draw one card - either the top card from the deck or the top card from the discard pile. Unless drawing from a discard pile helps in creating own melds, it is usually advisable to draw the top card from the closed deck.
Play Gin Rummy
After drawing one card, a player must either knock or discard one card by putting it face-up on top of the discard pile. A top card drawn from the discard pile cannot be discarded on the same turn.
The game continues like above with every player drawing 1 card and discarding 1 cardand one-card, while players build sets and runs in their hands. The hand ends when one player knocks, by discarding a card and placing it face-up on the closed deck. After knocking, all cards for both players are open and deadwood is counted. The opponent of the knocker is allowed to lay-off any of own deadwood cards onto the knocker's melds if can be a part of the same meld. For example, if the knocker had a meld, 2 3 4 and the opponent has 5 as part of deadwood, the non-knocker can add that 5 to the knocker's meld, and then this card will not count as deadwood for non-knocker. If the knocker has Gin then the opponent is not allowed to lay off any cards.
In Standard Gin Rummy, you may only knock if you end up with 10 or fewer points in deadwood (picture cards count as 10, aces as 1 and other cards their numeric values). The card you knock with is not considered deadwood. So, if you have just drawn and you have 2,6,9 in deadwood you would be allowed to knock with the 9, and then you'd end up with 2+6=8 points in deadwood.
In Oklahoma variation of Gin Rummy, what you can knock with depends on what the first upcard was. For example, if the first upcard was 6, you may only knock if you end up with 6 or fewer points in deadwood. If the first upcard was Ace, then you will only be allowed to knock with Pure Gin (zero deadwood).
Knocking with no deadwood, i.e. all 10 card in you hands forming melds is called going Gin.
The game also ends if neither player has knocked and there are only two cards left in the deck. In that case the hand is a draw, and neither player gets points.
Scoring
- Knock points: After knocking and lay-offs, the knocker scores the difference between own deadwood and the opponent's deadwood. For example, if the knocker has 8 points in deadwood, and the opponent has 20 points in deadwood, then the knocker scores 20-8=12 points.
- Gin Bonus: If a knocker has no deadwood, it is Gin, and the knocker gets extra 25 extra points added to the knock points.
- Undercut: If a player knocks but the opponent has less or equal deadwood points, then the non-knocker gets extra 25 points plus the difference in deadwood points, and the knocker gets 0 points.
Play Rummy Online
Selecting melds at knockingWhen playing online and knocking, by default only the meld with the minimum points gets auto-selected. If this behavior is undesirable, then in Game table / Preferences you can select the setting 'Knocker Selects All Melds'. Melds will be shown as straight vertical or horizontal lines drawn on cards unless the option 'Don't Mark Melds' is used. In the picture below, the possible melds intersect and the optimal meld is selected. You can use the 'Next' in the dialog to change the selection of melds.End of the hand and the 50-th card ruleModern Tournament Gin Rummy rules add an extra twist toelement of skill the relatively rare to gin rummy endgame - the case when the stock pile is reduced to only the last 2 cards. This is called the fiftieth card rule. When the 50th card is drawn from the stock pile before any player knocked or ginned, leaving twoand just 2 cards remain in the stock pile, the 50-th card rule states that says that both players may have action on the 50th card.What it means in practice is the following: |