Gin Rummy

Setup

• Players: two. Our practice table is you against one bot.
• Deck: one standard 52-card deck. Aces are low.
• Your hand: ten cards each.
• The pile: the next card is turned up to start the discard pile. The rest is the stock.

How to play

1. 1The first upcard. The non-dealer may take the turned-up card. If they pass, the dealer may. If both pass, the non-dealer draws from the stock.
2. 2Draw one. Take the top card of the stock, or the top card of the discard pile.
3. 3Discard one. Put one card face up on the discard pile. Not the card you just took from it.
4. 4Keep your melds in your hand. You never lay anything down while you play. Your sets and runs stay hidden in your hand until someone knocks or goes gin. That is different from Rummy.
5. 5Knock with 10 or less. If your deadwood after discarding is 10 or less, you may knock. Now lay out your melds and deadwood.
6. 6Lay off. The other player lays out their melds, then adds deadwood to the knocker’s melds where it fits: the fourth card of a set, or the next card at either end of a run. At the practice table, you pick the cards to lay off yourself. Not after gin.
7. 7Stock down to two. If only two stock cards are left and nobody knocks, the hand is void and the same dealer deals again.

Winning

The lower deadwood scores each hand. The winner of a hand deals the next. First to 100 wins the game.

Scoring

Many tables add bonuses at the end of a game: 100 for winning it, and 20 for each hand won. Our practice table simply plays to the target.

Key terms

Meld:

A set or a run. Cards in melds don’t count against you. You keep them in your hand until someone knocks.

Set:

Three or four cards of the same rank.

Run:

Three or more cards in a row in one suit. Aces are low.

Deadwood:

Cards not in a meld. Aces 1, numbers their value, pictures 10.

Stock:

The face-down pile you draw from.

Upcard:

The first card turned up to start the discard pile.

Knock:

End the hand with 10 or less deadwood after discarding.

Gin:

Knocking with no deadwood at all. Worth a 20-point bonus.

Lay off:

Add a card from your deadwood to the knocker’s melds after a knock: the fourth card of a set, or the next card at either end of a run.

Undercut:

The other player ties or beats the knocker. They score the difference plus 10.