Play Gin Rummy Online

Use of the Cards

The card deck doesn’t contain Jokers and the ranking from high to low is King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. The Ace can only be followed with a 2 and can’t be meld with a King.

Dealing

The dealer shuffles the deck and passes out 10 cards alternately to each player (1 card at a time per player). The remaining cards are placed face down in the center of the group to form the stock. The top card of the stock is flipped face-up and placed next to the stock forming the discard pile.

Gameplay: Step-by-Step

A turn in Gin Rummy involves two actions: drawing a card (either from the draw pile or the top of the discard pile), and discarding a card to end your turn. With each draw, players aim to improve their hand by completing melds.

Melds are kept hidden until the end of the round. There are two types:

• Sets: Three or four cards of the same rank (e.g. 8♠ 8♦ 8♥)
• Runs: Three or more cards in sequence, all in the same suit (e.g. 5♣ 6♣ 7♣)

Once a player’s hand meets the requirements, they can either knock or go gin, which ends the round and triggers scoring.

Terms used in Gin Rummy

• Stock or draw pile – the cards that remain from the initial card distribution.
• Discard pile or pile is a place where each player places a discarded card after each turn.
• Deadwood cards are cards not being part of a meld.
• Knocking – you can knock when you have deadwood cards sum value of 10 or less.
• Meld – when a player makes a meld by either having three or more of a kind or by having three or more of a run. A run is made of three or more cards of the same suit in increasing or decreasing order. Unlike Basic Rummy, players do not lay down their melds in Gin Rummy until someone goes Knock. Intersecting melds is not allowed.
• Gin is when the declaring player has 10 melded cards (has no deadwood cards).
• Big Gin refers to when players have Gin but decided to draw another card and it fits into their meld. They can declare big gin (11 melded cards) without discarding.
• Layoff means to add a card to an existing meld.
• Attacker – player performing a knock.
• Defender – player being knocked.
• Undercut is when the Defender has equal or fewer deadwood points than the knocking player. The situation is known as an Undercut and the defending player receives the points along with a point bonus.

Default Scoring

Points are counted from the deadwood cards:

Ace is 1 point / Number cards worth their face value / Picture cards value is 10 points

Round scoring

After a player knocks, and the layoffs are made, the knocking player receives a score equal to the difference between the two hands. For example, if a player knocks with 8, and the defender has 10 deadwood points in their hand after laying off, the knocking player receives 2 points for the hand.

Gin is 25 points + sum of deadwood in the opponent’s hand. Big Gin is 31 points + sum of the opponent’s deadwood.

In a draw, there are not awarded points to either player.

Game Scoring

The first player who reaches 100 points wins the game.

Basic Strategy for Beginners

It’s also wise to observe which cards your opponent is discarding and picking up. This gives you clues about their hand – and helps you avoid discarding something they need. Remember to consider knocking when you’re close to the 10-point deadwood limit, but don’t rush it too early in the round.