Gin Rummy

Play two-handed Gin Rummy against Loretta, a computer player who, at Standard and Expert, remembers every card you pick up. Knock when your deadwood is low, hold out for gin when the cards are running your way, and play the game out to the target with full box and game bonuses.

How this table works

Before the first deal you see the rules and three options. By default Oklahoma gin is off, big gin is off, and the game target is 100 points (the others are 150 and 250). You also set Loretta to Easy, Standard, or Expert for the whole game.

Tap the stock or the discard pile to draw, then a card in your hand to discard. Your hand sorts itself into melds, each marked with a gold bar, unmatched cards last, and your deadwood count is shown after every move. When a knock is legal a Knock button appears; press it, then tap the card to place face down. With no deadwood the button reads Gin.

After a knock the table works out the best melds and every legal layoff; you confirm with Lay off, and the summary shows both hands and the count line by line.

Undo (key U) takes you back to your last decision; Hint (key H) shows what an Expert player would do. The Menu holds Replay this deal, Today's deal (the same cards for everyone on a given date), statistics, and Copy deal details. Table settings set card size, four-color suits, and speed; the Classic button swaps the Company for plain faces. To let the Company play a hand by itself, watch a hand. Sound is off at first. The speaker button turns it on, and you'll hear cards drawn and discarded and a fanfare for gin; Table settings set the volume.

The Intermission button

The Intermission button is a boss key: when someone looks over your shoulder, it covers the game with convincing office work, or a plain curtain. The panic key, ` left of 1 by default, does the same in one keystroke; Escape pressed twice does it for the window alone. Where the browser allows, the cover takes the full screen and the tab shows a dull title. The panic key, Escape twice, or the small corner control returns you; your hand waits exactly as it was. Open Menu, then Table settings: Intermission screen (Inbox, Report, Curtain, Spreadsheet, Project plan, Dashboard, or Code editor), Go full screen, Panic key (` or \ or F2). Details.

How to play

Two players, one 52-card deck, no jokers. Aces are always low: A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not, and runs never turn the corner. Face cards count 10, aces 1, and every other card its number.

Melds and deadwood

A set is three or four cards of the same rank. A run is 3 or more cards in sequence in one suit. A card can belong to one meld only: holding 7♣ 7♠ 7♦ 8♦ 9♦, the 7♦ makes the set or the run, not both. Cards outside your melds are deadwood, and their total is your count.

The deal and the first turn

The first dealer is picked at random. Each player gets 10 cards, the next card is turned face up as the upcard, and the remaining 31 form the stock. The non-dealer may take the upcard or pass. If they pass, the dealer gets the same choice. If both pass, the non-dealer must draw from the stock, and play goes on from there. Whoever takes the upcard must discard a different card.

A turn

Draw the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile, then discard one card face up. You may not take the discard and throw the same card back on that turn; a card you picked up on an earlier turn can go any time.

Knocking and gin

Instead of discarding face up, you may end the hand by discarding face down: that is the knock. It is allowed whenever the ten cards you keep have 10 or less in deadwood. The card you put face down doesn't count, and you are never forced to knock. Knocking with no deadwood at all is gin.

Laying off

After a knock, both hands are spread. The defender, the player who didn't knock, may add unmatched cards to the knocker's melds: the fourth card of a three-card set, or a card at either end of a run. Layoffs chain, so with the knocker holding 4♥ 5♥ 6♥, the defender's 7♥ and 8♥ both go. Nothing is ever laid off onto the knocker's deadwood, a set of four takes nothing, and the knocker never lays off. After gin there are no layoffs at all.

Who scores the hand

If the knocker's count is lower than the defender's count after layoffs, the knocker scores the difference. If the defender's count is equal or lower, that is an undercut: the defender scores the difference plus 10, and the knocker scores nothing. A tie is an undercut worth just the bonus. Gin scores 20 plus the defender's whole count, and gin can never be undercut, even by a hand with no deadwood. The winner of the hand deals the next one.

When the stock runs out

If a player discards without knocking and only 2 cards are left in the stock, the hand is dead. Nobody scores, nobody wins a box, and the same dealer deals again. A knock made on that last draw still counts.

Oklahoma gin

With this option, the first upcard is the knock card and sets the limit for that hand: a 6 means you need 6 or less to knock, and a picture card means 10. An ace upcard means gin only. If the upcard is a spade, the hand's score is multiplied by 2, gin and undercut bonuses included. Players who use this rule usually raise the target to 150.

Big gin

With this option, if all 11 cards in your hand form melds right after you draw, you may lay them all down without discarding. Big gin scores 31 plus the defender's count, with no layoffs. With the option off, the same hand simply discards to go gin.

The end of the game

Hand points add up until one player reaches the target. That player gets the game bonus of 100, or 200 if the other player won no hand at all (a shutout). Then each player adds a box bonus of 20 for every hand they won. Box bonuses never count toward the target. The higher final total wins.

Scoring

A worked hand. The game is to 100. You have 81 hand points and five hands won; Loretta has 61 and four. You knock, placing the Q♦ face down, and keep 4♥ 5♥ 6♥, 9♣ 9♦ 9♠, J♠ Q♠ K♠ and the 3♦. Loretta holds 2♣ 3♣ 4♣ 5♣, 7♥, 9♥, 10♠, 8♦, 8♣ and K♦.

1. Your deadwood: the 3♦, so your count is 3.
2. Loretta's run 2♣ 3♣ 4♣ 5♣ stands. Her unmatched cards: 7 + 9 + 10 + 8 + 8 + 10 = 52.
3. She lays off the 7♥ on your hearts, the 9♥ on your nines, and the 10♠ under your J♠ Q♠ K♠: 52 − 7 − 9 − 10 = 26 left in 8♦ 8♣ K♦.
4. Her 26 is higher than your 3, so there is no undercut. You score 26 − 3 = 23.
5. Your hand points: 81 + 23 = 104. You have reached 100, and the game ends.
6. Your final total: 104 + 100 game bonus + 6 hands won (this one included) × 20 = 324.
7. Loretta's final total: 61 + 4 × 20 = 141. You win by 183.

Gin would have barred her layoffs: 20 plus all 52 of her unmatched points, 72 in all. Had she kept only 3 in deadwood after layoffs, the 3–3 tie would have been an undercut, worth 10 to her.

Playing it well

The discard pile tells on you

Every card you take from the discard pile shows your opponent what you are building; a draw from the stock shows nothing. So take a discard when it completes a meld, and otherwise draw blind. If you hold 8♠ 8♦ and the 8♣ comes off, take it. If you hold 8♠ and 9♠ and the 3♥ comes off, leave it.

Shed high cards early

An unmatched king costs 10 and fits fewer melds than a middle card: a king can only join a set or a run below it, while a 7 can sit in the middle of a run either way. After a few turns with K♣ and Q♥ still loose in your hand, let them go. Late in the hand the reverse applies: an unmatched ace or 2 costs almost nothing, so keep it and let a higher loose card go instead.

Don't feed her

When Loretta picks up a discard, she is building around it. If she took the 6♥, avoid throwing the 4♥, 5♥, 7♥, or 8♥, or any 6. A card she let pass is a better guide: if she ignored the 7♥, the 8♥ and the other sevens are likelier to be safe.

Knock early, and know when to wait

With a low count and few ways to gin, knock. Each extra draw spent chasing the 20 gin bonus is a draw your opponent uses too, and a knock at 2 almost never gets undercut. Hold out for gin only when you are one card away with at least three live outs and plenty of stock left: say you hold 2♣ 3♣ 4♣, 8♠ 8♦ 8♥ and J♦ Q♦ K♦ with a loose 6♠. The A♣, 5♣, 8♣, or 10♦ gives you gin: four outs, if none of them is in the discard pile. Count what is gone. Two of your outs in the pile, or a thin stock, means knock now. Loretta plays the same way at Standard and Expert: she waits for gin only with 3 or more live outs and at least 12 cards in the stock, whatever her count.

The undercut risk

A knock at 8, 9, or 10 is a bet that the defender is still far behind. If she has taken two or three discards, she likely holds three melds and very little loose, and the undercut gives her the bonus on top.

Hold flexible cards

Prefer 6♥ 7♥ 7♠ to 6♥ 7♥ K♣: the first can become a set of sevens or a heart run, the second has one way to go. Between a pair and a two-card run of equal value, keep the run, and drop the pair once she has taken a card of that rank. Don't break a made meld to save 3 points or less unless it lets you knock this turn.

Mind your layoffs

A run open at both ends and a set of three whose fourth card you haven't seen both invite layoffs.

The score matters

Early in the game, or ahead, take small knocks and bank the boxes. Close to the target and behind, a cheap knock that gets undercut can hand her the game; hold for gin or a bigger margin.

The Company in Gin Rummy

Melds form up on the cloth in lines. A knock brings the Herald's staff down twice on the paving; gin ends the hand in fireworks; and on an undercut the square dims while the defender's banner unfurls.

According to Pagat, the game was put together around 1911 by Elwood T. Baker, a New York bridge player, out of the Mexican game Conquian and the newly popular American game of Rum; the name, after the drink, is credited to his son Graham. It became a Hollywood craze in 1941, when players took to scoring three games at once, a style often called Hollywood Gin.

The small rank and suit in each corner came late: the English pattern used in American decks had its court cards drawn double-ended by about 1860, and indices appeared about 1880, according to the International Playing-Card Society. The King of Diamonds' French name and his single eye are on the Company page.

Questions players ask

Can I knock on my very first turn?

Yes. If you take the upcard and your ten remaining cards come to 10 or less, you can knock right away, and the same goes for any later turn.

Why did the table arrange my cards differently than I would have?

When you are the defender, the table tries every way of splitting your hand into melds and keeps the one that leaves you the lowest count after layoffs. When you knock and two arrangements leave you the same count, the table lays down the one that lets the defender lay off least. The summary shows the arrangement it used.

My family plays gin at 25 and undercut at 25. Can I set that?

No. This table uses the 20 for gin, 10 for an undercut, and 20 per box printed in the standard American rules from Bicycle and Pagat. The 25-point values are a common house convention.

Can the player who reaches the target still lose?

Yes. The game bonus goes to whoever reaches the target, but box bonuses are added for both players, and the higher final total wins. If the totals tie, the player who reached the target wins.

Does Loretta see my hand?

No. She knows only her own cards, the discard pile, and the cards you picked up from it, exactly what you could see from her side of the table.

Sources

1. Gin RummyPagat (John McLeod)
2. How to Play Gin RummyBicycle Playing Cards
3. Gin Rummy Association RulesGin Rummy Association
4. Gin rummyWikipedia
5. English patternInternational Playing-Card Society