How to Play Gin Rummy

What you need

• Two people. This page is two-player gin. Three-hand and partnership versions exist; learn this first.
• A standard 52-card deck. No jokers.
• Paper for two running totals. First player to 100 wins the game.

Deal ten, turn the upcard

Cut for the deal if you want a ritual. Lowest card deals first; ace is low on this cut. Dealer gives ten cards to each player, one at a time, starting with the non-dealer. Turn the next card face up beside the leftover pack. That face-up card is the upcard. The rest of the pack is the stock, face down.

Non-dealer gets the first chance at the upcard. Take it, or pass. If you pass, dealer may take it. If dealer also passes, non-dealer draws from the stock instead, and play is underway.

A turn: take one, throw one

Every turn has two parts, in that order:

1. Draw. Take the top card of the discard pile, or the top card of the stock. You do not look through the discard pile. One card.
2. Discard. Throw one card face up onto the discard pile. If you just took the discard, you cannot put that same card back. Choose a different card.

After you discard you should have ten cards again. Then it is the other person's turn. Keep going until someone knocks or goes gin, or until the stock is almost gone (many tables call the hand a draw if only two stock cards remain). Agree on that house call before you deal.

Melds: sets and runs

You do not lay melds down during the hand. You hold them. They only count when someone knocks or goes gin. Two legal meld types:

• Set: three or four cards of the same rank, any suits. Three kings. Four 8s. A pair is not a meld.
• Run: three or more consecutive cards of the same suit. 5-6-7 of clubs. 9-10-jack-queen of hearts.

Ace is low only in this game. A-2-3 of diamonds is a run. Queen-king-ace is not. Ace does not sit next to the king.

A card can only live in one meld. You cannot use the same 7 as part of a set of 7s and a heart run at the same time.

Deadwood: what unmatched cards cost

Everything that is not in a meld is deadwood. Add those values. That total is what you are trying to shrink.

Night-one shortcut: aces are cheap to hold unmatched. Face cards are expensive. If you cannot meld a king, throw it before you throw a 4.

Knock, gin, layoffs, undercut

After you draw, look at your ten remaining cards as they will sit after the discard you are about to make. If that deadwood is 10 or less, you may knock. Discard one card face down. That face-down card is out of the hand. Nobody takes it. Spread your other ten cards, grouped into melds, with deadwood off to the side.

If that deadwood is 0 — every one of those ten cards sits in a meld — you went gin. Say it. Same face-down discard. Gin is better than a knock, and it changes what the opponent is allowed to do.

Then the opponent spreads their ten cards.

• On a knock (not gin): they may layoff unmatched cards onto your melds. A fourth king onto your three kings. A 4 of spades onto your ace-2-3 of spades. They cannot rearrange your melds, and they cannot layoff onto their own leftover cards to invent a new meld after you knock unless those cards already formed a meld in their hand.
• On gin: no layoffs. They keep every unmatched card.

After layoffs, compare deadwood. If they still have more than you, you score the difference. If they have an equal or lowerdeadwood than you, they undercut you. That is why knocking with 10 against a tight opponent can lose the hand.

Scoring, in the amount you need tonight

Example: you knock with 6. After layoffs they have 15. You score 9. If you had gone gin and they had 15, you would score 40 (15 + 25). If you knocked with 8 and they laid off down to 5, they undercut: they score 3 + 25 = 28.

First to 100 wins. A game is several hands. Alternate the deal.

Walk through one first-night hand

You are non-dealer. The upcard is the 5 of diamonds.

Your ten cards:

• Ace, 2, and 3 of spades
• 7 of diamonds, 7 of hearts, 7 of clubs
• 5 of hearts, 5 of clubs
• Jack of clubs
• Queen of diamonds

You already have a spade run (ace is low, so A-2-3 is legal) and three 7s. The upcard is a third 5. You take it. You now have eleven cards. Discard the queen of diamonds face down and knock.

What you spread: A-2-3 of spades, three 7s, three 5s, and the jack of clubs as deadwood. Deadwood is 10. That is a legal knock on the first play. You could have kept fishing for gin (a 4 of spades, or a fourth 7 or 5), but 10 is the door, and you walked through it.

Opponent spreads:

• 4, 5, and 6 of spades (a run)
• King of hearts, king of spades, king of diamonds (a set)
• 8 of clubs, 2 of hearts, 10 of diamonds unmatched

They look at your melds for layoffs. The 4 of spades would fit your A-2-3 of spades, but it is already inside their own 4-5-6 run, so they keep it there. The 8, the 2, and the 10 do not attach to your 7s, your 5s, or your spade run. No layoff. Their deadwood is 8 + 2 + 10 = 20.

You had 10. They had 20. You score 10. If they had laid off down to 8, they would have undercut: 2 + 25 = 27 for them. If you had also melded that jack (gin), they would have paid 20 + 25 = 45, with no layoffs allowed.

What this page is not

Two names you will hear at other tables. They are variants, not the default here:

• Oklahoma gin. The first upcard sets the knock number for that hand (often: a face card means you may only gin). Fun. Not tonight's rules.
• Hollywood gin. You keep three score columns at once, so one hand can land on more than one game. A scoring overlay, not a different draw-and-discard game.

If someone at the table says "Oklahoma" or "Hollywood," stop and agree. Otherwise play the version on this page: knock at 10 or less, gin 25, undercut 25, game to 100.

Night-one habits

• Count deadwood after every draw, including the card you are about to throw.
• Throw expensive unmatched faces before cheap aces and deuces.
• Do not toss the card that obviously finishes their run if you can help it.
• Knock early with low deadwood. Fishing for gin is how you get undercut, or how they gin first.
• Ace is low. Stop trying to build Q-K-A.

You know enough to deal. CardPractice does not have a gin table yet. For a live trainer tonight, use the other tables — euchre, cribbage, hearts, Hold'em — or share the site from Support. Want gin practice on CardPractice? Tell me at hello@cardpractice.com.