Gin rummy

For information on the cartoon character Gin Rummy, see Gin Rummy

Gin rummy (or Gin for short) is a simple and popular two-player card game created by Elwood T. Baker in 1909. Gin, which evolved from 18th-century Whiskey Poker (according to John Scarne), was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy, but not as spontaneous as knock rummy.

The Deck

Gin is played with a standard 52-card pack of playing cards. Aces are played only as low; the ranking from low-to-high is A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K.

Dealing

Dealership alternates from round to round (the dealer to the first round is usually determined by cutting the deck; low card deals). The dealer deals a ten-card hand to his opponent and himself. The 21st card, the upcard, is placed face-up in a central location known as the discard pile. The remainder of the pack, placed face down next to the discard pile, is called the stock.

The non-dealing player has the option of taking the upcard and playing first. If he or she does not, the dealer plays first.

Play

On each turn, a player:

draws either the (face-up) top card of the discard pile, or one card from the stock,
may "knock", ending the round, under certain conditions, and (in any case)
discards one card from his or her hand onto the discard pile, and

Play continues, in alternating turns, until one player chooses to knock, or only two cards remain in the stock.

All cards in the discard pile, except for the one on the top, are never redrawn into play and are sometimes called dead. Some players use the rule that players may not look through the discard pile to determine whether or not a given card is dead, and that the discard pile should be kept "squared up" to prevent inadvertent access to that information.

Evaluation of the hand

The objective in gin rummy is to improve one's hand by forming melds and eliminating deadwood. Two types of melds exist:

Sets of 3 or 4 cards sharing the same rank. For example, 8♥-8♣-8♠.
Runs of 3 or more cards in sequence, of the same suit. For example, 3♥-4♥-5♥-6♥-7♥.

Aces rank only as low, so A-K-Q or 2-A-K "runs" are not recognized.

A player's "deadwood" cards are those not in any meld. His deadwood count is the sum of the point values of the deadwood cards— aces are scored at 1 point, face cards at 10, and others according to their numerical values. Intersecting melds are not allowed; therefore, if a player has a 3-card set and a 3-card run sharing a common card, he can only count one of them and must count two cards as deadwood.

A low deadwood count is desirable, so players usually work to lower it by forming melds and, secondarily, replacing high cards (such as face cards) with lower ones.

Knocking

In standard Gin, a player may not knock until he has less than 10 points of deadwood, and must knock if he has 0 points of deadwood (known as going Gin).

The knocking player lays his hand out with the melds clearly indicated, and deadwood separated. The other ("defending") player has the options of:

forming melds from his own hand, and
laying off cards from his hand onto the knocking player's melds, assuming they fit appropriately.

If the knocking player has gone gin, however, the defending player usually does not have the ability to lay off.

Scoring

In the United States, the most common scoring system for gin rummy is the 20/25 system of scoring, though the 10/20 system is more traditional.

10/20 system

If the knocking player has gone gin, he scores 20 points, plus the deadwood count of the defending player.

If the knocking player has not gone gin, and the defending player has an equal or lower deadwood count, he has undercut the knocker, and scores 10 points plus the margin by which his deadwood count was lower.

If the knocking player has not gone gin and is not undercut, he scores according to the margin by which his deadwood count was lower than that of the defending player.

20/25 system

This system is the same as that above, except for that the gin bonus is worth 25 points instead of 20, and the undercutting bonus is 20 points instead of 10.

Single match

When a single match is to be played, the players will continue to play rounds until one player has 100 points or more. This player wins the match.

Multi-match

In multi-match games, it is typical to keep track of both match and game scores. Match scores are reset to zero with the start of each match, but the game scores accumulate from match to match, and are ultimately used to determine the winner. A match ends when one player scores 100 match points.

At the end of the match, players' match scores are credited toward their game scores, as well as:

25 game points for each round won,
100 game points to the winner of the match, and
100 additional game points to the match winner if the loser won no rounds.

Strategy

Although the rules are simple, gin rummy strategy is far more complex to learn and experienced players often well outperform beginners.

It is vitally important to remember which cards have been discarded, particularly by the opponent. As cards discarded from the hand may be used by the opponent, it is important to avoid cards that the opponent may be interested in.

Generally, a card should not be taken from the discard pile unless it completes a set or run. For example, although aces are generally desirable cards because of their low point count, taking one ace with only one in hand (called "speculating") warns the opponent not to discard any others. This makes establishing a set of aces virtually impossible except by the luck of the draw.

Middle cards are far more strategically important than low cards or face cards as they can be used in far more sets and runs. The 7 can be used in more combinations than any other value in the deck. Once again, aces, although they have a low point value, can only form a run with a 2-3 combination, whereas a 7 can be used with a 5-6, 6-8, or 8-9, as well as longer runs.

Constantly discarding "from the top" (i.e. from the king down) will soon teach the opponent to save pairs of high cards in the knowledge that the matching set of a run will soon be discarded. Although high cards count more, a good player varies the cards they discard in order to make the discards less predictable and give less of a clue to what they are saving.

A player with a "knock" usually should do so as soon as possible, and not attempt to work to a lower knock or gin. The player should beware the possibility that the opponent can knock lower and obtain an undercut, however. This is common if the game is coming down to the bottom of the pile. In the mid-game (when about half the cards in the draw pile have been used), the decision to knock or "go for gin" hinges on how many "free cards" (ones not yet seen by the player) could give the player gin on the next draw, which could range from zero (all possible gin cards are known to be held by the opponent or are in the discard pile) on up to 5 or so (rarely higher).

External link

Rules of Gin Rummy

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