How to : How to Play Gin Rummy

Sort your cards into melds. Look at the ten cards in your hand. Sort them into any possible “melds,” which are sets or runs. A set is three or four cards of the same rank (5-5-5), and a run is three or more cards of consecutive rank in the same suit (4-5-6).^[5]

Choose whether to take the card in the discard pile. If you weren’t the dealer, you get to decide if you want to pick up the face-up card in the discard pile, or if you want to pass on it because it’s not a helpful card for you. If you pass, the dealer can choose to pick it up.^[6]

Pick up a new card. Whether you go for the card in the discard pile or the one on top of the stock pile, pick up your new card and assess whether it will help you form any melds. Look to see if you already have a couple of cards with the same numerical value, or if it suddenly connects a couple cards to form a run.^[7]

Discard a card you don’t want. Select a card from your hand that probably won’t be helpful and place it face-up in the discard pile. If a card seems like an outlier that won’t match easily with your other cards, then it might be worth discarding. You can also discard whatever you just picked up from the stock pile.

• You can’t discard a card you just picked up from the discard pile in that turn. You can discard it during your next turn if you want, but you must keep it for at least one turn.^[8]
• At the end of every turn you should still have ten cards.

Take turns picking up cards and discarding cards. Go back and forth drawing cards with your opponent and attempting to form melds with all your cards. At each turn, decide if you want the card that your opponent just placed face-up in the discard pile, or if you want to take the mystery card from the top of the stock pile.

• As you form melds, do not place them on the table. You don’t want your opponent to see your progress.^[9]

End the game if only two stock cards remain. If a player takes the third to last card in the stock pile and the game is still going, then the hand is cancelled. No points are awarded to either player, and the cards must be re-dealt.^[10]

Knock if all your cards form melds. Knocking is how you end gameplay. If you reach a point when all of your cards are part of a meld and none of them are unmatched (these cards are called “deadwood”), then you’ve reached “gin.” Draw a card once it’s your turn and place it face-down on the discard pile to signify that you’re knocking.

• Reaching gin earns you 25 bonus points in addition to all your opponent’s deadwood points.
• You can physically knock on the table if you want to, but the face-down discard is generally accepted as the knocking symbol.^[11]

Knock to prevent your opponent from reaching gin. If you think your opponent may reach gin before you, you can knock early to prevent them from getting those bonus points. Draw a card and discard one when it’s your turn, placing the one you don’t want face-down on the discard pile to end the game.^[12]

End the game only if your deadwood totals ten points or less. You can only knock if the points values for your deadwood cards total ten or less. Kings, queens, and jacks are worth 10, aces are worth 1, and all numerical cards are worth their numerical value.^[13]

Expose your melds to your opponent. Lay down all your cards face-up and divide them into melds on the table. Make it clear for your opponent to see your sets and runs by grouping cards within a meld closely together and also putting some space between the melds themselves.^[14]

Lay off deadwood cards onto the knocker’s melds. Your opponent now has the chance to lay off their deadwood cards onto your cards to add to melds. For example, if you have three 5’s, and one of their deadwood cards is a 5, they can add that to your set. Or they could add that 5 to a run of 6-7-8 or 2-3-4.^[15]

Lay off cards only if gin has not been reached. If either you or your opponent reaches “gin” and knocks, there’s no laying off. This means that one player will potentially end up with a lot of deadwood, and thus a lot of deadwood points for the knocker to claim.

Subtract your deadwood points from your opponent’s. Both players should now ignore any melds that have been formed – they don’t contribute any points to the scoring. Add up each player’s deadwood points and subtract to find the difference. Write down each player’s points on a piece of paper.^[17]

Award the non-knocker for an undercut. If you were the knocker, and it turns out your opponent has fewer deadwood points than you, this is called an undercut. The difference between the deadwood points is awarded to them rather than you in this case, along with a 25-point undercut bonus.^[18]

Play until someone reaches 100 points. Deal the cards again and continue to play rounds until one player has reached 100 points. This player is awarded 100 bonus points for doing so. Each player then earns an additional 25 points for every round they won.^[19]

Memorize cards that are being discarded. Keep track of what cards both you and your opponent have discarded, as these will indicate what to avoid collecting. For example, if you saw two kings end up in the discard pile, then you shouldn’t hold onto any kings in your hand since these will certainly become deadwood.^[20]

Memorize which cards your opponent is picking up. Get a sense for which cards your opponent is picking up from the discard pile since these will clue you into their sets and runs. If you see them picking up a couple 9’s, don’t discard a 9 you have in your hand or you risk helping them out.^[21]

Aim for runs over sets. Runs can be added onto at either end of the sequence. But once you reach three of a kind, sets can only be added onto in one way. And you’re less likely to find that one extra card for a set than the two possible cards that can add to your run.^[22]