The Rules of Gin Rummy
The Basics
Gin Rummy Demo
The main goal when playing Gin Rummy is to arrange as many cards as possible into "sets" and "runs".
| A set is simply three or more cards of the same rank. | |
 | OR |  |
| A run is a sequence of three or more cards, but all in the same suit and in order. | |
 | OR |  |
Furthermore, a player has to be aware at any time of the deadwoods he is holding, as this could make him win a game of Gin Rummy. (We will offer further details later on)
You can win by Going Gin, Knocking and Undercutting, and the last two could allow you, if you have the smallest amount of deadwood, to win the game.
It all begins with the deck :
In order to start a game of Gin Rummy you have to have a standard deck of 52 cards, excluding the Jokers. Numeric cards are given their points by their value, for instance the five of diamonds will worth five points.
The face cards like jack, queen and king are worth ten points. The Ace cards are worth one point only.
| The cards and their values | |
 |  |  |  |  |
| 1 points | 2 points | 3 points | 4 points | 5 points |  |  |  |  |  | | 6 points | 7 points | 8 points | 9 points | 10 points |  |  |  | | 10 points | 10 points | 10 points | |
Playing a Game of Gin Rummy
As mentioned above, this game is played between two to four players. If you choose for the two players variant, each of you will receive ten cards. When played in three to four people, each player will receive seven cards.
The dealer has to place the remainder of the deck, down-faced in the middle of the table. The top card will be turned and laid on the table next to the deck. This will form the stock pile and discard pile.
First each player will draw a single card from one of the two piles. They will get to keep it. Their first turn is completed when they place a card in the discard pile facing upwards.
If a player manages to make it to the stock pile until two cards remain, he must shuffle the cards from the discard pile and put them down in a new stock pile faced down. The last card discarded is used to create a new pile. The game goes on until a player can put an end to it in one of two ways possible:
- Going Gin – when a player manages to put their cards on the table being able to separate them into runs and sets without having other remaining cards; or
- Knocking – when the player is the first to put their cards on the table having less than ten points in deadwood.
If a player manages to do so the other one will be obliged to lay his cards. The counting of the score begins after the players laid off their cards.
Lying Off
Lying off is made while opponents try to reduce the count of their deadwoods while using the sets and runs of the other players. For instance a player who manages to Go Gin isn’t allowed to place any cards on the melds. The next player is able to lay down the sets and runs in order to get rid of the deadwoods from their hand, but only if the precedent player Knocked.
How does this work? To provide an example, a player who Knocked with a run of seven to ten of clubs, a set of threes in all the four suits and deadwoods of five of diamonds and four of hearts. The next player could have the six of clubs and the jack of clubs and lay them on the Knocking player’s hand.
How does this work? A simple example is the hand of a player who Knocked which contains a run of seven through ten of hearts, a set of threes in all four suits, and deadwood cards of five of diamonds and four of clubs. The next player might be holding the six of hearts and the Jack of hearts. They could lay off these cards on the Knocking player’s hand.
Lying off has its rule though :
- You can’t use another player’s unmatched deadwoods; and
- You can’t use the hand of the player who went Gin for laying off cards.
Winning and Scoring
Besides Going Gin and Knocking, there are other ways to win:
- Undercutting – if you have a lower deadwood than the one who knocked.
The scores can be calculated when all of the participants finished laying off. Depending on the winner, the other points will be distributed: - Going Gin will get opponents to receive the amount of their deadwood cards including an extra 25 point penalty.
- Knocking will get opponents to receive the deadwood cards sum, but reduce the count by the Knocker’s deadwood card values.
- Undercutting requires the other players to receive the amount of their deadwoods, and the Knocker must take a 25 point penalty like in Going Gin case.
Payout Table
In a game with a pot implied, the winner receives 75% and the remaining amount is divided between the other players. Even if a player is more than 50 points away from the winner he will not get a share.
For examples
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