Gin Rummy - How to Play

Gin rummy is a card game played by two players. It uses a standard deck of 52 cards where the highest is King and the lowest is Ace. The objective is to score enough number of points until one of the players reach the agreed number, often 100. The first one to complete 100 points wins.

The steps on how to play gin rummy are described below.

Both players are dealt 10 cards each. The dealer then puts a card face up in the deck. This card starts the discard pile. The remaining cards form the stock pile and are put face down.

There are two basic objectives. The first is to form melds from the dealt cards while the second is to eliminate deadwood. The melds have two types - runs of at least three cards of same suit in order (for example 3 of hearts, 4 of hearts, 5 of hearts), and sets of at least 3 cards with equal rank (8 of hearts, 8 of diamonds, 8 of spades). Cards that do not fall in any meld are considered deadwood.

Cards have corresponding points, i.e., aces have 1 point each, face cards have 10, and the rest are based on the numerical value.

The non-dealer plays first by either passing or getting the top card of the discard pile, also referred to as upcard. If he decides to get the upcard, the dealer can take a top card from either pile during his turn. However, if the non-dealer decides to pass, the dealer has the option to pass or get the upcard. Should the dealer decide to pass, the non-dealer must get the top card from the stock pile. Moving forward, a player can take from any pile he chooses.

Players take turns in drawing a card from either the stock or discard pile while discarding a card from his hand and putting it face up on top of the discard pile. The process continues until a player ends a round by going Gin, knocking, or if just two stock pile cards are left.

Gin rummy has many variations including mahjong, straight gin, Oklahoma gin, Holywood gin, single match and multi-match.

With regard to scoring, points are awarded as follows: knock points, gin bonus, game bonus, line bonus, undercut, shutout bonus, and big gin.