How to play Gin Rummy
The rules of Gin Rummy, and a game played out one move at a time.
The rules are below, and there are not many of them. If you would rather see it than read it, press play: we deal a short round on the real table and stop on every move to say what happened, what you could do instead, and which rule did it.
Press play and we deal a short game of Gin Rummy on the real table. It stops on every move and says what just happened and what you could do next.
The deal
Two people, one pack of fifty two, no jokers. Ten cards each, dealt one at a time. The next card goes face up as the start of the discard pile, and the rest sit face down as the stock.
Whoever did not deal plays first. The deal swaps after every scored round.
A turn
Take one card, then put one down. You can take the top of the stock without knowing what it is, or the face-up card on the pile, which your friend gets to watch you take. That is a clue, so think about what it tells them.
A card you take off the pile has to stay in your hand for the turn. A card from the stock can go straight back out if it is no use.
Sets, runs and deadwood
Three or four cards of one rank make a set. Three or more of one suit in a row make a run. The ace is low only, so ace, two, three works and queen, king, ace does not.
Anything not in a set or a run is deadwood. An ace counts one, jack, queen and king count ten, and the rest count what they say. The table works out your best arrangement for you and shows the total under your hand.
Our advice: get rid of lone picture cards early. They cost the most if you get caught holding them.
Knocking, gin and the undercut
Once your deadwood is ten or less you can knock instead of a plain discard. The card you knock with goes on the pile, and the round stops.
Both hands turn over. Your friend lays any of their leftovers that fit onto your sets and runs, and those stop counting against them. Then you score the gap between their deadwood and yours. If they end level with you or lower, they undercut you and score 25 plus the gap instead.
Knock with no deadwood at all and that is gin: 25 plus everything they are holding, and nothing may be laid off on a gin hand.
How it ends
If the stock gets down to its last two cards and nobody has knocked, the round is dead. Nobody scores and the same person deals again.
Rounds add up, and the first to 100 points wins the match. Plan on several rounds, which is most of the appeal.