Gin Rummy rules
What it is
Gin Rummy is a fast two-player game about tidying your hand. You are dealt ten cards and you want them arranged into melds — three or more of a kind, or three or more in sequence in one suit. Anything left over is deadwood, and it counts against you. Each turn you draw one card and throw one away, and when your deadwood is low enough you knock and end the hand. It was codified in New York around 1909 and became the card game of Hollywood and the mid-century card table. This page describes the game as it is played at jpgames.app.
The deck
A standard 52-card deck. Card values are what count against you:
| Card | Value |
|---|---|
| Ace | 1 |
| 2 to 10 | face value |
| Jack, Queen, King | 10 each |
Ace is always low. A-2-3 is a run; Q-K-A is not.
The deal
Ten cards each. The next card is turned face up to start the discard pile, and the rest becomes the stock.
The non-dealer gets first refusal on that opening upcard; if they pass, the dealer may take it; if both pass, the non-dealer draws from the stock and normal play begins.
Melds and deadwood
There are exactly two kinds of meld:
| Meld | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Set | three or four cards of the same rank | 7♣ 7♦ 7♠ |
| Run | three or more consecutive cards in one suit | 4♥ 5♥ 6♥ |
A card can only be in one meld at a time. Holding 7♣ 7♦ 7♠ and 5♠ 6♠ 7♠ you must choose which meld the 7♠ belongs to; the table works out the best arrangement of your hand for you.
Everything not in a meld is deadwood, and your deadwood count is the total value of those cards. Getting it low is the whole game.
Play
On your turn you do two things:
- Draw — either the top of the stock, face down, or the top card of the discard pile, which your opponent can see you take.
- Discard one card face up.
Then it is the other player's turn. Play continues until somebody ends the hand or the stock runs low.
Ending a hand
There are three ways a hand ends.
Knocking. After drawing, if your deadwood is 10 or less, you may knock: lay your hand down, melds separated from deadwood, and discard your last card face down. This ends the hand immediately.
Gin. If you knock with zero deadwood — every one of your ten cards in a meld — that is gin, and it is worth a bonus.
The stock runs out. If only two cards remain in the stock and the player has not knocked, the hand is a wash: nobody scores and the cards are redealt.
Scoring
When somebody knocks, the opponent first lays off — see below — and then the two deadwood counts are compared.
| Result | Who scores | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Knock, and the knocker's deadwood is lower | the knocker | the difference |
| Gin — knocker has no deadwood | the knocker | the difference + 25 |
| Undercut — the opponent's deadwood is equal or lower | the opponent | the difference + 25 |
Laying off is the defender's counterplay. After a knock — but not after gin — the opponent may add their own loose cards onto the knocker's melds. Holding the 8♥ when the knocker lays down 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ lets you attach it and take 8 points off your own deadwood. That is very often what turns a knock into an undercut.
The undercut is the reason not to knock cheaply. Knocking at 10 when your opponent is sitting at 6 hands them 4 points plus 25.
Ending the game
Play hands until somebody reaches the target — 100 points by default, with 150 and 250 also on offer.
Then the bonuses are added:
| Bonus | Points |
|---|---|
| Each hand you won — the box or line bonus | 25 |
| Reaching the target first — the game bonus | 100 |
So a game is usually decided by a comfortable margin rather than a single hand, and winning several small hands is worth as much as winning one large one.
Variants we implement
- Standard, to 100 — the default.
- Standard, to 150 and to 250 — longer games, identical rules.
- Oklahoma — the opening upcard sets the knock threshold for that hand instead of the usual 10. Turn up a 4 and nobody may knock above 4 deadwood; turn up an Ace and only gin will do. It makes each hand a different game.
- Big gin — an optional toggle. Reach a full eleven-card hand with every card melded, before discarding, and it scores 31 instead of the usual gin bonus of 25.
Where we differ from the common rules
- Two players only. Three-handed and partnership Gin are not implemented. A bot fills the other seat.
- No Hollywood scoring — the three-games-at-once bookkeeping is not implemented.
- No laying off against gin. That is the standard rule and we follow it: gin is undercut-proof.
- The knock threshold is 10 in every variant except Oklahoma, where the upcard sets it.
- No spade doubling — the Oklahoma rule where a spade upcard doubles the hand's score is not implemented.
Ready to play? Start a Gin Rummy table — a bot fills the other seat, so a game starts whenever you do.
For the wider game, including the variants above that we do not implement, see Gin rummy on Wikipedia.
Common questions
What is deadwood in Gin Rummy?
Every card in your hand that is not part of a meld. Their values are added up — face cards count 10, Ace counts 1 — and that total is your deadwood. Low deadwood is what lets you knock.
When can you knock in Gin Rummy?
After drawing, when your deadwood is 10 or less. In the Oklahoma variant the opening upcard sets the limit for that hand instead.
What is gin, and what is it worth?
Knocking with no deadwood at all — all ten cards melded. It scores the difference between the two hands plus a 25-point bonus, and your opponent cannot lay off against it.
What is an undercut in Gin Rummy?
When somebody knocks and the opponent turns out to have equal or less deadwood. The opponent scores the difference plus 25 instead, which is why knocking at the limit is risky.
How many points do you need to win Gin Rummy?
100 by default, with 150 and 250 offered as longer games. Bonuses are added at the end — 25 for each hand you won, and 100 for reaching the target first.