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Free Online Gin Rummy Card Video Game

Play Gin Rummy Online for Free

Game Features

Try to win a Gin Rummy game against a computer opponent. You need to create three of four of a kind or three or more cards in a sequence or suit. .

Guide To Gin Rummy

The aim of Gin Rummy is to score points and reach an agreed number of points before your opponent does.

In this article, we'll look at: 

The History Of Gin Rummy

The origins of Gin Rummy are debated. 

Gin Rummy, often shortened to “Gin”, may have evolved from 19th-century Whiskey Poker.

Card game historian David Parlett maintains that a game called Conquian was Gin Rummy's forerunner. Conquian originated in Mexico in the mid-1800s and, like Gin, involved melding sets and runs. 

Whatever the origins, Gin Rummy today is a widely played game with perhaps the peak being in the 1940's, where it was particularly popular in the United States.  

Gin vs Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy is similar to the game gin, but is designed to be faster.

The goal of the game is to put your cards into melds of sets or runs.

Each card can only be used in one meld. If you had the 7-8-9 of clubs and also wanted to use that same 7 as part of a set of sevens you can not & 2 of your sevens would count as deadwood.

How To Play Gin Rummy

The game uses a 52-card deck. 

Each player is dealt 10 cards. The top card of the remaining deck is flipped up to create the discard pile. The objective of the game is to create runs and sets with your 10 cards. 

A run is three or more cards in a row of the same suit.  A set is three or four of the same ranking cards. 

The game starts with the non dealer deciding if she wants the face-up top card. If  this player passes, then player 1 has the option to pick up the discard. If that player passes,  player 2 begins the game by drawing the top card of the deck. 

The player may keep the card to form a run, or discard it. The player then discards another card, and places it on the pile. If player 1 does not want this card, he will draw from the deck. He may pass on this card, or add it and discard another. 

Play continues back and forth as players try to create sets and runs in their hand. With each turn, they decide whether to take the top discard or to draw from the deck. 

The goal is to get rid of “deadwood” by melding as many cards as you can in order to go knock or go gin. 

“Deadwood” are any remaining cards from your hand which are not part of a set or run. A “meld” is when a player has three or more of a kind, or by has three or more of a run. A run is made of three or more cards of the same suit in increasing or decreasing order. 

When a player “knocks” it means that she has reduced her hand to the maximum points allowed by the value of the knock card. For example, if the knock card was a five, then the person who is knocking has five or less points left in their hand. 

“Going gin” is when a player gets rid of all of their deadwood through melds. Going gin earns a 25 point bonus, and also the deadwood value of the other player.

Playing Tricks

Each player is dealt 10 cards. On each turn you can choose to take the top card off the waste pile or pull a card from the stock. You then discard a card and it is the other player's turn.

In Gin it benefits players to play their sets and runs throughout the game as they do not have a chance to do so at the end of the game & are stuck holding whatever cards remain in their hand.

In Gin Rummy a player does not need to lay tricks throughout the hand, but can knock (also known as going down) when the numerical value of cards in their hands that are not parts of sets or runs (called "deadwood") is 10 or less.

If you have 0 deadwood points then knocking is called "Going Gin."

When you knock your hand has 11 cards in it & you discard the eleventh card while keeping the 10 that are either parts of melds or have the lowest numerical value.

Scoring

The winnger player scores points based on which cards their opponent holds in their hand at the end of a hand which are not part of a set or run.

Numerical cards are worth their face value, aces are worth a point, and face cards are worth 10.

When one player knocks the other player loys down their cards the deadwood between the two hands is compared. This difference is used to determine how many points the winner scored.

For example, if you knock and have 8 points of deadwood and your opponent has 18 points of deadwood you score 10 points while your opponent scores zero.

If somoene knocks with 0 deadwood they score a 25 point bonus.

Play Strategy

In general it is best to keep lower cards & avoid keeping higher cards unless they are in melds, as the hand can end at any time.

Players can track which cards have been thrown on the waste pile to infer their odds of being able to make various melds. There is no point trying to create a meld where one of the cards needed has already been thrown away.

Try to keep cards in your hands which give you multiple opportunities. For example, you may have the 3 and 4 of diamonds and the 4 and 5 of hearts. Those cards have low numerical values and you can create a meld out of some portion of them by getting a 2 or 5 of diamonds, a 3 or 5 of hearts, or any other 3. In general when you need a single card to complete a run it is better to keep consecutive suited cards than to hope on picking up a suited card in betwee. If your cards are consecutive you have a 1 in 13 chance of being able to pick up the needed card on any turn (between the waste pile and the draw stack) whereas if you need a specific card you have only a 1 in 26 chance of getting it.

If you see your opponent discard a queen and you have a single queen it can make sense to lay down your queen after your next round unless it has a high likelihood of being part of a run.

If you see your opponent pick up a higher value card that means it is likely part of a meld. In general you do not want to lay the same card again unless it is when you knock.

Ending the Game

The overall game has 10 rounds and ends when a player reaches 100 points. If you get to the end of 10 rounds and nobody has reached 100 points you keep playing additional hands until somebody does. Whoever has the highest score at that point is the winner. You can submit your score to the leaderboard.

How To Score Gin Rummy

Each player counts the total value of their unmatched cards. 

If a player's “knock” count is lower, the knocker scores the difference between the two counts. 

If the knocker did not go gin, and the counts are equal, or the knocker's count is greater than that of the opponent, the knocker has been undercut. In this case the knocker's opponent scores the difference between the counts plus a 10 point bonus.

A player who goes gin scores a bonus 20 points, plus the opponent's count in unmatched cards. 

The game continues with further deals until one player's cumulative score reaches 100 points. That player receives a game bonus of 100 points. If the loser failed to score anything at all during the game, then the winner's bonus is 200 points.

For every hand a player won during the game, 25 points are added to their score.

Gin Rummy Strategy

Watch Your Opponent's Draws

Hold onto cards that your opponent might be trying to collect. For example, if your opponent picks up a five of spades, you might choose to discard any card that isn't spades. 

Don't Draw From the Discard Pile Unless Doing So Completes a Run

You might be passing on an opportunity to see the top card of the deck, which might complete a run. Also, related to the point above, your opponent can see what card you take from the discard pile. 

Time Your Knock

Few hands end with a player completing all their possible melds. Knocking to end a hand is more likely.

Therefore, it is a good idea to be the first one to knock. Consider doing so when there are less than 15 cards remaining in the draw pile.

Pay Attention to What Cards Are Being Discarded

For example, if two jacks have already been discarded, your pair of jacks is never going to become a meld as a set, and you should get rid of them unless they are part of a run.

Discard Higher Value Cards

You need to build a hand that is good enough to knock with. This means you need a low deadwood score. Dump your deadwood face cards and hold on to low numbers to increase your chances of an early knock.

Never Draw to an Inside Straight

It is not a good idea to try to draw the one card that will complete an inside straight. It is a better option to hang on to two consecutive suited cards. If you do, then you will double your chances to complete a meld.

FAQs

How many cards are used in Gin Rummy? 

Gin Rummy uses a deck 52 standard playing cards.

Are Aces high in Gin Rummy? 

In Gin Rummy, Kings are high and Aces are low. 

How many possible hands are there in Gin Rummy?

There are 15,820,024,220 possible ten-card hands in Gin Rummy.

What are the probabilities of the dealer being dealt a three-card meld in his first 10 cards? 

Roughly two out of every five hands. The chances of the non-dealer being dealt a run in the first 11 cards are approximately one in two.

What are alternative versions of Gin Rummy?

There are many different ways to play Gin Rummy. Variations include: 

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