Rummy Tips

So you've picked up the basics – now how to master the game? The following tips and strategies are intended for the intermediate player not only to improve his/her rating but to win a higher percentage of games and thus make more money!

1. Three's company in gin

A meld is usually made of 3 cards and a knocking hand is invariably made up of 3 melds. Always pay attention to the small cards as many combinations of these can be made into the vital third meld, e.g. 4,4,2 or 5,3,1 etc. The vast majority of hands finish with one person knocking with the following type of combination: 8h, 8s, 8d, | jh, qh, kh, | 4s, 3c, 2d, ah. Note the four small card combo here which means that the two 'real' melds need only be of 3 cards each. A hand with three melds is usually a gin hand but far less common. Note that there is also the very rare exception of two five card sets for gin.
The four small unconnected cards make up the third meld if they are less than 10 points or less, thus allowing the player to knock. This implies that:

• you should be careful not to throw small cards at the beginning of the game which could potentially allow you to make this third meld. Equally, they may be useful to your opponent for his low card meld.
• Always take an ace as the first face card if you have the first option and almost always take a 2. Take a 3 if it would fit neatly into a small card meld. Taking small cards early also allows you to reduce your overall deadwood by throwing a high card, in case your opponent knocks early.
• When considering your discards, there is a trade-off between the value of a small card to your third 'low card meld' and the relative safety of other cards in your hand. You may be squeezed between throwing something useful to your opponent, throwing a 'builder' in your own hand, or throwing a small card.
• It is fairly rare to find a 6 or 7 in a low card meld (7,2,1/6,2,2/6,3,1/etc.) so unless you have aces or twos then keeping it for this purpose is not sensible.

2. It's not your ins but your outs

In both poker and gin, good players talk in terms of cards available to make/increase melds in your hand or your opponent's as 'outs'. The difference between having 2-3 or 4-5 outs is significant, especially when you consider that you know where at least 11 cards of a 52 deck are. If a few cards have already been taken and discarded, your 'knowledge' of the deck can quickly increase to around 20-30 cards at least. Knowing that of the remaining 20-30 cards, you have 4 'outs' to make your meld means that you have a very good chance of completing the set soon. Here are some examples:

• If you have a 5d,7d combination, for example, there is only one 'out', the 6d, which will improve on this pair of cards. Waiting a long time for 1 out to make an 'inside straight' is not recommended.
• If, instead, you have a connecting 6d, 7d pair, there are clearly two cards which can make this into a meld, the 5d and 8d. The same goes for a pair of tens or other equal number cards.
• 'Triangles' are prettier yet, such as 5h, 5d, 6d. With this little combo, there are four cards which can help you make a meld – the two fives out there plus the 7d and 4d.
• It doesn't get much better than a 'six card combo' – take this set of cards in your hand: 6s, 7s, 7h, 8s, 8h, 8c. You already have one meld (the 8's, or the 6s, 7s, 8s) but the other three loose cards are even better than a normal triangle as described above. In this example, you have not 4 but 6 outs to make a second meld from the combination. Any one of 8d, 7c, 7d, 5s, 6h, 9h would do it for you.
• Beware of the overlaps. This hand looks quite good at first glance but in terms of outs there are too many overlaps. 6s, 7s, 8c, 8d, 5h, 5d, 4c, 3c, As, Ad. The 5s needed to extend your first spade meld is also one of the two outs to complete your five set. Similarly, the 8s out for your set is the same 8s needed at the end of your spade run. The 5c is needed in both the small club run and the set of fives.
• If you're sitting on a 7c, 8c, 8s and the 9c has been discarded earlier there are only three outs for your triangle rather than four. If you have to discard one of these, then clearly it's the 7c as there are two eights available for you to build with but only one 6c.
• If again you're sitting on a triangle of 7c, 8c, 8s but no 9c has passed and you have to discard one, then generally it's better to discard the unconnected set card, or 8s in this case. Although the odds of getting another 8 are the same as getting a 6c or 9c, it's the odds of building on a suit to make a four meld that are better thereafter. With a meld of 8's for example, there is one card, the last 8, which will allow you to make a four meld. With a meld of 7h, 8h, 9h, there are two outs 'out there' to increase this meld to a four card run, the 10h and the 6h.
• Consider your chances of making gin in terms of outs. You're sitting, for example, on the following hand: kh, kc, kd, ks, 6s, 6h, 6c, 10h, jh, qh, 2c . Not a bad hand at all and you could knock for two deadwood immediately. But should you hang on for gin? Much depends here on how early on it is in the game (which we look at later) but also on how many 'outs' you have. There are only two cards out there which can get you gin: the 6d and the 9h. If you have both taken and discarded several cards and you believe that your opponent's also going for gin, two isn't many and a simple knock with two points is called for. The opposite would be true with the following hand: 10h, jh, qh, 6c, 7c, 8c, 3s, 4s, 5s, 2c. Here you have 6 possible outs for gin so hang in there!
• Middle cards have better chances of being used in combinations than other cards: a 7 works in more combinations than any other card, with Kings and Aces, then Queens and 2's thereafter. Note, however, that Aces and 2's have that other special feature of being easily formed into the third low card meld.

3. Wild is dangerous

It pays to play the percentages in gin and wild discards get expensive expensive...

• A completely 'wild' card, i.e. one which is unconnected to anything in your hand or any discards you have seen to date, has 6 chances of being used by your opponent. A 9h, for example, can make a meld in your opponent's hand with any one of 9c, 9d | 9c, 9s | 9d, 9s | 7h, 8h | 8h, 10h | and 10h, jh |.
• Kings and Queens are safer, however: the Ks, for example, can only be connected with three combinations of other kings plus a Jh, qh combination, i.e. 4 combinations (with Queens at 5, for similar reasons).
• How wild a card is, therefore, is almost the converse of how many outs you have. Cards become less wild depending not only on what has been discarded but what you have in your hand. For example, your opponent has previously thrown a 10h and when it's your turn to discard, you have a 9c to consider. You can infer from his discard that it's unlikely he will have the 10c or the 9h (which would have represented a pair in his hand). So, rather than being completely wild and open to 6 possible combinations, it is only open to 2: 9d, 9s | 7c, 8c |.
• All other things being equal, your best discard is one up or down from his discard in a different suit. If your opponent's first discard is a 9d, then a discard of 8c or 10c is least risky.
• Safety, like outs, is all relative. Throwing a 10s when you have 9h, 9c, 9s in your hand is less wild (because of the spade run combinations), than throwing a jd.
• If you need to throw wild, then throw wild early. The chance of a completely wild card representing an 'out' in your opponent's hand, i.e. connecting to make a meld, is around 1/3 after several discards compared to 3/1 at the beginning of the hand. Discards get wilder!

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