The Basics

Gin Rummy is played by 50 million people worldwide and is even easier and faster to play online!

The Object of the Game

Gin Rummy is usually a two-player game. Each player is dealt ten cards from a single 52-card deck. The object of Gin Rummy is to arrange your 10 cards into sets or ‘ melds’ as quickly as possible so that you can end the hand (or knock) before your opponent does, and accumulate points.

The remaining 32 cards are placed face-down between the players and is known as the “stock pile”. At the start of play, the top-most card from the stock pile is turned face-up and becomes a second pile called the “open pile”. Players take turns to pickup a card from either pile and then discard from their hand to the face-up open pile.

For most of the game, a turn consists of taking a card from either the stock pile or the open pile, adding it to your hand, and then discarding an unwanted card to the open pile. If you take the open pile card, you may not discard it again straight away.

At the start of the game the first player may only take a card from the open pile. If they do not want this card they can click the 'Pass' button and offer it to their opponent. If their opponent does not want it either, they can Pass back, and the first player can take a card from the stock pile instead. From then on, play continues as above.

If a hand takes a particularly long time to complete, the stock pile may run out of cards. If it ever gets down to 2 cards then the hand is abandoned, the cards are shuffled and dealt again.

Meld Your Cards. Meld your cards into sets of three or more cards. What’s a meld? A meld is at least three of a kind (7♠ 7♣ 7♥) or at least three cards in a same-suited straight (4♣ 5♣ 6♣). Use the “auto-sort” buttons to sort your hand by suit or by number.

Knock to End the Game. When you have enough melded cards you can “knock” to end the game. Both players will then show their hand face-up to see who has won.

When Can You Knock? Only when your “deadwood” cards are worth ten points or less. What is Deadwood? Unused cards in your hand which are not part of a meld are called “deadwood” cards. Let’s look at this example hand:

7♠ 7♣ 7♥ 4♥ 5♥ 6♥ A♥ 2♠ 5♣ J♥

The cards in blue are all melded. The cards in red are all deadwood cards. The A♥ is one point of deadwood; the 2♠ is two points; 5♣ is five points and the J♥ is ten points. So, the player with this hand has total deadwood of eighteen points and cannot yet knock. Aces are worth one point and any face card is worth the maximum ten points.

How Do You Win? Ending the game at the earliest opportunity doesn’t guarantee success. If you knock and your opponent has a better hand, you will lose that game. To knock, or not to knock, that is the question! Only knocking with a perfect hand (ie. no “deadwood”), called a “gin”, guarantees success. Here’s an example of a perfect hand:

2♠ 2♣ 2♥ 4♥ 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ 8♥ 9♥ 10♥

Once a player has knocked, their cards are automatically laid face-up on the table and sorted into sets and deadwood. If the player has not got Gin, their opponent may lay-off their deadwood cards.

Laying-off. Laying-off is an automatic process whereby any deadwood in the opponent's hand is placed onto the sets of the player who knocked, wherever possible. For example, if one of the sets a player knocks with is 2♠ 2♣ 2♥, and the opponent has the remaining 2♥ , this 2♥ is placed onto the knocking player's hand and the value is deducted from their own deadwood total.

Scoring at Gin Rummy

The player who wins the hand is the one who has the lowest deadwood total. The difference between the 2 totals is the winning player's score for that hand.

The knocking, laying-off and scoring system is demonstrated below:

In the example above, ProPlayer has knocked by discarding the 6 of Hearts. The remaining 10 cards in his hand comprise of 3 sets (the A-A-A, the 7-7-7 and the 4-4-4). His only deadwood (unmatched) card is the 6 of Spades. Its total value is 6, which made it possible for him to knock in the first place (the deadwood value must be 10 or less if you wish to knock).

At this point, the cards in GinBot's hand are arranged into sets and deadwood. Where possible, the deadwood is then 'laid-off' (this is completed automatically). In the above example, two sets are made (2-3-4-5 of Clubs and 10-J-Q-K of Clubs). At this point any of GinBot's deadwood cards that could be laid-off would also be subtracted - in this case if he held any Ace, Four or Seven to go with ProPlayer's melds. As he does not his deadwood retains its full face value.

GinBot's deadwood total is 12. ProPlayer's is 6. Therefore ProPlayer wins the hand and scores 6 points.

There are also 2 ways of earning additional points. If the knocking player has Gin they earn a 25 point bonus, and if the deadwood value of the player who laid-off their cards is less than or equal to the deadwood value of the knocking player, they earn a 25 point undercut bonus.

Winning the Game

Once these points have been added to the overall scores, play continues with further hands until one of the players has reached the target score for the room (which is shown on the Gin Rummy games page and in the wager details box in the top right corner of the live table). This player has then won the game.

Playing for Real Money

There are a number of ways to play Gin Rummy for real money stakes. Choose how much you wish to play for by creating your own game table in the game lobby. In the alternative you can join any game table already created by an opponent waiting to play.

First To Knock. A revolutionary new way to play Gin Rummy online. This game is easy to play, fast and furious. Just one game stands between you and the money. The first player to knock wins the money. Designed for players who love to ride their luck and a great place to start playing Gin Rummy online.

50 point MatchPlay. First player to accumulate 50 points wins the money. Points are awarded for the difference in value between the deadwood cards held by players. If you knock with 9 points of deadwood and your opponent has 19points of deadwood, you’ll score 10 game points. So, only another 40 points needed to win! The next game will start immediately. Several games are played until a winner is declared!

100 point MoneyPlay. The most popular way to play Gin Rummy for real money. First, choose how much money you wish to bring to the game table as your BuyIn. Then play several games until you have accumulated the 100 points needed to win. Points are awarded for the difference in value between the deadwood cards held by players. If you knock with 9 points of deadwood and your opponent has 19points of deadwood, you’ll score 10 game points. So, only another 90 points needed to win! The next game will start immediately. Several games are played until a winner is declared!

How Much Money Will You Win? In 50 point Matchplay and First-To-Knock you will win the entire stake from your opponent. In MoneyPlay and Purse Play you win all or just a proportion of your opponents Buy In. How much of your opponent’s BuyIn you receive depends on how well you both played. The bigger your lead in points over your opponent, the more money you will win! This calculation is clearly displayed at the end of the last game played in MoneyPlay and at the end of each hand in Purse Play. See previous section (Different Game Types) for details of how scores are calculated.