How to play Gin Rummy (Short)

Gin Rummy is a card game for two players in which you form your cards into sets and runs and try to end the hand, by knocking or going gin, before your opponent does.

Gin Rummy played to 50 points.

About Gin Rummy (Short)

Gin Rummy: Short plays exactly like the classic game, with a knock limit of 10, but ends as soon as a player reaches 50 points.

At 50 points one gin against a hand full of deadwood, or a single undercut, can decide the game, so every knock matters more.

The line bonus of 25 points for each hand won and the game bonus of 100 are the same as in the longer games, so in the final totals they weigh more against the points won in hands.

A game to 50 can be over in one or two hands. If the loser has not won a hand by then, it is a shutout, and the winner's hand points are doubled before the bonuses are added.

Watch the scores between hands. When you need only a few points, knock as soon as you are allowed to, since any knock that is not undercut scores something. When your opponent is close to 50, remember that the computer player knocks whenever it can, so a quick knock of your own is often worth more than waiting for gin.

However short the game, the winner's final total is never small: at least 50 in hands, 25 for each hand won and 100 for the game, so at least 175, and a shutout doubles the hand points to make it at least 225. An undercut counts as a hand won too, so catching a knock earns the line bonus as well as the 25 points.

Count what one hand can bring. Gin scores 25 plus your opponent's deadwood, so a gin against 25 or more deadwood ends the game from a score of nothing, and big gin needs only 19. An undercut can never do it alone: the knocker holds 10 or less, so it is worth at most 25 plus 10, or 35.

The goal of Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy is a card game for two players, and here you play against one computer player. In each hand you try to form your cards into melds and bring down the points left over, and to end the hand before your opponent does.

How to set up Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy uses a 52-card deck. The first dealer is chosen at random, and after that the deal alternates. Each player is dealt 10 cards, one at a time, starting with the player who is not dealing.

The next card is turned face up to start the discard pile; this card is the upcard. The other 31 cards are placed face down as the stock.

Gin Rummy rules

A meld is a set or a run. A set is three or four cards of the same rank. A run is three or more cards in sequence in one suit. Ace is always low, so A-2-3 is a run but Q-K-A is not. A card can belong to only one meld.

Deadwood is every card that is not in a meld. Aces count 1, twos to tens count their face value, and jacks, queens and kings count 10 each.

Each hand opens with the upcard. The player who did not deal may take it or pass, and if they pass, the dealer may take it or pass. Whoever takes it then discards. If both pass, the player who did not deal starts by drawing from the stock.

On each turn you take the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile, then discard one card face up. You may not discard the card you just took from the discard pile.

Instead of an ordinary discard you may knock when the deadwood left in your ten cards is no more than the knock limit, which is 10 in the classic game: you discard and the hand ends. Knocking with no deadwood at all is gin. If all eleven of your cards form melds after you take a card, you can declare big gin without discarding. You may knock on your very first turn.

You never have to arrange your cards yourself. When a hand ends, both hands are laid out in the melds that leave the least deadwood.

After a knock, the other player lays off deadwood onto the knocker's melds: a fourth card on a set of three, or the next card at either end of a run, one after another. Layoffs are also made for you, in the way that leaves the least deadwood. Nothing can be laid off after gin or big gin.

Once only two cards are left in the stock, a player who discards without knocking ends the hand, and it is void. Nobody scores, and the same dealer deals again.

The full Gin Rummy guide, with strategy tips and common questions