How To Play Gin Rummy With 4 Players

• How To Play Gin Rummy With 5 Players
• How To Play Gin Rummy With 4 Players

Tutorial of Rules and Strategies for advanced amateur gin rummy players Gin-Rummy tutorial. Learn how to play Gin-Rummy and win Read this to understand and fully comprehend the Gin-Rummy game. The Classic Card Game Goes Digital in This New Version.

Gin Rummy Rules

Gin Rummy is a member of the Rummy family of games. As with most games there are plenty of variations out there, so the game might not be exactly like you play it or have different points for some things. Below I'll explain the rules we use on this site. I'll start by explaining a few basic concepts, and then go over the gameplay and scoring of the game.

Basic concepts

• Set: Three or four cards of the same rank, for example H8 S8 D8 or H12 S12 D12 C12
• Run: Three or more cards in sequence in the same suit, for example H1 H2 H3 or C6 C7 C8 C9 C10. Aces are always low, never high, and runs can't wrap around, so Q,K,A,2 would not be a legal run.
• Meld: A word for both Sets and Runs. You might for example have three melds, where two of them are sets and one is a run. Each card can only be part of one set or run, for example if you have an 8 you cannot count it both as part of 8,8,8 and 7,8,9.
• Stock: A deck of facedown cards, in the middle of the table. Players draw one card from the stock in every round.
• Discard pile: A pile of faceup cards, placed next to the stock. Players discard one card onto the pile in every round.
• Deadwood: Any cards in your hand that are not part of a meld.
• Knocking: Ending the round by putting a card face down on the discard pile.
• Gin: When all 10 cards in your hand are parts of melds and you have no deadwood.
• Big Gin: When all 10 cards in your hand and the card you just drew are parts of melds, so you have 11 cards, all in melds.
• Lay off: Adding your deadwood cards to an opponents melds.

Objective

The objective of Gin Rummy is to collect cards into melds and have as little deadwood as possible at the end of a game. The game is scored based on how much deadwood you have at the end of each game. A game can span several rounds, it's over when one player reaches 100 points. At that point grand total for each player is calculated, with bonuses, and the player with the highest score wins the whole game.

Gameplay

Each player gets 10 cards. The remaining deck is put on the table between the players face down, and one card is put face up besides the deck to start the discard pile.

In each turn a player must start by drawing one card. He can either draw the top card from the deck or the top card from the discard pile. Generally you only draw the top card from the discard pile if you know that the card will help you create a meld with some of the other cards in your hand.

• Note: In the first turn, the starting player must choose to either draw the face up card in the board or pass the turn. If the card is drawn, proceed normally. If the turn is passed, the other player gets to make the same choice. If they pass too, the first player takes their turn normally.

After the player has drawn a card he must discard one card by putting it face up on top of the discard pile. If the player has drawn the top card from the discard pile at the start of the turn he may not discard that card until his next turn (also, that wouldn't make any sense at all). He may however discard a card he has just drawn from the deck, or any other card he has in his hand.

The game continues like this, with players drawing and discard cards, while they try to build sets and runs in their hand. The round ends when one player knocks, by discarding a card and putting it face down on the discard pile. The player that knocked (the knocker) then shows his melds and his deadwood by putting it face up on the table. The opponent then shows his melds and deadwood. The opponent is allowed to lay off any of his deadwood cards onto the knocker's melds if he can. For example if the knocker had a meld, H1 H2 H3 and the opponent has a H4 as part of his deadwood he can add it to the knocker's meld, and then it won't count as deadwood anymore. The knocker cannot do the same, he can never lay off his deadwood. Additionally, if the knocker has Gin or Big Gin (no deadwood) then the opponent is not allowed to lay off any cards.

There are some rules for when you can knock. They vary between different versions, but this is how it's done on this site: You may only knock if you end up with 10 or fewer points of deadwood (human cards count as 10, aces as 1 and other cards their numeric values). The card you knock with (put facedown on the discard pile) is not included in that number. So, if you have just drawn and you have 3,5,9 as deadwood you would be allowed to knock with the 9, and then you'd end up with 3+5=8 points as deadwood.

Knocking with no deadwood, i.e. all 10 card in you hands forming melds is called going Gin. Going Big Gin is when you have 11 cards in melds, in which case you can say you have Big Gin and the game ends without you discarding the final card facedown.

The game also ends if neither player has knocked and there are only two cards left in the deck. In that case the hand is a tie, and neither player gets any points.

Scoring

Scoring is based on deadwood and bonuses, the actual melds don't actually count for anything, they're only good to minimize your deadwood.

• Knock points: After all lay offs are made, the knocker scores the difference between his deadwood and the opponents deadwood. For example, the knocker has 3 points of deadwood, and the opponent has 21 points of deadwood, then the knocker scores 21-3=18 points.
• Gin Bonus: If a player gets Gin he gets 25 extra points, added to the knock points he already got.
• Big Gin Bonus: If a player gets Big Gin he 31 extra points, added to the knock points he already got.
• Undercut: If a player knocks but the opponent has less or equal deadwood points, then the opponent gets 25 points plus the difference in deadwood points, and the knocker gets 0 points. However, if the knocker gets Gin there is never an undercut, even if the opponent also has 0 deadwood points.
• Game bonus: After a player has reached 100 points he gets a special game bonus, 100 points, added to his overall score.
• Line bonus or box bonus: This bonus is added at the end of the game, and adds 25 points for each hand won during the game.
• Shutout bonus: If the winner won every hand in the game then the points for each hand are doubled before adding the line bonus. I wasn't sure here how to handle it if someone has won all hands except for ones that end in a tie, so for now I'm requiring that you win all hands and none end in a tie to get this bonus. Let me know if you disagree with this.

And that's it. I'm sure there are plenty of people who prefer other rules, but you can never please everyone and these are the rules I'm going with.

Gin Rummy, a member of the Rummy group of card games is the most popular and widely played member of all games in this group. The game is played with a standard 52 card deck. The game is normally played by two players. Jokers and other wild cards are not used in the standard Gin Rummy game.
The cards used for this game rank from King high down to Ace low (K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A). The value of the cards (for totaling of unmatched cards at the end of the hand, see below) is as follows: All court cards (King, Queen and Jack) are 10 points each, Ace counts as one and the remaining cards count as their marked value.
The object of the game is to be the first player to score 100 or more points through the course of several hands. This is done by attempting to make matching sets in your hand by forming valid sets and runs of cards, thus obtaining a lower count of non-matched cards (called deadwood) in your hand than your opponent.

How To Play Gin Rummy With 5 Players

The two types of valid groups or melds of cards a player can make in their hands are as follows:

• A set is a group of 3 or 4 cards of the same rank. These cards must all be of the exact same rank, such as 3 10's or 4 Jacks.



• A run is a group of 3 or more cards, in sequence, of the same suit. For example, this could be 2, 3, 4 and 5 of Diamonds, or 10, Jack, and Queen of Spades. Aces are equivalent to a value of one and thus can be played only in a run preceding a 2.



Four Card Run

The dealer of the first hand can be determined in various ways, with cutting for high card being a common method. Thereafter, the winner of each hand deals the next.
At the start of each hand, each player is dealt 10 cards face down in front of them. The first card is given to the dealers opponent, the next to the dealer, the next to the opponent, and so on alternating until each player has 10 cards. The next card in the deck is then turned face up on the table (this is called the upcard) and placed next to the remainder of the deck which is placed face down to form the stock.
After the cards are dealt and the players have examined their hands, the non-dealer has the first choice of taking the upcard. If the non-dealer chooses not to take this card, the dealer then has the opportunity to take the card. If both players decline the upcard, the non-dealer draws the top card of the stock and adds it to his hand, playing the hand as normal, including discarding at the end of his turn (see below). Thereafter, each player on their proper turn, can opt to take the top upcard or the top card of the face down stock. After selecting a card the player can then either knock or continue playing by discarding a card face-up to the top of the discard pile, which becomes the new upcard. If a player takes the upcard, they may never discard that same card on that turn.
If the stock pile is reduced down to the last two cards, neither of these cards may be drawn. If the player who draws the third to last card of the stock does not knock at the end of his turn, the hand is over, being considered a draw with no scoring being considered for that hand.

In this example, a player has knocked with a total deadwood value of 5 in an effort to have a lower such count than his opponent.

Knocking: Any player on his normal turn of play may choose to knock. To do so, a player would first draw a card as normal and then would indicate they are knocking. A player can indicate a 'knock' by actually making a knocking motion with the knuckles on the table or indicating this verbally by saying something such as 'I knock'. They would then discard one card from their hand face down. In order to knock a player must have a total value of unmatched cards in his hand of 10 or less after the discard. As noted above for calculating this total, court cards are worth 10 points each, Aces one and all other cards their face value.
After knocking the player who does so lays his hand face up on the table, with all his melds grouped together and his unmatched deadwood separated. Unless the knocking player has no unmatched cards, the opponent may lay off any unmatched cards in their own hand that might extend the runs and sequences of the knocking player. The knocking player, however, may not do so on his opponents melds. If the total card value of unmatched cards of the knocking player is lower than the opponent, he wins the hand and scores for himself the difference between his hand and his opponents. However, if the opponent has a lower or equal total card value, the opponent instead wins the hand and scores 25 points plus the difference in card counts. This is called an undercut.
In the event that the knocker has no unmatched cards after their discard, called Going Gin, the opponent may not lay off any of their unmatched cards on the knockers melds (although they may set aside any of their own valid melds) and the knocker wins the hand regardless of the opponents total in unmatched cards. Going gin scores 25 points for the knocker plus his opponents total count in unmatched cards remaining in their hand.

Gin Rummy Scoring

The first player to score 100 points wins the game. He also receives a 100 point game bonus added to his score. If the opponent has not won any hands during the game the winning player scores 200 instead. Each player then adds a 25 point additional bonus for each individual hand they have won through the course of the game. Each 25 points thus scored in this way is called a box or line bonus. The image to the left shows a possible sample score sheet for a game which consisted of 11 hands.

How To Play Gin Rummy With 4 Players