How to play Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy is the classic two-player rummy game — quick, tactical, and endlessly replayable. Invented in the early 20th century and made famous by Hollywood card tables, it strips rummy down to its sharpest form: two hands, a single stock, and the constant judgement of when to hold for a better hand and when to knock and bank your lead. Here you play against a bot opponent.

Goal

Be the first to reach 100 points across as many hands as it takes. Each hand you try to arrange your ten cards into melds and leave as little unmatched "deadwood" as possible.

Melds

• Sets — three or four cards of the same rank (three Queens).
• Runs — three or more cards in sequence in the same suit (4-5-6 of clubs). Aces are low: A-2-3 is a run, but Q-K-A is not.
• Each card belongs to one meld only. Anything left over is deadwood: face cards and tens count 10, aces 1, the rest their face value.

Playing a turn

On your turn you first draw — take the face-up discard if it helps, or the top of the stock if you'd rather gamble on an unseen card — then discard one card face-up. Melded cards are outlined in green and your current deadwood count is shown live, so you always know where you stand.

Knocking, gin & scoring

Once your deadwood is 10 or less you may knock: lay down your melds and score the difference between your deadwood and your opponent's. If you reduce your deadwood to zero you go gin — lay everything down for a 25-point bonus, and your opponent can't lay off. On an ordinary knock your opponent may lay off their loose cards onto your melds to shrink their deadwood, and if they end up with the same or less than you, they undercut you for the difference plus a 25-point bonus. So knock early to deny your opponent cards, or hold for gin when the hand is rich — that tension is the whole game. K knocks, N starts a new game.