Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy uses a standard 52-card deck with no jokers and is played by two players. You sit at the bottom of the table and the computer opponent sits at the top. For each hand the dealer deals 10 cards to each player, turns the next card face up in the middle to start the discard pile (the upcard), and leaves the remaining 31 cards face down as the stock.

Your aim is to fit as many of your cards as possible into melds, keep the points of your unmatched cards, called deadwood, as low as possible, and knock or go Gin before your opponent does. A match is made up of several hands, and the first player to reach 100 points wins it.

• Set: three or four cards of the same rank, such as 7♠ 7♥ 7♦.
• Run: three or more cards of the same suit in sequence, such as 4♣ 5♣ 6♣ 7♣.

In Gin Rummy the ace is always low. A-2-3 is a run, but Q-K-A is not, and a run cannot wrap around from king to ace. Each card can belong to only one meld at a time.

Cards that are not part of any meld are deadwood, and their total value is your deadwood count. Cards are worth:

• ace: 1 point;
• 2 to 10: their face value;
• jack, queen and king: 10 points each.

A hand can often be arranged in more than one way. Take 7♥ 7♠ 7♦ 8♥ 9♥: if the 7♥ goes into the set, the 8♥ and 9♥ are left as 17 points of deadwood; if it goes into the run 7♥ 8♥ 9♥, only 7♠ and 7♦ remain, for 14 points. Your deadwood is always counted using the arrangement that leaves the least. On this site your hand is grouped into its best melds automatically, deadwood sits in its own section, and your current deadwood count is always shown, so you never have to arrange the cards yourself.

After the deal, the players first decide on the face-up upcard:

1. The non-dealer decides first. If they take it, they then discard one card and it is the other player's turn.
2. If the non-dealer passes, the dealer decides. If the dealer takes it, the dealer discards one card and play passes to the non-dealer.
3. If both players pass, the non-dealer draws from the stock and play continues normally.

During this step the table shows just two buttons, Take and Pass, and you need to choose one before play can go on.

On your turn you first draw one card: either the face-down top card of the stock or the face-up top card of the discard pile. You now hold 11 cards, so you then discard one card face up onto the discard pile and are back to 10.

There is one restriction: a card you took from the discard pile cannot be discarded again on the same turn. Taking from the discard pile is public, so your opponent sees what you picked up. On this site, cards your opponent has taken from the discard pile and still holds are shown face up next to their card backs.

After drawing, if discarding one of your cards would leave the other 10 with a deadwood count of 10 or less, you may knock: you discard that card face down, end the hand and lay your cards on the table. Exactly 10 is enough; 11 is not.

If the discard leaves zero deadwood, so that all 10 remaining cards are in melds, you go Gin. Neither knocking nor going Gin is ever required; you can keep drawing and discarding in the hope of a better hand.

When someone knocks, both hands are revealed:

• The knocker's melds are fixed at the moment of the knock and do not change afterwards.
• The defender then forms their own melds and may lay off deadwood onto the knocker's melds: a fourth card to a set, or a card that extends a run at either end. A card that has been laid off can be extended in turn. For example, if the knocker has 5♠ 6♠ 7♠, the defender can lay off 4♠, 8♠ and 9♠.
• The knocker may never lay off onto the defender's melds.
• If the knocker went Gin, the defender may not lay off at all and simply counts the deadwood left after their own best melds.

This site works out the defender's arrangement and layoffs that leave the least deadwood automatically, and the showdown panel lists both players' melds, every card laid off and the final deadwood counts.

Only one player scores in each hand:

• Gin: the knocker scores 25 points plus the defender's deadwood.
• Knock: if the knocker's deadwood is lower than the defender's deadwood after laying off, the knocker scores the difference.
• Undercut: if the defender's deadwood after laying off is equal to or lower than the knocker's, the defender undercuts and scores 25 points plus the difference.

For example, suppose you knock with 8 points of deadwood. If your opponent is left with 20 after laying off, you score 12. If they are left with 8, they score 25. If they are left with 6, they score 27.

When only 2 cards remain in the stock and the player who drew the third-last card discards without knocking, the hand is dead. Nobody scores, and the same dealer deals the next hand. The opponent's cards are not revealed after a dead hand.

Whoever scored a hand deals the next one, so their opponent plays first. After a dead hand the dealer stays the same.

After a hand is scored, if either player's total has reached or passed 100, the match ends and that player wins. The final totals are then settled:

• the winner adds a game bonus of 100 points;
• each player adds 25 points for every hand they won in the match;
• if the loser did not win a single hand (a shutout), the winner's hand points are doubled first, and then the game bonus and the 25-point hand bonuses are added.

For example, suppose you won three hands for 30, 40 and 35 points, 105 in total, and your opponent won none. Your final score is 105 × 2 + 100 + 3 × 25 = 385. If your opponent had also won one hand for 20 points, you would finish on 105 + 100 + 75 = 280 and they would finish on 20 + 25 = 45. The result panel lists every hand, the game bonus, the hand bonuses and the final scores.

Gin Rummy, often just called Gin, is one of the most popular two-player members of the rummy family. Its rules boil down to drawing one card and discarding one, yet every discard tells your opponent something. What you throw away shows what you do not need, and what you pick up from the discard pile shows which meld you are building.

That is where the fun lies. You organise your own melds while reading your opponent's plans. Knocking early can catch them with a lot of deadwood, but it risks an undercut. Waiting for Gin earns a 25-point bonus and stops them from laying off, but they may knock first. Every hand is a series of choices between knocking now and waiting one more turn.

This site plays the common standard rules for two players: aces are low, you may knock with 10 or less, Gin and undercuts each earn a 25-point bonus, the defender may not lay off against Gin, the hand is dead when two cards remain in the stock, and the match ends at 100 with a game bonus, 25 points per hand won and double points for a shutout. Variations such as Oklahoma Gin, Hollywood scoring and Big Gin with 11 cards are not used here.

Open the page and play right away. There is nothing to download and no account to create, and the full game works in portrait or landscape on a phone as well as in a desktop browser. The computer opponent comes in three levels, Easy, Normal and Hard, with Normal as the default. If you change the difficulty from the menu, the new level applies from the next hand.

• Automatic melds: your hand is grouped into its best melds, deadwood is set apart, and your deadwood count is always on display.
• Drawing: tap the stock to draw a face-down card, or tap the top of the discard pile to take it. A newly drawn card is briefly marked.
• Discarding: tap a card to select it, then press Discard, or tap the same card again to discard it. While a card is selected, the game shows what your deadwood would be after discarding it. A card you just took from the discard pile is marked as unavailable for this turn.
• Knock and Gin: the Knock button appears only when you can knock, and Gin appears when you can go Gin. If you have already selected a card whose discard allows a knock, pressing Knock knocks straight away. Otherwise the game preselects a suggested discard and asks you to confirm once more before the showdown.
• Clear reasons: if you try something that is not allowed, the game tells you why, for example "Draw a card first", that a card was just taken and cannot be discarded this turn, or that your deadwood is over 10 so you cannot knock. Nothing on the table changes.
• Hint: suggests whether to take the upcard, where to draw from and which card to discard, and points out a knock or Gin first when one is available.
• Fast-forward: speed up your opponent's turns. The number of cards left in the stock and both scores are always visible.
• Hand and match results: after each hand a panel shows both players' melds, layoffs, the scoring sum and the totals; press Next hand to continue. When the match is over, the panel shows the result and the full settlement; press Play again for a new match. You can also choose New match from the menu at any time, with a single confirmation.
• Autosave: reload the page, rotate your phone or go in and out of full screen, and the match continues from where you left it.

There is no undo. Every card you draw or discard has already been seen by your opponent, so every move is final. If you are unsure, press Hint first.

Shed high deadwood first. Jacks, queens and kings are worth 10 points each. Holding on to them can stop you from knocking and costs you heavily when your opponent knocks. Throw away high cards that have little chance of forming a meld.

Keep cards that can grow both ways. A pair of connected cards such as 6♥ 7♥ can become a run with either the 5♥ or the 8♥. A pair of nines can only be completed by one of the two remaining nines. The more ways a hand can improve, the sooner you can knock.

Watch what your opponent picks up. Cards your opponent takes from the discard pile are shown face up. If they took the 8♣, avoid discarding the 7♣, the 9♣ or another 8 that could complete their meld.

Remember the discards. If both of the other queens are already in the discard pile, your pair of queens can never become a set, so it is time to break it up.

Knock early when you can. In the first few turns your opponent usually still has plenty of deadwood, and knocking with 7 or 8 points can win a good margin. The longer a hand goes on, the closer your opponent gets to their melds and the greater the risk of an undercut.

Guard against the undercut. Before knocking, ask whether your melds leave room for layoffs and which of your opponent's cards you already know. If they may be close to Gin, knocking with high deadwood can hand them the points.

Do not chase Gin at all costs. The 25-point Gin bonus is tempting, but waiting too long for the last card can let your opponent knock first. When a solid knock is available, it is often the better choice.