Gin Rummy rules

Setup and the deal

Gin Rummy uses one standard 52-card deck with aces low: an ace ranks below the 2, so A-2-3 of a suit is a run but Q-K-A is not. Each player is dealt ten cards. The next card is turned face up as the upcard, starting the discard pile, and the remaining 31 cards form the face-down stock. The deal alternates between players every hand.

Before normal play begins there is a short opening ritual over the upcard. The non-dealer gets first refusal: they may take the upcard into their hand (and then discard any other card) or pass. If they pass, the dealer gets the same choice. If both players pass, the non-dealer must begin the hand by drawing the top card of the stock — the passed-over upcard may not be taken as the first draw.

The turn: draw, then discard

Turns alternate, and every turn has exactly two halves:

1. Draw one card — either the face-down top card of the stock, or the face-up top card of the discard pile. Only the top discard is available; the pile is never dug into.
2. Discard one card face up onto the discard pile. Your hand returns to ten cards and the turn passes.

One restriction applies: if you took the top card of the discard pile, you may not discard that same card back on the same turn. A card drawn from the stock may be discarded immediately.

Melds and deadwood

A meld is either a set — three or four cards of the same rank — or a run — three or more consecutive cards in one suit. Each card can belong to only one meld at a time; a 7♥ cannot serve in a set of sevens and a 5-6-7 heart run simultaneously. Everything in your hand that is not part of a meld is deadwood, and each deadwood card costs its point value:

When the hand ends, the game automatically arranges each hand into its deadwood-minimal partition — you never have to declare your melds by hand, and you always get the best possible reading of your cards.

Knocking, gin and Big Gin

You end the hand by knocking: discard one card and reveal your hand. Knocking is legal when the deadwood of the ten cards you keep — the knock card you discard does not count — totals 10 points or fewer. You are never forced to knock; playing on for a lower count or for gin is always allowed.

• Knock — 1 to 10 deadwood. Your opponent may then lay off their deadwood onto your melds before counting.
• Gin — 0 deadwood after your discard. You score the opponent's full deadwood plus a 25-point gin bonus, and the opponent may NOT lay off anything.
• Big Gin — all eleven cards form melds right after you draw. The hand ends immediately with no discard at all, and the bonus rises to 31 points.

After a normal knock, the defender's unmatched cards that extend the knocker's melds are laid off automatically — a fourth card onto a set of three, or cards chaining onto either end of a run — and only the deadwood remaining after lay-offs counts against them.

Scoring the hand

• Knocker wins: if the knocker's deadwood is strictly lower than the defender's (after lay-offs), the knocker scores the difference.
• Undercut: if the defender's deadwood is equal to or lower than the knocker's, the defender scores the difference plus a 25-point undercut bonus. Ties go to the defender — knocking with a matchable count is a real risk.
• Gin: the knocker scores the defender's entire deadwood + 25 (no lay-offs allowed).
• Big Gin: the knocker scores the defender's entire deadwood + 31.

End of the game: the bonus layer

Hands are played until someone's accumulated hand points reach 100. That player is the crosser — but crossing 100 does not win the game by itself. A final bonus count is applied first:

1. Shutout check: if the crosser won every scored hand of the game, their hand points are doubled before anything else is added.
2. Line bonus: every player — winner and loser alike — adds 25 points for each hand they won during the game. Void hands count for nobody.
3. Game bonus: the crosser adds a flat 100 points.

The grand totals are then compared, and the higher grand total wins the game. Because the loser also collects line bonuses, the overall winner can be a different player from the one who crossed 100 — a player who crossed on the back of one huge hand can be overtaken by an opponent who won more hands along the way.

A worked example: you cross 100 with 104 hand points from three hands won; your opponent sits on 82 from five hands won. You did not win every hand, so no shutout. Your grand total is 104 + 75 (three line bonuses) + 100 (game bonus) = 279. The opponent's is 82 + 125 (five line bonuses) = 207. You win this one — but notice how five line wins pulled a 22-point deficit up to within 72: an opponent who grinds out many small hands can absolutely overtake a crosser who relied on one gin. Close games genuinely stay open until the final count.

Strategy: knocking early vs playing for gin

• Knock early when you can. In the first half of a hand, a knock at 8–10 deadwood usually wins the difference; the longer a hand runs, the lower your opponent's deadwood drifts and the greater the undercut risk.
• Count the undercut window. Late in a hand, knocking at 9 or 10 into an opponent who has been taking discards aggressively is a coin flip — they may be sitting at 5. Push on toward gin, or knock only at 3 and below.
• Watch what the discard pile teaches. Every card your opponent takes marks a meld in progress; every card they let pass devalues its neighbours. Discard from the far side of their known interests.
• Middle cards are dangerous to hold and to throw. A 7 combines into more runs than a king does; keep middle cards while your hand is forming, and shed them the moment they turn into isolated deadwood.
• Aces and deuces are cheap insurance. At 1–2 points each they barely hurt a knock count, so an unmatched ace is nearly free to keep as a low anchor.

Edge cases and fine print

• The knock threshold is 10 or fewer — exactly 10 deadwood is a legal knock.
• The knock card is discarded before counting: knock legality is judged on the ten cards you keep, not eleven.
• An undercut on exactly equal deadwood counts as an undercut — the defender takes the 25-point bonus.
• Big Gin skips the discard entirely; you claim it with eleven cards in hand, immediately after drawing.
• After both players pass the opening upcard, the first draw of the hand must come from the stock.
• The card you take from the discard pile is remembered for the rest of your turn — discarding it straight back is rejected.
• A void hand (stock down to two cards) records no line win for either player, so it also cannot break a shutout.

Variants and house rules

We play the standard modern tournament form: knock at 10, gin bonus 25, Big Gin 31, undercut 25, game to 100, with line and game bonuses at the end. Common house variants you may know — none of which apply here:

• Oklahoma Gin — the upcard sets the knock limit each hand (an ace means gin-only). We always use a fixed limit of 10.
• Hollywood scoring — three simultaneous game columns. We keep one running score.
• Playing to 250 — a longer match target. Our games run to 100 hand points.
• Big Gin at 50 — some tables inflate the Big Gin bonus; ours is the classic 31.

Frequently asked questions

Related rulebooks

• Rummy rules — meld to the table and go out first
• Rummy 500 rules — dig the discard pile, meld your way to 500
• Canasta rules — partner up, build canastas, race to 5000
• Cribbage rules — peg the play, count the show, race to 121