Gin Rummy Online

Gin Rummy is a card game for two players with a 52-card deck. On every turn you draw a card and discard one, building your hand into melds, and as soon as the cards left over add up to 10 points or less you can knock and end the hand. A game is a series of hands played until one player's running score reaches 100. The deal decides which cards you get; your choices decide what you make of them.

Gin Rummy rules

papergames.io plays standard Gin Rummy: ten cards each, a knock at 10 points of deadwood or less, aces low, and a game to 100 points.

The deal and the upcard offer

• Each player is dealt ten cards. The next card is turned face up to start the discard pile, and the top card of that pile is called the upcard. The rest of the deck lies face down as the stock.
• The first upcard is offered to the non-dealer, who may take it or pass. If they pass, the dealer may take it or pass. A player who takes it then discards a card.
• If both players pass, the non-dealer starts the hand by drawing the top card of the stock.

A turn

• Take the upcard or the top card of the stock, then discard one card face up onto the discard pile. Every turn ends with ten cards in your hand.
• A card you have just taken from the discard pile cannot be discarded on the same turn.

Melds and deadwood

• A meld is either a set, three or four cards of the same rank such as three nines, or a run, three or more consecutive cards of one suit such as the 4, 5 and 6 of hearts.
• Aces are low: ace, 2 and 3 of a suit make a run, but queen, king and ace do not.
• A card can belong to only one meld at a time.
• Every card that belongs to no meld is deadwood, and deadwood counts its points: face cards 10, aces 1 and every other card its number. The best arrangement of your melds is the one that leaves the least deadwood.

Knocking and gin

• When your deadwood is 10 or less after your discard, you may knock: you discard a card and the hand ends. You never have to knock, and you can keep playing to improve your hand.
• A knock with no deadwood at all is gin.
• Both hands are then shown face up with their melds.

Layoffs

After a knock, the defender, the player who did not knock, may lay off deadwood cards on the knocker's melds: the fourth card of a set of three, or a card that extends a run at either end. A card laid off no longer counts as deadwood. The knocker never lays off, and nobody can lay off against gin.

Scoring a hand

• Knock: when the knocker has less deadwood than the defender after layoffs, the knocker scores the difference. A knock with 4 against 19 scores 15.
• Gin: the player who goes gin scores 25 plus all of the defender's deadwood. Gin against 23 scores 48.
• Undercut: when the defender's deadwood after layoffs is equal to or less than the knocker's, the defender undercuts the knocker and scores 25 plus the difference. A knock with 8 against 5 gives the defender 28. Gin can never be undercut.
• Only one player scores in each hand.

The void hand

The stock is never played down to its last card. When only two cards are left in the stock and the player who drew discards without knocking, the hand is void: nobody scores, and the same dealer deals again.

Winning the game

Each hand score is added to the player's running score, and the deal alternates from one hand to the next. The first player whose running score reaches 100 wins the game. That running score is the final score: no bonus is added at the end, and a game of Gin Rummy is never drawn.

Playing Gin Rummy online at papergames.io

• Your hand is sorted by melds, with the deadwood set apart and its points counted live. You can sort it by suit or by rank instead.
• The Knock button is enabled as soon as you may knock, and it turns into Gin when you have no deadwood.
• At a knock, papergames.io finds the best melds for both hands and the defender's best layoffs, so nobody has to lay anything out by hand and no layoff is ever missed.
• After every hand, both hands stay face up for about eight seconds with their melds, the layoffs and the hand score, then the next hand is dealt.
• Create a private room and share the link with a friend, or play against a bot at the level that suits you, at any hour.
• Join the daily tournaments and follow your rating on the global leaderboards.
• Watch the replay of any finished game hand by hand, with every card face up.

Gin Rummy strategy

Luck decides which cards come to you, but over a game to 100 the player who wastes fewer turns and gives away fewer cards comes out ahead. A few habits make most of the difference.

Get rid of high cards early

Kings, queens and jacks count 10 each. Early in a hand, keep them only if they are already in a meld or one card away from one. Discarding high deadwood brings your count down quickly and limits the damage if your opponent knocks early.

Keep cards that can go two ways

Some cards can finish more than one meld. The 7 of hearts held with the 6 of hearts and the 7 of spades can become a run or a set. Keep partial melds that many cards can complete, and break up those that need one exact card.

Read the discard pile

Every card your opponent takes from the discard pile shows what they are collecting, and every card they discard shows what they are not. If they took the 8 of clubs, the 7 and 9 of clubs and the other eights are risky to discard. Cards that sit next to their own discards are usually safe.

Count what is gone

Once a card is buried in the discard pile, it is out of the hand for good. If both of the other nines are already discarded, a pair of nines will never become a set, and it is better to break it up than to wait.

Knock early or wait for gin

Knocking at the first chance often wins the hand before your opponent has sorted out their own cards. Waiting for gin earns 25 points and cannot be undercut, but every turn you wait gives your opponent time to lower their deadwood. Early in a hand, knock as soon as you can. Late in a hand, when your opponent has probably shed their high cards, knock only with a low count, or play on for gin.

History of Gin Rummy

Gin Rummy is usually credited to Elwood T. Baker, a whist teacher in New York, who devised it with his son around 1909 as a quicker game for two. It became hugely popular in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, among Hollywood stars in particular, and it has been one of the classic two-player card games ever since.

Similar games

Gin Rummy is the first card game on papergames.io. If you enjoy its mix of luck and judgement, try Backgammon, where the dice bring the luck and every decision is yours. For a game with no luck at all, try Reversi or Chess.

Community and tournaments

A game of Gin Rummy is played over many hands, which rewards steady play more than a lucky deal. On papergames.io you can join the daily tournaments, climb the leaderboards and meet opponents of every level, from players learning what deadwood means to those who remember every card in the discard pile.