Gin Rummy on PlayingCards.io

Be the first to get rid of your hand in the classic 2 player game of Gin Rummy! Gin Rummy is a hand management game for 2 players.

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Gin Rummy Rules

Objective

• In Gin Rummy, the goal is to create runs and sets with your hand of ten cards.
• Runs are 3-5 consecutive cards in the same the same suit. A set is 3 or 4 cards of the same rank.
• Card values in Gin Rummy are as follows: A = 1, 2-10 = their own values in points, J/K/Q = 10.

Set-up

1. Rummy uses a standard 52 card deck. Shuffle and deal each player 10 cards, one card at a time. The dealer then discards the top card of the deck to start the discard pile.
2. The remaining cards form the draw deck in the middle of the table.

Playing the Game

• The round begins with the non-dealer player deciding whether or not to take the card from the discard pile. If they do not want it, play passes to the other player and they can choose to take the card from the discard pile. If neither player wants it, the non-dealer player would draw from the deck to start the game. Otherwise, the game would start with the player who took the card from the discard pile continuing their first turn.
• On a player's turn, they simply choose to draw the top card of the discard pile or the top card of the deck.
• They may either add the new card to their hand and discard a different card OR they may discard the new card. Either way, a player always draws one card and discards one card on their turn (it may be the same card for both draw and discard).
• Play continues back and forth until a player "knocks" or "goes gin".
• When a player has cards of "deadwood" in hand (cards that are not part of a set or run) that have a total value of 10 or less, they may knock. When a player knocks, they discard face down and lay their hand on the table declaring that they are knocking. The opposing player has the opportunity to play as many cards as possible into the knocking player's sets or runs. The round ends and scoring takes place.
• A player does not have to knock even if they're eligible to. They may continue playing in an attempt to go gin.
• A player may "go gin" if they have no deadwood cards in hand at all. They discard their final card and declare that they have gin, placing their hand on the table. The round ends and scoring takes place.

Special rules

• A card can only belong to one set or run at a time (as in cards, no cards can be shared across sets and/or runs).
• If there is ever 2 cards remaining in the draw deck at the start of a player's turn, all cards are reshuffled and hands are re-dealt to start a new round.
• Aces are always low.

Scoring

• When a player ends the round via knocking, they score the value of their opponent's deadwood cards minus the value of their own deadwood cards. If the value of deadwood cards is equal after a knock (after the non-knocking player adds deadwood to the knocking player's sets and runs), it is considered an undercut (see below).
• When a player ends the round via going gin, they score the value of their opponent's deadwood cards + 20 points for going gin.
• Sometimes it is possible for the knocking player to not score points if an "undercut" occurs. An undercut happens when a player knocks, and their opponent is able to add deadwood cards to the knocking player's sets and runs so that the knocking player has the same or more points of deadwood than the opposing player. When this happens, the opposing player would score the difference in deadwood points + 10 points for the undercut.

Winning

The first player to 100 points or more is the winner!