The knocking player then subtracts deadwood points from the defending player's deadwood points. Once a player knocks or declares gin the round is over and scores are tallied, players cannot draw.

The knocking player can never lay off his or her deadwood into the defending player's melds. The player can lay off that king, reducing the deadwood count by ten. The defending player's deadwood has a king. The other ('defending') player is then entitled to lay out any melds in his or her hand and can then lay off any of his or her remaining deadwood cards that fit into the knocking player's melds, provided that the knocking player does not have a gin hand.įor example, the knocking player has a meld of three Kings. To knock, the knocking player discards as usual, announces knocking (generally by simply placing a discard face down), and the hand is laid out with the melds clearly indicated and deadwood separated. Knocking with 0 points of deadwood is known as going Gin or having a Gin hand, while knocking with deadwood points is known as going down. In standard gin, only a player with 10 or fewer points of deadwood may knock. In tournament rules the game is played in best of five with 250 points per game. The game ends when a player reaches 100 or more points (or another established amount). Players alternate taking turns until one player ends the round by knocking, going Gin, or until only two cards remain in the stock pile, in which case the round ends in a draw and no points are awarded. On each turn, a player must draw either the (face-up) top card of the discard pile, or the (face-down) top card from the stock pile, and discard one card from his or her hand onto the discard pile. If the dealer also passes, the non-dealing player must draw from the stock pile, then the next turn and after, players can draw from the pile of his or her choice.

However, if the non-dealing player passes the upcard, the dealer is given the opportunity to take the upcard or pass. If the non-dealing player takes the upcard, the player acting second can take the top card from the pile of his or her choice. On the first turn of the round, the non-dealing player has first option of taking the upcard on the discard pile or passing. The face down pile is known as the stock pile. The dealer deals 10 cards to both players, and then places the next card in the deck face up. Dealingĭealership alternates from round to round, with the first dealer chosen by any agreed upon method. Intersecting melds are not allowed if a player has a 3-card set and a 3-card run sharing a common card, only one of the melds counts, and the other two cards count as deadwood. The deadwood count is the sum of the point values of the deadwood cards - aces are scored at 1 point, face cards at 10, and others according to their numerical values. A hand can contain three or fewer melds to knock or form legal gin. A player can form any combination of melds within their hand, whether it contains all sets, all runs, or both. Aces are considered low - they can form a set with other aces but only the low end of runs ( A♠ 2♠ 3♠ is a legal run but Q♠ K♠ A♠ is not). Deadwood cards are those not in any meld. 8♥ 8♦ 8♠ and runs of 3 or more cards in sequence, of the same suit. Gin has two types of meld: Sets of 3 or 4 cards sharing the same rank, e.g. The basic game strategy is to improve one's hand by forming melds and eliminating deadwood. The objective in gin rummy is to score points and reach an agreed number of points or more, usually 100, before the opponent does. The ranking from high to low is King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace (kings over aces). Gin is played with a standard 52-deck pack of cards. John Scarne's theory deriving Rummy from Poker through the medium of Whiskey Poker has not gained general acceptance. According to John Scarne, Gin evolved from 19th-century Whiskey Poker and was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy but less spontaneous than knock rummy. Gin rummy, or simply gin, is a two-player card game created in 1909 by Elwood T.

Gin rummy rules 3 players