- + Rummy School
Rules
The goal of the game is to arrange as many of the cards in your hand as possible into runs or sets of cards:
| A set consists of 3 or more cards of the same rank |
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OR
| A run consists of 3 or more consecutive cards of the same suit |
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OR
Another objective of the game is to reduce the total count of the unmatched cards in a player's hand (deadwood) to less than the count of the cards in his opponents.
There are three ways to score points toward winning a hand in Gin: ginning, knocking, and undercutting
The Deck
This game is played with a standard 52 card deck and no jokers.
| The four suits |
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| The cards and their values |
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1 point 2 points 3 points 4 points 5 points
6 points 7 points 8 points 9 points 10 points
10 points 10 points 10 points
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The Play
In a 2 player game each player is dealt 10 cards. In a 3-4 player game, each player is dealt 7 cards.
The remaining cards in the deck are placed face down on the table. These cards form the stock pile. One card is placed face up next to the stock pile to form the discard pile.
A standard turn consists of two parts:
The Draw - Your turn begins by drawing a card from the top of the discard pile or from the top of the stock pile and adding it to your hand.
The Discard - To complete your turn, you must discard one card from your hand and place it on top of the discard pile face up.
If and when the cards in the stock pile runs out, the cards in the discard pile are re-shuffled and placed face down to form the new stock pile. The last card discarded by the player to draw the last card of the old stock pile is placed face up beside the new stock pile to begin the new discard pile.
Gin
To dispose of all of the cards in your hand at once, without any "deadwood" (unmatched cards).
Knock
Another way to win the game is by “Knocking”. To do that, player's deadwood count must not exceed 10 points.
When knocking, remaining players may lay off cards only on the knocker's hand, and only on the original matched sets.
For example: The knocker has 
and one opponent lays off 
on it, the next opponent may not lay off the 
.
Knocker has: First opponent lays off on it: Next opponent may not lay off on it: |
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This helps reduce the deadwood count in the opponents hands, and is a reward for holding on to the cards that the opponents are quite sure the knocker needs.
An example of laying off (2 player game):
| The knocker goes down with: |
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The knocker spreads two melds and the opponents’ deadwood is comprised of 
and two fours. In this case, the opponent can lay off the Jack and 6 of Hearts onto the knocker's heart meld, to reduce his count from 24 points to only 8 points!
Note - players are not permitted to lay off any cards on the unmatched cards in their opponent's hand.
Note - when a player gins, the opponent may not lay off cards on the gin hand. That is one of the advantages of going for a gin.
Undercut
If a player knocks and his opponent has a lower deadwood count – the opponent wins as a result of an “undercut”. The knocker (and loser) of the round receives 10 extra penalty points.
Scoring
| Defeated (Penalty Points) |
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Ginning Sum of deadwoods + 25 penalty points. Knocking Sum of deadwoods minus knockers deadwoods. Undercut Sum of deadwoods minus undercutter's deadwoods. Knocker recieves 10 extra penalty points.
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Payout table for ring games:
