Gin Rummy Rules — How to Play and Keep Score

Overview

Gin Rummy is a two-player knock rummy in which only one player ever scores a hand. You build sets and runs, and once the cards you have failed to match are cheap enough you end the hand and bank the difference between your leftovers and your opponent's. The sheet is two columns of running totals with two bonus rows added at the very end, which the rounds template covers cleanly.

Setup

One standard 52-card deck, no jokers. Deal ten cards each and turn the next card face up beside the stock to start the discard pile. The non-dealer may take that upcard first; if they decline, the dealer may; if both decline, the non-dealer draws from the stock and play begins.

How to play

On your turn draw the top of the stock or the top of the discard pile, then discard one card. Sets are three or four cards of a rank, runs are three or more in sequence in one suit, and every card belongs to at most one meld. Anything left over is your deadwood, counted with aces at 1, face cards at 10 and everything else at face value. When your deadwood is at or below the knock limit you may end the hand by discarding face down and laying out your melds.

Scoring

Once someone knocks, the defender lays out their own melds and may lay off spare cards onto the knocker's melds, lowering their deadwood.

• Successful knock. The knocker scores their opponent's deadwood minus their own. Knocking with 6 against a defender left on 24 scores 18.
• Gin. A knocker with no deadwood at all scores the gin bonus, 20 by default, plus the defender's full deadwood. The defender may not lay off against gin, so their count stands as dealt.
• Undercut. If the defender's deadwood after laying off is equal to or lower than the knocker's, the defender scores the difference plus the undercut bonus, 10 by default. An exact tie therefore pays the defender the bonus alone.
• Dead hand. If only two cards remain in the stock after a discard and nobody has knocked, the hand is void. Nobody scores and no round is recorded.

When Oklahoma is on, the knock limit is whatever the upcard shows, with an ace meaning gin only. When spade doubling is on and the upcard was a spade, double that hand's whole score including any gin or undercut bonus.

Ending the game

Play stops when either column reaches the target. Then add the box bonus, 20 per hand won, to each player, and give the player who reached the target the game bonus of 100. If the loser never won a single hand, apply the shutout setting. The higher final total wins.

Common variations

Playing to 250 or 500 makes the box bonus matter far more than any individual hand. Some groups let a knocker who is undercut still keep their own melds visible for the next deal, though this is rare.