Gin Rummy Rules and How to Play

Gin rummy is a card game for two players. You each hold 10 cards and try to sort them into matching groups faster than the other player, then end the hand while your leftover cards are worth less than theirs. Below are the full gin rummy rules: the deal, what counts as a match, when you're allowed to knock (end the hand), and how each hand is scored, with one real hand worked through step by step. When you want to try it, you can play Foony Gin Rummy in your browser against a friend or a bot.

Gin Rummy Rules at a Glance

How to Set Up Gin Rummy for 2 Players

You need one standard 52-card deck with the jokers taken out. To choose the first dealer, each player draws a card from the shuffled deck. Under Pagat's gin rummy rules, the player with the lower card deals.

The dealer gives 10 cards to each player, one at a time. The 21st card goes face up between you as the upcard, the first card of the discard pile. The other 31 cards sit face down beside it as the stock. So the answer to "how many cards in gin rummy" is 10 per hand, and you hold 11 for a moment each turn, between taking a card and discarding one.

Every card has a point value, used to count your deadwood:

• Aces are worth 1. Aces are always low, so A-2-3 is a run and Q-K-A isn't.
• Cards 2 through 10 are worth their number.
• Jacks, queens, and kings are worth 10 each.

Rule books disagree on who deals the next hand. Pagat's main rule is the winner of the last hand, some books say the loser, and some players just take turns. On Foony, the deal alternates every hand.

Runs, Sets, and Deadwood

A meld is a group of cards that doesn't count against you. There are two kinds:

• A run is three or more cards of one suit in a row, like the 4, 5, 6, and 7 of spades.
• A set is three or four cards of the same rank, like three kings.

One card can be in only one meld at a time. Say you hold the 4 of hearts, 4 of clubs, 4 of spades, 5 of hearts, and 6 of hearts. The 4 of hearts can finish the set of 4s or the 4-5-6 run in hearts, but not both. To keep both groups you'd need a fourth 4 or the 7 of hearts.

Every card outside your melds is deadwood, and your deadwood count is the total of those cards' values. If your hand has three melds plus a lone king, 4, and ace, your count is 10 + 4 + 1 = 15. Lower is better.

How to Play a Turn in Gin Rummy

Every turn has two parts:

1. Take a card. Either take the top card of the stock, which you see only once it's in your hand, or take the top card of the discard pile, which your opponent sees you take.
2. Discard a card face up on the discard pile. You can't discard the card you just took from the discard pile on the same turn. You can discard it on a later turn.

The first turn of each hand works a little differently. The player who didn't deal may take the upcard or pass. If they pass, the dealer gets the same choice. If both pass, the non-dealer takes the top card of the stock. Whoever took a card then discards, and play goes back and forth from there.

Gin Rummy Knock Rules

Knocking ends the hand. You may knock on your turn when, after taking a card, you can discard and be left with 10 or less in deadwood. You never have to knock. Some players hold out for gin, which is a hand with no deadwood at all.

To knock, discard face down, then lay your 10 cards face up with your melds grouped. Your opponent lays their hand face up too and groups their own melds. Then they get one chance to lower their count, called laying off: any of their loose cards that extend one of your melds go onto that meld and stop counting. A set of three can take its fourth card, and a run can grow at either end, one card after another. Only the player who didn't knock lays off, and nobody lays off against gin.

Here is one knock from start to finish. Tap through the steps:

Gin Rummy Scoring

Once any cards are laid off, both players count their deadwood and one of you scores:

• Knock: if the knocker's count is lower, the knocker scores the difference.
• Undercut: if the other player's count is the same or lower, they undercut the knocker and score the difference plus a bonus. A tie counts as an undercut.
• Gin: the knocker has no deadwood. They score the other player's whole count plus a bonus, and gin can't be undercut.
• Big gin: all 11 of your cards form melds right after you take a card, so you end the hand without discarding.

The bonuses change from one rule book to the next. Here are Pagat's standard numbers next to Foony's:

Pagat also lists house rules that raise the gin and undercut bonuses to 25, which is what Foony uses.

Go back to the walkthrough above, where you scored 5. Swap your 8 of diamonds for the 5 of spades and the same deal is gin: 2-3-4-5 of spades is a run, their 8 and jack of hearts can't be laid off anymore, and you score 31 + 25 = 56. Or keep your hand and swap their king of diamonds for the 2 of diamonds. After they lay off, they hold 2 + 3 = 5, under your 8, so they undercut you and score 8 - 5 + 25 = 28.

On Foony, the host picks a target of 50, 100, or 150 before the match, and the first player to reach it wins. Only one player scores in each hand, so a match can't end in a tie.

What Happens When the Stock Runs Out

The last two cards of the stock are never taken. When the player who took the third-last card discards without knocking, the hand ends with no score and the cards are dealt again. Under Pagat's rules the same dealer deals again. On Foony the deal still passes to the other player.

Gin Rummy Rules Players Often Get Wrong

Gin Rummy for 3 or 4 Players

Gin rummy is a two-player game, but Pagat describes two ways to fit more people in:

• Three players: the dealer deals to the other two and sits the hand out. The loser of each hand deals the next one, so the next hand is the winner against the old dealer.
• Four players: two teams of two. Each player plays a separate two-player game against one player from the other team, and you switch opponents each hand. If both players on a team win, the team scores both results. If each team wins one game, the team with the bigger win scores the difference. The first team to 125 wins.

A Foony table seats two, but a room holds up to 100 people. Everyone past the first two joins one of the two seats and takes turns in it, one turn each.

Oklahoma Gin

Oklahoma Gin is a popular variant that changes one rule: the upcard sets the knock limit for that hand. Turn up a 7 and you need 7 or less in deadwood to knock. A 10 or a face card keeps the usual limit of 10, and an ace means only gin can end the hand. Pagat's version also doubles the score of a hand when the upcard is a spade. Oklahoma Gin on Foony has the knock limit rule, without the spade doubling.

Play Gin Rummy Online

You can try every rule on this page in Foony Gin Rummy. Your hand is sorted into melds for you, your deadwood count stays on screen, and laying off and scoring are worked out when someone knocks, so you can check your own counting against the game. Play a friend with an invite link, or play Easy, Casual, Skilled, or Expert bots. It's free in your browser, with nothing to download.