Taking Turns and Playing the Game

After you pick up a card, you will have 11 cards in your hand. To complete your turn, you have two choices. You can:

  1. discard a card, or
  2. go out (with either Gin or by knocking)

 

Discarding a card

If you don't have Gin, or can't (or don't want to) knock, you'll need to discard a card.

Choosing which card to discard

Choosing which card to discard amounts to a lot of the strategy of playing Gin Rummy. A keen Gin Rummy player will remember which cards have been discarded (and are thus no longer available), as well as which cards the opponent has picked up. Knowing where the cards are helps you determine which cards to discard.

Except in rare circumstances, you never want to discard a card which already fits into a complete set. That is, if you have the hand shown below, you probably wouldn't want to discard the nine of spades.

 

When choosing which sets to form, you should favor runs over a matched set for the simple reason that runs can be extended in either direction, while matched sets can hold at the most four cards.

A run of five cards

Four of a kind

 

A final tip on choosing which card to discard is to discard your high cards early on in the game. If your opponent knocks or gets Gin, you don't want to be left with a lot of high points in your deadwood.

How to discard in Classic Gin Rummy

To discard a card, simply click and drag a discard to the discard pile. You can also double-click on it. See Using Classic Gin Rummy's Interface if you need help performing this action.

Going out

If all of your cards fit into unique sets, then you have Gin and should go out.

If most cards fit into unique sets and the leftover card(s) are equal to or lower than the knock limit, and the game variation you are playing allows for it, then you can knock.

Either scenario signals the end of the game (detailed in the next section).

How to go out in Classic Gin Rummy

The easiest way to go out in Classic Gin Rummy is to "Auto-Meld" by dragging any of your cards into the center of the main window (the meld area).


PreviousNext

Copyright 1999, Freeverse Software, Inc. All rights reserved.