Gin Rummy
Gin rummy,
or just Gin is another example of a card game which involves skill. It
inspired Donald L. Coburn to write the popular play “The Gin Game”, which
won the Pulitzer for Drama. It was later adapted for television twice. The
2003 film of the same name starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore
and it was directed by Arvin Brown.
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Basic Rules
The game is played by two players
with a standard 52-card deck. The cards have their standard value,
with the king being the highest and the ace the lowest. The point of the
game, to put it simply is to organise your cards in melds, and try to
eliminate any deadwood. There are two ways in which the cards can be
grouped in melds:
·
By rank –
If you have three or four cards of the same value/rank, for example 3 7s,
then you have a meld;
·
In a sequence
– Three or more cards that are aligned in a sequence
(e.g. 4-5-6-7) all in the same suit.
The dealer deals to the opponent and
him/herself 10 cards. The next card is then placed face up. That is the
first card of the discard pile. The rest of the cards form the
stock pile. Then players take turns in drawing cards from the pile of
their choice, leaving one of their current cards in the discard pile.
Winning at Gin
There are three ways in which a hand
may finish:
·
One of the players may knock;
·
One of the players may go gin;
·
There are only two cards left in the stock
pile.
If one of the players collects 100
or more points, then s/he may knock the other player. In the standard
version of the game, the player who knocks isn’t allowed to have more than
10 deadwood points.
If the player is able to knock and
s/he doesn’t have any deadwood, then that player is going gin.
If the players keep drawing until there are only two cards in the stock pile
the game ends in a draw and nobody wins any points.
Other Versions of the Game
In addition to standard Gin, or Gin
rummy, there several other variants of the game.
·
Mahjong Gin
– In this version of the game, the players have to win by going gin, as
knocking isn’t allowed. However, it is possible to draw more than one card
simultaneously.
·
Straight Gin
– Again, players may only win by going gin. The other
rules are the same as standard Gin.
Oklahoma Gin –
In this version the value of the card that is facing upwards determines with
how many deadwood points a player may knock.
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