The quick version
Deal ten each. Draw one, discard one, and keep your melds hidden. End a hand by knocking with at most ten unmatched points, or going gin with none. Add hand scores until one player reaches 100.
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Deal and understand scoring
Use one shuffled deck without jokers. Choose the first dealer by chance; deal ten cards each, one at a time, then turn one card up as the discard. Remaining cards form the face-down stock. Unmatched cards are deadwood: ace one, face cards ten, other cards their number.
A set has three or four equal ranks; a run has at least three consecutive ranks in one suit. Ace is low: ace-two-three works, queen-king-ace does not. Use each card in only one meld. Keep all cards in your hand until you end it.
A successful knock earns the difference between your deadwood and the defender's remaining deadwood. If the defender finishes equal or lower, they earn 25 plus the difference: an undercut. Gin earns 25 plus the defender's deadwood, with no layoffs. First to at least 100 wins; only one player scores each hand, so this finish cannot tie. Use no end-of-match bonuses.
Draw, discard, and choose your moment
Offer the first discard
The nondealer may take the opening face-up card and discard one, or pass without drawing. After a pass, the dealer gets the same choice. If both pass, the nondealer draws from the stock and discards; ordinary turns then alternate.
Take a normal turn
Draw the top stock card or top discard, giving you eleven cards. On an ordinary turn, discard one face up to return to ten. If choosing knock or gin, use the single discard described next instead. You cannot immediately discard a card taken from the discard pile; a stock-drawn card may be discarded.
Choose knock before discarding
After drawing, choose one discard that leaves ten cards with at most ten deadwood points. Announce knock, place that one discard face down instead of making an ordinary face-up discard, then reveal your remaining melds and deadwood. With zero deadwood, announce gin. There is no second discard; ending the hand is optional.
Let the defender answer
After an ordinary knock, the defender reveals their own melds. They may attach leftover cards to your melds: a fourth seven onto three sevens, or adjacent same-suit cards extending a run. Compare deadwood after these layoffs. After gin, the defender forms their own melds but cannot lay off onto yours.
Recognize an unfinished hand
When a stock draw leaves two cards, finish that turn, including any knock or gin. If neither occurs, cancel the hand for zero points rather than drawing the last two. Reshuffle and redeal with the same dealer. Otherwise record the score, reshuffle, and alternate dealers as this table's match convention.
If you knock with five and the defender also has five after layoffs, they receive the 25-point undercut bonus. Knocking does not guarantee you score.
Keep the reveal legible
Keep each player's melds and deadwood separate. Check groups before counting; leave the final discard outside the ten-card hand. Record the bonus and deadwood difference separately.
Confirm this guide's bonus values before dealing. Published formats differ in bonuses, dealer conventions, and match extras.
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Ideas & Twists
Choose a variation together before you start.
Gin rummy · See main rules
Suggested house variationStraight gin
Remove ordinary knocking: a hand can end successfully only with zero deadwood after discarding. Gin still earns 25 plus the opponent's unmatched points; nobody lays off. A stock reduced to two cancels an unfinished hand for zero. Continue to 100. This changes the decision from choosing a safe knock to completing every meld.
Gin rummy · See main rules
Suggested house variationStarter sets the knock limit
Use each hand's first upcard to set its maximum knock deadwood: its number, ten for a face card, or zero for an ace. A six allows six or less; an ace requires gin. All 25-point bonuses, layoffs after nonzero knocks, cancellation, and the 100-point finish remain. Announce the limit before the opening upcard is accepted or passed.
About this guide
The chosen scoring is gin +25 and undercut +25, matching the linked platform format. Bicycle confirms core dealing and drawing but uses different bonuses and contains different layoff wording; the explicit no-layoff-after-gin rule here follows Classic Deck Games. Dealer alternation and variations are table suggestions.
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