Back when the Internet was unheard of, you probably wonder what people were doing to while away the time. Well, aside from baseball, folks play card games, one of which is Gin Rummy. As you probably notice, the name of the card game says something about yet another favorite pastime, drinking. The card game for two was invented by Elwood T. Baker in 1909 and became popular since then. While you might think it’s an ancient game, it is actually a later comer that tried to compete with even more popular games such as Cribbage and Pinoche; both of which were games that go way back as early as 400 years ago. Gin Rummy is closely linked to a genre of card game known as Rummy, where the method that is being used is the “draw and discard”. This means that at every turn, you draw a card from the pile and discard the unwanted card in exchange. The idea is to form sets of matching cards. The match can be 3 or 4 cards of the same rank or same suit in sequence. With such easy to understand rules, it’s no wonder that the game had a loyal following; and it even garnered some notoriety as well.
Following the general rules of Dewalive, Gin Rummy version is as easy as pie. It starts with each player receiving 10 cards. The standard deck of 52 cards is ranked as follows: Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Jack, Queen, and King. Each of the cards has corresponding values. The face cards (Jack, Queen, and King) have 10 points each. The Ace is 1 point. The number cards have different values according to their numbers, from 1 to 9 have 10 points each. The ace can be high or low. Number cards have their own values, starting from 1 to 9. So, if you have total card set of 21, the value of the Ace would be 11. Your opponent would have to beat you to the value of 21 to win the game. The loser would ‘draw’ a card from the boat, into his hand, discard a card from hand and match the Ace in hand for the value of 21. The loser would have to draw a card if you draw for him, meaning that you would have to keep drawing. However, if you let your opponent take it out, he has the nut hand.
The game begins by the player who holds the highest card hand or remains in hand even after all the other players have drawn cards. The standard rules for drawing are that you can draw a card when you are holding 2 cards or more like with the Ace, the value of the cards drawn are also taken into consideration. You can even draw a card if you have no cards at all, but you won’t be able to draw anytime soon since the deck is full. The player can even draw a card while holding 2 cards like with the Ace. However, you can’t draw a card when you have no cards to hand.
Once the player knows the standard rules, it’s time to know the strategies of Gin Rummy. The basic rule of the game is that you can have 3 cards and you can draw as many cards as you want to your hand. You can even have all your cards at once by literally drawing them all out. However, you have to remember that your opponent is doing the same thing to you. As the cards are drawn, you start creating a hand from a pack of 52 cards. You can even use the same cards to get a hand. The rules for staring out a hand are the same as with the regular game of Gin Rummy. However, you can even permit yourself to go out early, taking only 3 cards, rather than the usual 5. This effectively reduces your opponent’s chance of scoring a card in the very first round.
Once you start playing Gin Rummy, you’ll notice that the game progresses much faster than the usual. Usually, you’ll be able to eliminate one or two players among the opponents who are on the verge of losing. As usual, the game ends when one player scores a single higher card, whatever the value of the other cards are. In Gin Rummy, the scoring system is one of the many unique features of the game. Usually, a scored natural win is worth ten points, including the original total of 20. However, if you want to play the game with a score ranging between a natural win and a competition victory, you can do so.
Gin Rummy also offers a special feature known as the knock game. In this particular game, you will be able to knock your opponent’s cards out of the game. Even if these cards are not in your possession, you will be allowed to place them in your opponent’s face-up discard pile.