Gin Garden

What is Gin Rummy?

Gin rummy is a two-player card game where you draw and discard, trying to arrange your hand into matching groups called melds. Any cards that don't fit a meld are deadwood, and deadwood counts against you. When your deadwood is low enough, you can end the hand by knocking. Get it to zero and you've gone gin.

The rules fit on an index card, but the game has real depth. You're always balancing two things: building your own hand, and not handing your opponent the card they need.

Gin Garden is free and plays in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Your hand sorts itself as you play: melds go in green garden beds and deadwood in the brown one, so you can always see where you stand.

How to play gin rummy

The deal

Use a standard 52-card deck. Each player gets 10 cards. The next card is turned face up to start the discard pile, and the rest of the deck sits face down as the stock.

The first upcard is offered to the non-dealer, then to the dealer. If both pass on it, the non-dealer starts by drawing from the deck.

Melds

• A set is 3 or 4 cards of the same rank, like 7♠ 7♥ 7♦.
• A run is 3 or more cards in a row in the same suit, like 4♥ 5♥ 6♥.
• Aces are always low. A 2 3 is a run, but Q K A is not.
• Each card can only be in one meld at a time.

Each turn

On your turn, draw one card, either the top card of the stock or the top card of the discard pile. Then discard one card face up onto the pile. You always end your turn with 10 cards. You can't throw back the card you just picked up from the discard pile in the same turn.

Deadwood values

Knocking, gin and undercuts

When the deadwood left in your hand (after your discard) adds up to 10 or less, you can knock. You lay down your melds and deadwood. Your opponent then lays down theirs, and gets to lay off: they can add their loose cards onto your melds to reduce their own deadwood. If you have a run of 5♣ 6♣ 7♣, they can lay off the 4♣ or 8♣ on it.

Gin means you knock with no deadwood at all. Nobody can lay off on a gin hand. Big gin is when, right after drawing, all 11 of your cards form melds, so you don't even need to discard.

An undercut happens when the defender's deadwood, after laying off, is equal to or lower than the knocker's. The defender scores the difference plus 25. It's the main reason not to knock carelessly.

If the stock gets down to 2 cards and nobody has knocked, the hand is dead. No one scores and the next hand is dealt.

Winning a match

Hands are played until someone reaches 100 points. At the end, the winner adds a 100 point game bonus, and each player adds 25 for every hand they won (traditionally called boxes). If the loser didn't win a single hand, that's a shutout, and the winner's points and game bonus are doubled.

Controls

Draw with the Deck button, or the Take button to grab the top discard. To discard, tap a card and tap it again, or drag it onto the pile. When you could discard down to 10 or less, a Knock button appears showing your count, and it turns into Gin! when your count would be zero. If all 11 cards meld after you draw, you'll see Big Gin! instead.

On a computer: D draws from the deck, T takes the discard, arrow keys pick a card, Enter discards it, K knocks and Esc pauses. You can save and quit and finish the match later.

Your rivals

The computer skill setting chooses who you play against:

• Clover (Easy) loves big melds and knocks the moment she can.
• Hazel (Normal) is a patient gardener who plans her melds and watches your picks, though she sometimes slips.
• Old Thorne (Hard) is a retired champion. He tracks every card you pick up and never feeds you the card you want.

Daily Garden and your garden

The Daily Garden is three hands against Hazel with the same deals everyone gets that day. Your score is 100 plus your points minus hers. Post it to the leaderboard and keep your day streak going.

Every point you score in a hand you win is a seed. Seeds grow flowers in My Garden: 12 in all, starting with a Daisy at 25 seeds and moving through Tulip, Sunflower, Rose, Lavender, Poppy, Lily, Iris, Peony, Cosmos and Orchid, up to a Lotus at 3,000. Milestones like your first hand won, your first gin, your first undercut, your first match, a shutout and ten wins unlock new card backs, which carry over to every card game on the site, including Cribbage Cabin.

Gin rummy strategy tips

• Knock early. Most hands are won by the first player to knock, not by the player who waits for gin. If you can knock in the first several turns, it's usually right.
• Get rid of high deadwood first. A loose king costs 10 points if your opponent knocks. A loose 2 costs 2. Early on, throw your unmatched face cards.
• Keep flexible cards. A card that could join two melds is worth more than one that could only finish one. 7♥ 8♥ 8♣ is a better start than 7♥ 7♣ K♦.
• Watch what your opponent picks up. If they take the 9♦ off the pile, don't throw them the 9♠, 8♦ or 10♦ unless you have to.
• Notice what they throw. If they discard a 6♣, they probably aren't collecting 6s or low clubs. Cards next to their discards are safer to throw.
• Don't knock into an undercut. Late in a hand, your opponent's deadwood is often low. If they've been holding cards for a while, knocking with 9 or 10 is risky. Wait for a lower count or gin.
• Taking from the pile tells a story. Only take the discard when it completes or clearly improves a meld. Otherwise you're giving away information for nothing.
• Mind the stock. As the deck runs low, it's better to knock with a modest hand than to let it go dead.

Questions