Rules for playing Gin Rummy
January 22, 2010
All You Wanted to Know About Gin Rummy
Last weekend when I was playing a game of Rummy Online, my 8 year old son Adrian who was watching me for a few minutes, asked me if he could play the game as well.
I told him to first go “Google the rules for playing online rummy“.
A few minutes later, he was back saying he had difficulty understanding the rules of rummy online.
Sure enough when I checked, I found that most sites did not have the rules written in a manner that was easy to understand so I thought I’d write something myself so anyone who reads it can play rummy online or traditional rummy within a few minutes.
So lets get started with How to play Gin Rummy Online
Let me start off with a little background to Gin Rummy:
Ask any card player which is the most popular card game and 8 out 10 times he is likely to say “Gin Rummy”.
Indeed, Gin Rummy has become an extremely popular form of internet gambling, specially in the last 30 years and if statistics are to believed, then over 50 million people who play Gin Rummy today and most of this rummy is now online rummy.
So when my friends call me up and say “let’s play online rummy” I know exactly what they mean.
It is said that Gin Rummy took off as a major card game sometime in the 1900’s, but it was not until the 1930’s that it actually became popular.
Strangely though, Gin Rummy gained in popularity more during great depression than at any other time in the past.
During the depression, people had a lot of time in their hands and could play Gin Rummy all night long.
These days of course, you don’t even need a deck of cards – you can simply play online rummy.
I think the reason for Gin Rummy’s popularity is not hard to deduce.
The game could be played with varying number of people, was easy to learn and could be played at any time either for money or just for fun.
Over the years, supplementary rules were added and slowly the game took on a more serious turn with emphasis on player skill and observation.
Very soon, there were competitive tournaments offering large sums of cash prize to the winner.
Soon, folks not only enjoyed playing Gin Rummy at home, but also traveled to Gin Rummy centers where the setting was more conducive to serious play.
Gin Rummy developed further when experts began to author books to officiate the rules.
Very soon the game had written rules that were strictly enforced at all official Gin Rummy centers.
Object of Gin Rummy:
In its simplest form, the objective of Gin Rummy is to be the first to reduce the cards to the barest minimum number of points.
These points are very simple to score. Ace is 1 point, a 2 signifies two points, a 3 signifies three points, and so on.
Cards from 10 through to King are valued at ten points each.
To win the game you have to “meld” the highest cards you have first so that you are left with the least amount of points.
Melds:
You have a “Meld” when you have a matching set of cards.
For example, if you have 3 Queens, you have a meld.
Any card that forms part of a meld does not have any value.
A meld will typically have three or more cards, all with the same face value as described.
A Meld can also consist of three or more cards in a sequence.
So if you have 3, 4 and 5 of hearts or 4, 5 and 6 of clubs you have a meld.
The ideal situation is to get rid of all cards in your hand.
This is called “Gin”.
Dealing the cards:
Dealing the cards involves shuffling and dealing the cards to the players.
I make special mention of this because a lot of people get this part completely wrong.
If you intend to play with 4 or more players, you might find it worthwhile to invest in a relatively inexpensive automatic card shuffler.
Unless offcourse you are playing rummy online at a site like Rummyroyal.com
Basically, the dealer shuffles first, and passes the deck to a non-dealer.
The non-dealer shuffles last.
After shuffling the cards, spread them face down and each player than draws a card from the cards in the middle i.e. ignoring the six cards on the left and six cards on the right.
The player picking the card of the lowest value will deal the first hand.
Then the cards are shuffled a second time.
The non-dealer will cut the pack and hand it over for the dealer to deal.
When you play rummy, one important point to remember is that the dealing of cards is not passed around the table as in other games.
The first deal is done by the one who draws the lowest card, while the subsequent deals will be done by the loser of the previous hand.
The dealer deals the cards alternately to the other player first and then to himself.
In this manner, each player gets 10 cards each.
The twenty first card is dealt to the non-dealer so that he has a total of 11 cards.
The remaining pack of cards forms the stock pile, which is placed face down in the center of the table or in a special box if you prefer it.
Playing Gin Rummy
The basic game of rummy consists of the drawing and discarding of the cards in hand.
The player draws a card from the stock pile or the face up card in the discard pile and places it among the cards in his hand.
The person with 11 cards or non-dealer will begin the game by discarding a card which forms the discard pile.
The discarded card is placed face up, which can be picked up by the dealer if he so wishes.
The player can draw from either the stock pile which is face down, or the discard pile.
During the game you if you happen to pick any card from the discarded pile but find you don’t want it, you cannot discard that card in the same play.
You have to discard it in a subsequent hand of play.
You can pick up any players discarded card but remember only the card at the top of discarded pile can be picked up.
The other cards in the pile cannot be picked up.
Once you pick up a card, see if you can make a meld or better still, declare a Gin.
Once you’ve understood the basics of how traditional rummy is played, it is very easy to play Rummy Online.
Get started today at Rummyroyal where you can play online rummy for free or for real money against other people.
Click Here to visit Rummy Royal
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