Gin Rummy Guide

Introduction.

Gin Rummy is a card game for two people. A game consists of a series of hands, and it ends when a player accumulates 100 or more points. Then, the final scores are calculated and the player with the higher score is the winner.

I will assume that you know the rules of Gin Rummy. If not, you can read the section on Gin Rummy in almost any book on card games, which you can obtain from your local library or bookstore.

You can also read online the Rules of Card Games: Gin Rummy. I play the variation where the bonus for an undercut, the bonus for going gin, and the box bonus for each game won are all 25 points. Also, the winner does not score 100 bonus points if the loser failed to score anything at all during the game.

The following tells you how to use this program.

Start a game.

When a new game starts, the computer will automatically cut the cards for each player to see who deals first. The player who cuts high must deal. Thereafter, the winner of each game deals the first hand of the next game.

After the cards are cut, you should click the "deal first" button on the button bar at the bottom of the window. The first hand of the game will then be dealt.

Deal a hand.

When a new hand is dealt, the dealer gets ten cards and the non-dealer gets eleven cards. The non- dealer starts by playing one of his or her cards.

The winner of the hand deals the next hand.

Start a selection.

You have two ways to start a new selection. The cards you select will be highlighted and any previously highlighted cards will be unhighlighted.

In the first way, click just outside of the first card that you wish to select; drag straight into it; drag through adjacent cards to select more; finally, release the mouse button.

In the second way, click inside a card you wish to select. The card that you clicked will be selected, and you can start moving it.

Modify a selection.

You can modify your current selection by selecting a range of unhighlighted cards to add or a range of highlighted cards to remove. Any previously selected cards outside of the range will remain highlighted.

To make a modification, hold down the shift key and click inside a card you wish to modify; drag through adjacent cards to modify more; finally, release the mouse button.

To unselect all cards, single click in the area that is just outside of your cards.

Move cards.

To move one or more cards in your hand, first select the cards you wish to move. Then, click on one of the highlighted cards, and start moving the cards to the new location. The "hot point" of your selection is always located at the upper left corner of your selection.

Move the "hot point" of your selection to the point where you want the cards to be moved, and release the cards. The selected cards will be sorted and moved to the new location.

As a shortcut, if you release the cards in the area that is just outside of your cards, the cards will be placed at the far left of your hand.

Get a card.

You can draw the top card of the face down stock pile or pick up the top card of the face up discard pile. Choose by clicking the top card of the appropriate pile or clicking the appropriate button on the button bar.

The card you select will be added to your hand at the far right and highlighted. However, if you click a pile, then you must move the card to your hand.

You cannot draw a card if the stock pile contains only two cards. You can pick up the last discard or click the "hand is dead" button, in which case it is a draw and neither player scores any points and the dealer redeals the hand.

Undo get card.

You can undo the card you picked up by moving it back to the discard pile.

Play a card.

You can discard, knock with a deadwood count of 10 or less, or gin if you have no deadwood count.

First, you must highlight exactly one card that you wish to discard. Then, move the card from your hand to the discard pile, pressing the option key if you wish to go out. Or, click the appropriate button on the button bar. Your discard will be placed face up on top of the discard pile. If you knocked or ginned, the hand ends and you must put down your melds. Otherwise, it's your opponent's turn to get and play a card.

As a shortcut for discarding, you can hold down the control key and click once on the card you wish to discard. The highlighting of the cards in your hand is ignored in this case, and the selected card is discarded.

Meld.

You can put down only one meld at a time. If your opponent knocked, you can also lay off cards from your hand that extend any meld of the opponent.

First, highlight the cards that you wish to meld or lay off. Then, move the meld or lay offs from your hand to the table area to the left of the cards in your hand. Or, click the "put down meld" or the "lay off cards" button on the button bar. Your meld or lay offs will be placed to the left, apart from the remaining cards in your hand.

Repeat this for the other melds in your hand. If you are moving cards, you must release them over the cards already on the table.

All laid off cards will be grouped together, placed last among all the melded cards.

Unmeld.

You can pick up one or more melds or all your lay offs from the table and put them back into your hand.

First, highlight what you want to pick up. Then, move them from the table to your hand. Or, click the "pick up meld" button on the button bar. The selected cards will be picked up from the table and placed back into your hand.

If you knocked or ginned, you can undo that choice by clicking the "cancel melding" button on the button bar. All your melds will be picked up from the table and your last discard will be returned back to your hand. This is useful if you discard the wrong card when you knock or gin.

Finished meld.

When you have nothing more to meld, click the "finished melding" button on the button bar at the bottom of the window.

This page is hosted by Get your own Free Home Page