rummy for two
players
minutes
52 cards
You draw and discard cards with the aim of creating sets on your hand to minimize your leftover cards, the “dead wood”. At the end of each round, dead wood is worth points to your opponent, so you want to close the round while you have less of that, preferably none…
Use the cards A, 2-10, J, Q, and K in four suits of your choice. In each suit, the cards rank, from low to high: A, 2-10, J, Q, K. Additionally, each card has a point value: the Ace is worth 1 point, the number cards (2-10) their face value each, and the picture cards (Jack, Queen, King) 10 points each.
You draw and discard cards with the aim to collect sets on your hand. There are three types of allowed sets:
In each suit, Ace is the lowest and King the highest card. You may not use the same card in multiple sets. All cards on your hand which are not part of any allowed set are called “dead wood”. Your aim is to end the round with the least points of dead wood, preferably none.
Any player deals the first hand. In the following rounds, the turn to deal alternates. The dealer shuffles all cards, deals a hand of 10 cards to each player, and places the remaining cards as a face-down draw deck between the players.
The player that currently has the lower score takes their turn first. In case of a tie, the player that did not deal takes their turn first. Take turns alternatingly until one player ends the round.
On your turn, first draw a card, and then discard a card.
You may draw either the topmost card from the face-down draw deck, or the topmost card from the face-up discard pile. Then, discard any card from your hand face-up onto the discard pile. If you draw a card from the discard, you may not discard that same card on the same turn. At the beginning of each round, there is no discard pile yet, and the first player must draw a card from the draw pile.
After any of your turns, after you discard a card and before the other player draws a card, you may “knock” if you currently hold dead wood (see above, “cards”) with a value of 10 points or less. This immediately ends the round, the other player will not get another turn.
After you knock, place all cards from your hand on the table and arrange them into allowed sets (see above, “cards”), setting aside your dead wood, if any.
The player that did not knock then does the same. However, that player may use any of their dead wood to extend the sets of the player that knocked, turning triplets into quadruplets, or extending runs. For example, if you knock and place, among other sets, a run of 3, 4, and 5 on the table, the other player might add a 2 or a 6, or even both, to that. Note that the player that did not knock may not use the dead wood of the player that knocked to form sets, or add cards to it.
The game also ends if a player would draw the last card from the draw deck. In that case, none of the players scores any points for this round. Start a new round.
After both players placed their cards on the table, calculate the difference in points each player has (left) in dead wood.
If you go gin, it does not matter if the other player also ends the round without dead wood, you are never undercut. However, even if you go gin, the other player may still reduce their dead wood by extending your sets. Note that you only “go gin” if you also knock and end the round. If you have no dead wood after the other player knocks without going gin themselves, you simply undercut them, but do not go gin, so this only scores you 20 points, plus the knocking player’s dead wood.
If one of the players has reached 150 points or more at the end of a round, the game ends, and that player wins.
Gin Rummy is part of the large rummy family of card games, that all share the “draw a card, discard a card” flow as well as the goal to create sets, sometimes on your hand, sometimes openly on the table. If that appeals to you, maybe check out Canasta (4 players in 2 partnerships), Mah Jong (usually played with tiles), or the commercially available Rummikub (basically just Rummy using plastic tiles).