Gin Rummy

The deal. A standard 52-card deck. Each player is dealt 10 cards. One card is flipped to start the discard pile; the rest form the face-down draw pile. Non-dealer plays first.

Your turn. Two actions, in order: (1) Draw — either the face-down top of the deck or the face-up top of the discard pile. (2) Discard — click a card in your hand to select it, then press the Discard button (or drag-and-drop onto the discard pile). Turn ends.

Melds. A meld is either a set (three or four cards of the same rank, e.g. 7♠ 7♥ 7♦) or a run (three or more consecutive cards of the same suit, e.g. 5♣ 6♣ 7♣). Aces are always low — A♠ 2♠ 3♠ is a run; Q♠ K♠ A♠ is not.

Deadwood. Unmatched cards score against you. Aces count 1, face cards count 10, numbered cards count face value. Your live deadwood total sits below your hand.

Knocking. When your deadwood drops to 10 or less, the Knock button appears. Pressing it ends the hand: your final discard goes to the pile, melds + deadwood are revealed, lay-offs resolve, and scoring is settled. You may knock on your very first turn if dealt a knockable hand.

Gin. Zero deadwood. The Knock button turns into Gin! and pays the 25-point bonus on top of every point in the opponent’s hand. Lay-offs do not apply on gin — the opponent eats their full deadwood.

Undercut. After someone knocks (not gin), the opponent lays off any deadwood that legally extends the knocker’s melds, then totals what’s left. If the opponent’s remaining deadwood is ≤ the knocker’s, the opponent undercuts and scores the difference plus a 25-point bonus. Knock with care.

Scoring. Knock for the difference (opp. deadwood − your deadwood). Gin pays opp. deadwood + 25. Undercut pays (your deadwood − opp. deadwood) + 25, to the opponent. At match-end the winner adds a 25-point line bonus, then both sides add a per-hand box bonus (25 points per hand won during the match).

Wash. If the deck depletes to two cards before either player knocks, the hand ends as a wash — no points are scored on either side. The cards are re-collected and the next hand is dealt (or the match ends if you’re playing a single hand). The card count under the deck turns amber when the stock runs low (5 cards or fewer) and rose-red when the wash is imminent (3 or fewer), so you can see it coming. The strategic implication: late in the hand you have to decide whether to knock with uncomfortable deadwood or push for a smaller deadwood / gin and risk the wash erasing your progress.

Match length. Single hand (one and done), first to 100 (the classic Gin match, default), or first to 250 (long-form).

Difficulty. Easy draws and discards randomly-ish, knocks the moment it can. Medium picks the discard pile when it forms or extends a meld and discards the highest-deadwood non-meld card; knocks at deadwood ≤ 5. Hard adds discard-tracking against the visitor and tightens its knock policy when the opponent is showing knock signs.

Friends mode. Open a room, share the code or QR with a friend, play 1-on-1 over a direct peer-to-peer connection. The host deals hand 1; the deal alternates each hand. Hidden hands stay hidden until knock or gin. No accounts, no app install.