Play Gin Rummy Online, Free Against the Computer

Gin Rummy is a two-player draw-and-discard game where you arrange a ten-card hand into sets and suited runs while trimming the point value of everything left unmatched. You can switch between Standard Gin (knock at 10 points or fewer, game to 100) and Oklahoma Gin (the opening upcard sets the knock threshold, spades double the score, game to 150), against a computer opponent set to one of four levels.

Gin Rummy rules for the deal, melds and deadwood

Each player is dealt ten cards, and the next card is turned face up beside the stock to begin the discard pile. The non-dealer has the first option to take that opening upcard, and if they pass, the dealer may take it, while if both decline, the non-dealer draws the top card of the face-down stock to start play.

From then on, each turn has two steps:

Draw one card, choosing either the top face-up discard or the top face-down stock card.
Discard one card face up onto the discard pile. If you picked up the top discard this turn, you may not throw that same card straight back onto the pile.

Your goal is to group your ten cards into non-overlapping melds:

Sets of three or four cards of the same rank, such as 8♠ 8♥ 8♦.
Runs of three or more consecutive cards of the same suit, such as 4♣ 5♣ 6♣ 7♣. Aces are always low, so A♠ 2♠ 3♠ is a valid run and Q♠ K♠ A♠ is not.

Any card not part of a meld is deadwood. Kings, Queens and Jacks count 10 points each, Aces count 1, and cards from 2 through 10 count their face value. As you play, your current deadwood total sits right beside your hand.

Knocking, going gin, laying off and undercuts

You can end a hand on your discard step whenever the ten cards remaining in your hand meet the knock requirement:

How the hand ends	When it is allowed	How it scores
Gin	All 10 remaining cards form valid melds (0 deadwood)	25-point bonus plus the full deadwood value of your opponent’s unmelded cards. Your opponent cannot lay off any cards.
Knock	Your remaining deadwood is at or below the hand’s knock limit (10 in Standard)	Your opponent exposes their own melds first, then lays off any loose cards that extend your sets or runs. If your deadwood is still lower, you score the difference.
Undercut	After laying off onto your melds, the defender’s deadwood is equal to or less than yours	The defender wins the hand, scoring a 25-point bonus plus the difference in deadwood.
Two-card wall	A player draws the third-last stock card and discards without knocking or going gin	When only two cards remain in the stock, the hand is cancelled for 0 points and the same dealer deals again.

Who can lay off cards after a knock in Gin Rummy?

Only the defender may lay cards off onto the knocker’s melds, while the knocker never lays off onto the defender’s. Layoffs can also chain in sequence. If you knock with 5♥ 6♥ 7♥ and your opponent holds both 4♥ and 3♥, they can lay off the 4♥ and then the 3♥ after it.

Match scoring and settlement

Gin and undercuts both earn a flat 25-point bonus here, with no extra box, line or shutout bonuses at the end of the game. Reaching 100, or 150 in Oklahoma, usually takes several hands.

How Oklahoma Gin changes the hand

Choosing Oklahoma in the rules menu starts a new match, and from then on the first face-up card dealt beside the stock controls the entire hand before anyone takes a turn:

The upcard’s value is the knock limit: a 7 means you may knock with 7 points or fewer, an 8 with 8, and a Jack, Queen or King with 10.
An Ace upcard means gin only. Neither player may knock with deadwood, so the hand runs until someone goes gin or the stock reaches the two-card wall.
A spade upcard doubles the hand: the final score for that hand, including the 25-point gin or undercut bonus, is multiplied by two.

The active knock limit, the 150-point target, and a “spade hand ×2” note when the hand is doubled stay posted next to the scoreboard.

Gin Rummy strategy: combinations, discards and timing your knock

Keep combinations with four ways in, not bare pairs

A bare pair (7♣ 7♥) has only two cards in the deck that can turn it into a meld (7♦ and 7♠). An open two-card run (7♣ 8♣) also has only two outs (6♣ and 9♣). Hold all three of 7♣ 7♥ 8♣ and any of those four cards completes a meld immediately. Early in the hand, keep shapes like that and middle suited connectors (5 through 9), and shed isolated Kings, Queens and Jacks first: a lone King carries 10 points of deadwood and cannot connect upward because Aces are low.

Track what your opponent picks up and which cards are dead

Every draw from the discard pile gives away information. When your opponent takes a face-up 9♦, they are either completing a set of 9s or building a diamond run around 9♦, so throwing another 9, 8♦ or 10♦ feeds their hand. You don’t have to track those pickups from memory: the sidebar lists the discards your opponent has taken and still holds in hand.

Use the discard pile the other way around to spot dead combinations. If two 6s are already buried in the discard pile, neither player can make a set of 6s from the stock, so a pair of 6s in your hand has lost its set outs and should be the first pair you break up.

Know when to knock early and when to hold out

Knocking with 8, 9 or 10 points of deadwood works best early in the hand, while your opponent is likely still holding unmelded face cards. Later, once your opponent has picked up a few discards, a high knock walks straight into an undercut: their deadwood is already low, and every three-card set or open run you lay down gives them somewhere to lay off their remaining loose cards.

So late in a hand, if your opponent may be sitting on just a few points of deadwood, either play on for gin or wait until your own deadwood is down to 2 or 3 points before you knock.

Draw and discard toward runs and sets, manage deadwood, then knock at the right moment — or press for gin — in the classic two-player rummy game.

Play Gin Rummy free against adjustable AI in your browser. No download or account.

Preparing