How to Win at Gin Rummy

You can win your hand of gin rummy in two very different ways. The most common way is by managing your 10-card hand to the point where your deadwood cards are worth 10 points or less. You can then "Knock" to end the hand and force your opponent to display their cards. If you knock to end the hand with zero deadwood points you have a perfect hand, called a "Gin".

The second way you can win the hand is if your opponent has knocked first but you have fewer deadwood cards. For example, where you have 9 points of deadwood cards and your opponent has knocked with 10 points in their hand. This is called "Undercutting" your opponent.

How to Win your Game

Once the hand has been ended game points are scored based on the difference between the players' deadwood points. For example, if you knock with 10 points of deadwood and your opponent has 15 points of deadwood in their hand, you will score 5 game points. Usually several hands of Gin Rummy are played before a winner of the game is declared unless you are playing our "first-to-knock" game type.