The Ultimate Strategy Guide to Gin Rummy

 

The Ultimate Strategy Guide to Gin Rummy

Back when the Internet was unheard of, you probably wonder what people were doing to while away the time. Well, aside from baseball, folks play card games, one of which is Gin Rummy. As you probably notice, the name of the card game says something about yet another favorite pastime, drinking. The card game for two was invented by Elwood T. Baker in 1909 and became popular since then. While you might think it's an ancient game, it is actually a later comer that tried to compete with even more popular games such as บาคาร่า Cribbage and Pinoche; both of which were games that go way back as early as 400 years ago. Gin Rummy is closely linked to a genre of card game known as Rummy, where the method that is being used is the "draw and discard". This means that at every turn, you draw a card from the pile and discard the unwanted card in exchange. The idea is to form sets of matching cards. The match can be 3 or 4 cards of the same rank or same suit in sequence. With such easy to understand rules, it's no wonder that the game had a loyal following; and it even garnered notoriety for being such an addictive game.

Following the general rules of Rummy, Gin Rummy version is as easy as pie. You can't have a set of less than 3 cards in your hand and you can't have a set of more than 10 cards in your hand. The entire deck of cards is of no use to you as it is only used to replace cards. Unlike traditional Rummy, the Ace is the highest card in the deck. It can be used as a high card or a low card; but cannot be used multiple times. The Ace is also theonym of the card game since you can have Ace as both a high card and a low card.

In Gin Rummy, you can only use a single deck of cards. And while you can draw your required number of cards from the middle of the table, you can't draw more cards from the middle. If you draw one card from the middle, understand that it will be followed by another card. The third card will be face up and the fourth card will be face down. This will be followed by a fourth card and so on. Each time when you need a card, you will have to discard one card until you have your new required card. The card you discard will be replaced with one of your new required cards. You may switch the cards between the two piles, but you can't take cards from the middle.

You can also trade your cards with the dealer. But before you can do so, you must have a pair of cards that are of the same rank. Once you have that, you can trade them with the dealer. But if you have three cards that are the same in rank, you can only trade them if they are also of the same suit.

In Gin Rummy, there are no blinds. Each player and the dealer will bet in turn and the winner is the player who has the highest card.