Card
Play Gin Rummy online
Build runs and sets, cut your deadwood, then knock before your opponent does. Head-to-head classic.
2 players, about 20 minutes. Play Gin Rummy with friends using a room code, or solo against Nell. Free, no sign-up, works on your phone.
How to play Gin Rummy
Players
2
Time
~20 min
Goal
First to 100
Objective
Arrange your ten cards into melds — three or more of a kind, or three or more in a row in one suit. Whatever is left over is your deadwood. Get your deadwood low, end the hand, and score the difference. First player to 100 points wins the match.
Card Values
Card
Deadwood value
Ace
1 point (always low)
2 through 10
Face value
Jack, Queen, King
10 points
Setting Up
1
Both players get 10 cards and one card is turned face up to start the discard pile.
2
The non-dealer gets first refusal on that upcard. If they pass, the dealer may take it.
3
If both pass, the non-dealer draws from the stock and normal turns begin.
Your Turn
1
Draw one card — the face-down stock, or the top of the discard pile.
2
Discard one card face up. You can't immediately throw back a card you just took from the pile.
3
Your hand is grouped for you automatically, so the deadwood number under it is always the best your cards can do.
Knocking
1
If your discard would leave you with 10 deadwood or less, you may knock instead of discarding normally. That ends the hand.
2
Your opponent lays off any of their leftover cards that extend your melds — a 9 onto your 10-J-Q run, a fourth suit onto your three-of-a-kind. That happens automatically.
3
You score the difference between the two deadwood totals.
Gin and Undercuts
Result
Score
Gin (zero deadwood)
25 bonus + opponent's deadwood, no lay-offs allowed
Knock
The deadwood difference
Undercut (opponent ties or beats you)
They score 25 + the difference
Stock down to 2 cards, nobody knocked
Hand is a wash — redeal
Strategy Tips
💡
Watch what your opponent takes off the pile — a card they picked up tells you which ranks and suits to stop feeding them. Early on, dump the high cards you can't use; late in a hand, a safe 10 beats a risky 4. And a knock with 8 deadwood is a real gamble: if they're sitting on 8 or less, they undercut you for 25.