Gin Rummy is one of the traditional kitchen table card games that almost everyone learns as a child.
Like many popular games, Gin Rummy is easy to learn, but mastering it requires serious effort. Unlike a lot of card games, strategy plays a major role in the results of a Gin Match.
Knock Early – Whether you’re playing standard Gin, or Oklahoma Gin, if you have the chance to knock early in the hand, do this. You won’t earn a 25 point bonus for knocking how you would for going Gin, but you’ll earn points for the extra deadwood in your opponents hand plus the line score.
That line rating can sure help when the match is over.
You can work towards an early knock by dividing your hand into three melds. Two of those melds will need to be runs or sets, and one meld is only a collection of low cards that total less than the knock number.
The longer your opponent has to make melds, the less of a chance that you may grab him with more deadwood in his hand than you have in yours.
Don’t Speculate – Every time you take an exposed card from the discard pile, you give your competitor information about your hand. As an example, if you choose the seven of hearts from the heap, your opponent knows that you’ve either got running hearts or are amassing sevens. They will use that information during the remainder of the hand.
By speculating, you’re giving away information about cards you have in mind which are not even melded. This makes his defense plays much more effective because not only is your opponent not going to play into your melds, he can keep you from even making one. And, those unmelded cards will stay as deadwood in your hand and count against you at the showdown.
Promotion – One common play in Gin Rummy is to throw a card of a position in hopes that your opponent will throw one of the same rank. For instance, you want the six of diamonds to create a diamond run. By throwing the six of clubs, you advertise to your opponent that you’re not collecting sixes, making him more likely to feel safe about throwing the six of diamonds.
Pay attention to whether of not your opponent advertises for cards. Also pay attention to if they fall to your advertisements.
Gin Rummy is a simple game which has many layers of plan. These basic strategies are simply the start tools you can use in the Gin table.