What are the basic Gin Rummy rules?

The Gin Rummy rules are simple: two players each get ten cards, and on your turn you draw one card from the stock or discard pile and then discard one. You form sets and runs, and you may knock to end the hand once your unmatched deadwood totals 10 points or less. The game is played to 100 points.

What are the official rules for knocking in Gin Rummy?

Under the official Gin Rummy rules, you may knock after drawing whenever your deadwood is 10 points or fewer. You discard one card, lay your hand out in melds, and let your opponent lay off. If your deadwood is lowest you score the difference; if they tie or beat it, they undercut you for a 25-point bonus.

Can you lay off cards in Gin Rummy?

Yes. When your opponent knocks with deadwood remaining, you may lay off your unmatched cards onto their melds to lower your own count. However, you cannot lay off against a gin hand — going gin blocks all lay-offs, so the opponent's full deadwood counts.

What happens when the stock pile runs out in Gin Rummy?

If neither player has knocked and only two cards remain in the stock when the player who drew discards, the hand is declared a dead hand. No points are scored, and the same dealer reshuffles and deals a new hand.

Can an ace be high in a Gin Rummy run?

No. In Gin Rummy the ace is always low and worth 1 point. You can form a run of ace-two-three, but a run cannot wrap around from king to ace, so queen-king-ace is not a legal meld.

Gin Rummy Rules: The Official Rules Explained

The Gin Rummy rules are refreshingly compact, but the details around knocking, laying off, and the stock pile are where casual players trip up. This reference lays out the full official ruleset in plain order, from the first shuffle to the last card, so you always know exactly what is and is not allowed. Keep it handy as a settle-the-argument guide, or read it start to finish before your next match.

If you want the finer points of tallying scores, bonuses, and reaching game, see our companion guide on Gin Rummy scoring explained. Here we focus on how a hand is legally played.

Setup and equipment

Gin Rummy is played by two players with a single standard 52-card deck (no jokers). Card values are fixed: the ace is low and worth 1 point, cards two through ten are worth their pip value, and jacks, queens, and kings are each worth 10 points. Suits carry no relative rank. You also need something to keep score on paper or a screen, since hands accumulate toward a target.

The dealer shuffles and deals ten cards to each player, one at a time and face down. The undealt cards become the stock pile, set face down between the players. The top card of the stock is flipped face up next to it to begin the discard pile; this first face-up card is the initial upcard.

Objective

The object of each hand is to arrange your ten cards into melds and reduce your deadwood — the unmatched cards left over — to a low value, then end the hand on favorable terms. Across multiple hands, the object of the game is to be the first player to reach 100 points. Every hand you win adds to your running total based on the difference in leftover card values plus any bonuses.

Legal melds

Only two formations count as melds under the Gin Rummy rules:

Sets (groups) — three or four cards of the same rank, for example Q♠ Q♥ Q♦. A set can never exceed four cards, since there are only four of each rank.
Runs (sequences) — three or more cards of the same suit in consecutive rank order, for example 6♣ 7♣ 8♣. Runs can be longer, such as 6♣ 7♣ 8♣ 9♣.

Two important restrictions: the ace is always low, so A♥ 2♥ 3♥ is a valid run but Q♥ K♥ A♥ is not — the run cannot wrap around. And a single card cannot belong to two melds at once. If your 8♠ could complete either a set of eights or a spade run, you must commit it to one meld only.

Drawing and discarding

The non-dealer decides first whether to take the initial upcard. If they decline, the dealer may take it; if the dealer also declines, the non-dealer draws from the stock and play proceeds. From then on, each turn follows the same fixed two-step sequence:

Draw exactly one card, either the known top card of the discard pile or the unknown top card of the stock. You may never draw from both.
Discard exactly one card face up onto the discard pile, ending your turn with ten cards.

You may not take the discard and then immediately return that same card to the pile on the same turn. Turns alternate until the hand ends by a knock, a gin, or the stock running low.

Ending a hand: knocking and gin

A player may end the hand by knocking when, after drawing, their deadwood totals 10 points or less. To knock legally, the player discards one card (face down) and lays their hand out separated into melds and deadwood. Knocking is optional — you can keep playing to lower your count if you prefer.

If a player melds all ten cards and has zero deadwood, they have gin. Going gin is a special, stronger form of knocking that earns a 25-point bonus and, importantly, prevents the opponent from laying off (explained below). A player is never forced to declare gin, but there is rarely a reason not to.

Laying off

When one player knocks with deadwood remaining (not gin), the opposing player may lay off. Laying off means adding your own unmatched cards onto the knocker's melds to reduce your deadwood count. For instance, if the knocker shows a run of 5♦ 6♦ 7♦, you may lay off your own 4♦ or 8♦ onto it. You may only lay off onto the knocker's melds, never your own, and only when someone has knocked short of gin. Against a gin hand, no lay-offs are permitted, so the defender's full deadwood counts.

Scoring the hand and the undercut

After lay-offs, compare the two deadwood totals. If the knocker's deadwood is lower, the knocker scores the difference between the two counts. If the knocker went gin, they add the 25-point gin bonus to the opponent's full deadwood.

The critical edge case is the undercut: if the defender's deadwood ties or is lower than the knocker's, the defender wins the hand instead, scoring the difference plus a 25-point undercut bonus. This is why knocking at the maximum count of 10 is a gamble — an alert opponent may undercut you and steal the points. For a full breakdown of these totals and how they build toward 100, see Gin Rummy scoring explained.

Edge case: the stock running low

Sometimes neither player knocks and the stock dwindles. The standard rule: if only two cards remain in the stock and the player who just drew discards without knocking, the hand ends in a dead hand. No one scores, the cards are gathered, and the same dealer redeals. Some house rules stop when the stock hits a slightly different count, but the principle is the same — you never draw the deck down to zero. Playing online, the software enforces this automatically, so you cannot accidentally break the rule.

Common house rules and variations

The rules above describe standard Gin Rummy, but you will encounter regional and house variations, and it is worth agreeing on them before you start. Some tables play Oklahoma Gin, where the value of the initial upcard sets the maximum deadwood count allowed to knock that hand — if the upcard is a 5, you must knock with 5 or fewer, and an upcard ace forces a gin-only hand. Others award a line (box) bonus of 25 points for each hand won, or a large game bonus of 100 for reaching the target first, which rewards consistent winners. A stricter cousin, Straight Gin, removes knocking entirely: you may only end a hand by going gin. None of these change the core drawing, melding, or lay-off mechanics — they simply adjust when you may end a hand or how the points are tallied. If you want to try them, our tables for Oklahoma Gin and Straight Gin handle every variation rule for you.

A quick rules recap

To summarize the Gin Rummy rules: two players, ten cards each, draw one and discard one every turn, build sets and runs, and knock when your deadwood is 10 or under. Gin (zero deadwood) earns 25 and blocks lay-offs; an undercut by the defender also earns 25; and the stock is never drawn to empty. Race to 100 points across hands to win.

Now that the rules are clear, put them to work. Deal a hand against the computer on our Gin Rummy table — it enforces every rule above, from legal melds to undercuts, so you can learn by playing without second-guessing the fine print.