- + How To Play
Rules
The goal is to arrange as many as possible of the cards in your hand into runs or sets of cards:
| A set consists of 3 or more cards of the same rank |
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OR
| A run consists of 3 or more consecutive cards of the same suit |
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OR
Another objective is to reduce the total count of the unmatched cards in a player's hand (deadwood) to less than the count of his opponents.
There are three ways to score points toward winning a Gin ring game: ginning, knocking, and undercutting.
The Deck
This game is played with a standard 52 card deck.
| The four suits |
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| The cards and their values |
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1 point 2 points 3 points 4 points 5 points
6 points 7 points 8 points 9 points 10 points
10 points 10 points 10 points |
The Play
In a 2 player game each player is dealt 10 cards. In a 3-4 player game, each player is dealt 7 cards.
The remaining cards are placed face down on the table, forming the stock pile (face down) and one card is placed next to the stock to form the discard pile (face up).
A standard turn consists of two parts:
The Draw - A turn begins by drawing a card from the top of the discard pile (face up) or from the top of the stock pile (face down) and adding it to your hand.
The Discard - To complete your turn, one card must be discarded from your hand and placed on top of the discard pile face up.
If the stock runs out, the discard pile is shuffled and placed face down to form a new stock. The card discarded by the player who drew the last card of the old stock is placed face up beside the new stock to start the new discard pile.
Gin
A player who "Gins" disposes of all the cards in his hand at once, without any "deadwood" (unmatched cards).
Knock
Instead of going for Gin, a player can win a game by "Knocking". To do that, player's deadwood count must be lower or equal to the opening card's face value.
The other players may lay off cards only on the knocker's hand, and only on the original matched sets.
For example: The knocker has 
and one opponent lays off 
on it, the next opponent may not lay off the 
.
Knocker has: First opponent lays off on it: Next opponent may not lay off on it: |
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This helps to reduce the deadwood count in the opponents hands, and is a reward for holding on to cards that the opponents are quite sure the knocker needs.
An example of laying off (2 player game):
| The knocker goes down with: |
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The opponent is able to spread two melds and the deadwood is comprised of 
and two fours. In this case, the opponent can lay off the Jack and 6 of Hearts onto the knocker's heart meld, to reduce his count from 24 points to only 8 points!
Note that a player is not permitted to lay off any cards on the unmatched cards in the opponent's hand.
Note that when a player gins, the opponent may not lay off cards on the gin hand. That is one advantage in going for a gin.
Undercut
If the "knock" value of the non-knocker is lower or equals the "knock" of the knocker, the non-knocker wins the deal and gets a special bonus of 20 points. This go down is called UNDERCUT.
Scoring
| Defeated (Penalty Points) |
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Ginning Sum of deadwoods + 25 penalty points. Knocking Sum of deadwoods minus knockers deadwoods. Undercut Sum of deadwoods minus undercutter's deadwoods. Knocker recieves 10 extra penalty points. |
Payout table for ring games:
