TIP: If your opponent's discard makes or increases a meld in your hand, pick it up. At each turn, a player must take either the upcard (top open card of the discard pile) or draw the top closed card of the stock and then discard one card face up on the discard pile. A second objective is to reduce the count of the unmatched cards in a player's hand to less than the count of his opponent and the summary value of these unmatched cards.Ī card can belong to only one combination at a time - you cannot use the same card as part of both melds.

The remainder of the pack is called the 'stock' and is placed beside discard pile.Įach player tries to form 'melds' which consist of three or four cards of the same rank called 'set' or 'group' (such as the 2 of hearts, 2 of diamonds and 2 of spades), or 'sequences' (or 'runs'), which are three or more cards of consecutive rank in the same suit (such as the 2, 3, 4 of hearts). The 21st card dealt, called the 'upcard', is placed face-up in a central location known as the discard pile.

The dealer deals 10 cards to each player, face down, one at a time, alternately. The dealer to the first round is chosed randomly, dealership alternates from round to round. The cards have values as follows: Face cards (K,Q,J) 10 points, Ace 1 point, Number cards are worth their value.

Aces are played only as low the ranking from low-to-high is A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K. Gin is played with a standard 52-card pack of playing cards.

How to play gin card game