Gin Rummy Variants
Straight gin, Oklahoma, Hollywood — the family of knocks, and what this table plays.
Play Gin Rummy freeGin Rummy was born in 1909 and has been collecting house rules ever since. The core is universal — ten cards, draw and discard, melds of three, deadwood counts against you. The knobs people turn sit around the knock. Here is the tour.
The variant family
| Variant | The twist |
|---|---|
| Straight gin | No knocking at all — hands end only in gin. Long, tense, purist. |
| Oklahoma gin | The first upcard sets the knock limit for the hand: a 5 means knock at 5 or less; an ace means gin only. Spades often double the hand's score. |
| Hollywood | Three games scored at once — your first win posts to game one, the second to games one and two, and so on. Bookkeeping as a sport. |
| Round-the-corner | Ace melds both high and low, and Q-K-A becomes legal; the ace then counts 15 deadwood. |
| Knock variations | Tables set the limit at 10 (standard), lower it, or require an exact match to the upcard. |
What this table plays
- Classic two-player Gin Rummy — 52 cards, ten each, ace low, pictures worth 10, ace worth 1.
- Knock at 10 or less deadwood; the knocker scores the deadwood difference.
- Undercut: equal or beat the knocker's count and the defender scores the difference plus 25.
- Gin pays 25 plus the opponent's deadwood; big gin (all eleven cards melded) pays 31 plus.
- Layoffs allowed against a knock, never against gin.
- First to 100 wins, with a 25 box bonus per hand won and a 100 game bonus at the line; an exhausted stock is a wash.
Small glossary
- Meld
- A set (three or four of a rank) or a run (three-plus in suit sequence).
- Deadwood
- Cards in no meld — their point total is what you knock on.
- Knock
- Ending the hand with 10 or less deadwood.
- Undercut
- The defender matching or beating the knocker's count — for the points and a 25 bonus.
- Big gin
- All eleven cards melded on the draw, before discarding — the 31-point crown.
- Wash
- The stock running out with no knock: no score, next hand.
Keep reading
- How to Play Gin Rummy — the complete rules.
- Gin Rummy Strategy — discards, knock timing, undercuts.
- Gin Rummy Scoring — deadwood, gin, undercuts and boxes.