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In the online game of gin rummy, ten cards each are dealt to 2 players. The 21-st card is opened face up (upcard) and put next to the deck. At each turn you draw a card from the deck or from upcard. When you discard a card, you place it on top of the current upcard so the newly discarded card becomes an upcard.
Only at the start of the game the non-dealer would consider either exchanging one of his cards with an upcard or passing the opportunity. The rules of the game do not allow yet any drawing from deck. In case of passing, the dealer would consider exchanging with the upcard or passing it. Again, no drawing from deck is yet allowed.
If both of gin rummy online players refuse the very first upcard, the non-dealer must start a game by drawing the top card from the deck, add it to his hand and discard ANY card face up on top of the original upcard to continue the waste pile.
Thereafter, each player in turn must draw and add to his hand either the unknown top card from the deck OR the known upcard on the very top of the waste pile. In either case, the online player completes his turn by discarding one card face up to the waste pile. It is not permitted to draw the upcard & discard it on the same turn.
The melds that the player is building may consist of
A hand consisting entirely of melds with no deadwood is described as gin and carries a bonus. The online player, however, does not have to wait for gin but may end up a game as soon as the total value of his unmatched deadwood is 10 or less. (This is called maximum knocking value. It is set at 10 for pure gin rummy. For the optional Oklahoma variation, that GameColony.com supports, this value may not be 10, but is determined by the value of the initial upcard which can be 1 if Ace was an initial upcard.
During online play melds are not revealed – they are kept secretly in hand.
Knocking
When an online player is satisfied with low value of his deadwood, he/she ends the game by ‘theoretically’ knocking on the table AFTER he/she has drawn an 11-th card and BEFORE discarding his last card. The final discarded card is placed face down on the waste pile. The knocker then spreads his cards on the table face up, arranged in melds and with any deadwood clearly separated. The opponent, then, does the same, but has the privilege of ‘laying off’ any cards of his own deadwood which may be matched with any of the knocker’s melds in order to reduce the penalty value of his deadwood. This privilege does not apply if the knocker has a gin hand with no deadwood.
If the knocker has the lower count of deadwood, he/she scores the difference between their values of deadwood. For gin, the knocker adds a 25 point bonus.
If the knocker has higher or equal value of deadwood, the knocker receives a 25 point penalty for undercut plus any difference in deadwood values.
The 2 last cards of the deck may not be taken. If neither player has knocked before then, the result is a draw & same dealer deals again.
The score is kept cumulatively for each player online. The winner adds his score for the hand to his previous total in order to make clear when 100 has been reached or exceeded. At GameColony.com 100 total points is a default, but players can choose 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300
The game ends as the player reaches the agreed upon number of points.
See introduction to gin rummy game. Also see gin rummy game strategy.