Talk:Gin rummy

Number of players
The article says gin is a 2-player game, but I have always played it with larger groups than that, using two packs of cards. Anybody else done that? Grinner 10:03, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

I have never played Gin with more than one other person. -DS

i haven't either Tgbob 20:14, 23 October 2006 (UTC) tgbob

Once I tried playing Gin with three people, but it was definitely nonstandard and it seemed like a very different game - cards you wanted would go by and you couldn't do anything about it.  r speer  / ɹəəds ɹ  22:47, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

The Bicycle Rules of Card Games mentions a three-player version of Gin where players could choose from either of their opponents discards. This would stop the issue of missing a chance to claim cards from the discard pile. Tgbob 20:14, 23 October 2006 (UTC) tgbob

I often play with 3, with 7-card hands, but I don't know if this is widespread or not. --Trystan 02:31, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi yeah on the same topic, the article says its a 2-player but the description below gives roles for three... (Neil B)

¶ I have only seen two-player games. I don't doubt there are variations with more players - but that would get complicated with 10-card hands not leaving much in the deck, and using two decks raises the chance of two duplicate cards in a hand, etc. One thought about strategy: I finally understood the advice about playing to Knock. It means going for the low value cards even if they don't form or add to melds. Playing to form melds carries the risk of your opponent winning with a knock. Sussmanbern (talk) 21:51, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

"Standard Rummy"
Why is there a reference to "Standard Rummy" when the article for "Rummy" declairs Gin Rummy as the most standard form of rummy? "To refer to [standard] rummy is probably to mean gin rummy, but strictly there is no one rummy game."

Spam
I have removed the ginrummyroom.com link because it is loaded with affiliate links and contains very little useful information. It also seems to have plagiarized Wikipedia in their strategy section. --24.84.47.212 08:39, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Hand size
Hi, I haven't played Gin rummy, but on all the other sites it is stated that the players get a 10 card hand, and here it is claimed that it is 7. Which is correct?

> you get Ten Tgbob 21:44, 27 February 2007 (UTC)tgbob

Rewrite
i've reworded a great portion of the page. there were points where Gin Rummy was being confused with Rummy 500. and a good deal of attention was payed to the whether a bonus should be 10, 20 or 25 points while not fully addressing all of the scoring in gin. so, i made a note that the amounts of the bonuses will vary by location, but included info on box bonuses, game bonuses, and a description of knocking and underknocking. i decided to use the point values they use at the world series.

i also addressed, albeit in a less than elegant manner, Hollywood scoring, Oklahoma Gin, and draws.

also added links to ginplayeronline where there are visual scoring walkthroughs (that hollywood style always gets tied up in words, to me) and dealer error handling, as well as to the Gin Rummy Association.

as for browsing through the discard pile, holye says if the parties agree to it beforehand, go ahead, but the GPA doesn't address it, and they host the world series of gin. so, i decided to leave the idea out, although someone else might want include something about that issue. Tgbob 22:53, 27 February 2007 (UTC)tgbob

Fair use rationale for Image:PCGinGamejpg.jpg
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Whisky Poker origin
Does anyone here know about the origin of whisky poker?Some says the whiskey poker of 19th century while other said 18th century.

The poker was brought to America by the French settlers that moved there in the nineteenth century. The two games share many common things, especially the concepts of sets and runs. It is said that the ancestor of the rummy games is Whiskey Poker, which turned into Rum Poker, and later into Rummy. http://takeuphobbies.com/what-are-the-most-famous-types-of-rummy-games

The Baker’s took the 18th-century card game of Whiskey Poker and extracted some of its rules and regulations to create this now world-wide favorite game, Gin Rummy. http://www.ginrummycardgame.com/

Rummy is one of the most popular forms of rummy. Rummy is generally played by two players each receiving ten cards. Rummy, which evolved from 18th-century Whiskey Poker, was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy. The objective in Gin Rummy is to score more points than your opponent. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=maxigames.pack.rummymx

In this wikipedia page,John Scarne clearly said 19th century as can be seen from the google book.

Is John Scarne the only one who propose the theory rummy evolve from whisky poker? — Preceding unsigned comment added by ShanghaiWu (talk • contribs) 16:49, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

Why is it called 'Gin' Rummy?
quota (talk) 10:00, 15 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Apparently it was a play with words after the original game being called "Rum". "Gin" is also an alcoholic drink.
 * https://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question100841.html dvdme (talk) 10:55, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Big Gin
I have never heard of "Big gin" before and also I checked a few online rule sites including https://www.pagat.com/rummy/ginrummy.html. I would propose deleting this rule or putting it as a variant rather than as part of the core rules. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drtrivia (talk • contribs) 21:18, 24 February 2020 (UTC)


 * I agree with you. I have also not seen any mention in other websites.
 * In the bicycle cards website (https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/gin-rummy) there is no mention to Big gin. dvdme (talk) 11:08, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Oklahoma Gin
“In this version of gin rummy, the value of the first upcard is used to determine the maximum count at which players can knock. . . . So if the first upcard was a 4, you can knock and go out with only 4 or fewer points in your hand”

The way I’ve always seen it played, the knock must be strictly less than the original upcard. If the upcard is an ace, then it’s a “gin hand”: no knocking allowed. —Dodiad (talk) 20:25, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Fictional players: Jeffrey Willis and Phil Brody are Gin players in The Flamingo Kid, a movie in which Gin is central to the plot.
Fictional players: Jeffrey Willis and Phil Brody are Gin players in The Flamingo Kid, a movie in which Gin is central to the plot. 2603:8000:F301:8EC2:5827:EDE0:95D:AA81 (talk) 04:16, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

Underknock scoring
There is some ambiguity in what is currently written in the article.

- In section Playing / Knocking it is stated that: "The defending player can undercut the knocking player by having a lower or equal count. In this case, the defending player scores the difference plus a bonus (usually 15 points)." So, here underknock is valued in 15 bonus points;

- In section Scoring / Undercut (or underknocking) it is stated that: "Occurs when the defending player has a deadwood count lower than or equal to that of the knocking player (this can occur either naturally or by laying off after a knock). In this case, the defender scores an undercut bonus of 25 points plus the difference in deadwood in the knocking player's hand.".

Information about underknocking bonus points in the article should be the same.

I propose to:

- Change the bonus value in the scoring section to 15 (or even 10, see bellow) because in bicycle cards website (https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/gin-rummy);

- In the same bicycle cards website (https://bicyclecards.com/how-to-play/gin-rummy) the bonus points for gin is 20 and for underknocking is 10. So maybe these should all be updated in the article. dvdme (talk) 11:07, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Ernie Kovacs
Under the Gin rummy heading is an entry:


 * Ernie Kovacs, the comedian and television pioneer, published a book in 1962 called How to Talk at Gin.

I found a copy of the book mentioned, but found that the title is misleading. There are some references to the game of gin, but it is mostly just absurd humor. I don't doubt Kovacs was a gin player, just seems like a biography would be more suitable material to cite his ever playing the game and also would be a secondary source. -- Ashawley (talk) 22:03, 22 March 2024 (UTC)