Gin Rummy Variants, Including 3 and 4 Players

Most versions change the knock. Here is what each one does, and what our tables play.

Most gin rummy variants change one thing: when you are allowed to knock. In Oklahoma gin the first face-up card sets the knock limit for the hand. In straight gin you can't knock at all, and only gin ends a hand. Our tables play the standard game: knock on 10 or less, 25 for gin, 25 for an undercut, first to 100. Gin is a game for two, so gin rummy with 3 or 4 players is a home adaptation, and our tables don't deal it.

What our tables play

• Two players, 52 cards, ten each. Ace is low and counts 1; jacks, queens and kings count 10.
• Knock on 10 or less, every hand. The knocker scores the difference in deadwood.
• Undercut: if the defender ties or goes lower after laying off, they score the difference plus 25.
• Gin pays 25 plus the opponent's deadwood, and nobody can lay off against it. Big gin, all eleven cards melded after the draw, pays 31 plus.
• First to 100 wins. The final scoresheet then adds 25 for every hand won and 100 for the game, or 200 on a shutout.
• Two cards left in the stock with no knock: the hand is dead and dealt again.

Oklahoma gin

The card turned up to start the discard pile sets the knock limit for that hand. Turn up a 7 and you need 7 or less to knock; a picture card counts 10, so the limit stays at 10. Some play that an ace turned up means you may only go out with gin. If the card is a spade, the hand scores double. According to pagat.com the game is generally played to 150, and it lists extra boxes too: one for an undercut and two for gin, doubled when the up-card is a spade.

Our tables don't play Oklahoma. The limit is always 10, whatever card is turned up.

Straight gin

Nobody may knock. The hand goes on until someone goes gin, and scoring is otherwise the standard game. It makes for longer hands and puts all the weight on building melds instead of cutting your count. Our tables allow knocking, so this is not an option here.

Hollywood scoring

This is a way of keeping score, not a change to the play: three games run at once on one sheet. Your first hand won goes into game one, your second into games one and two, your third into all three. Pagat.com notes that gin became a Hollywood craze in 1941 and that playing three games at once is often called Hollywood gin. Our tables score one game at a time.

Round-the-corner aces

Wikipedia's gin rummy article describes a version called Tedesco gin in which the ace can be high or low and runs can wrap around, so K♠ A♠ 2♠ is a run. An ace left in your deadwood then costs 15 instead of 1. Our tables keep the ace low: A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A and K-A-2 are not.

Gin rummy with 3 or 4 players

Gin is a game for two, but pagat.com describes ways to stretch it to three or four. Our tables are always one against one, so these are for a real deck.

Gin rummy with 3 players

The dealer deals to the other two players and sits the hand out. The loser of each hand deals the next one, so every hand is played between the previous winner and the player who dealt.

Gin rummy with 4 players

Two teams of two form, and they stay the same. Each player plays a separate game against one opponent from the other team, and the opponents rotate. After each hand the results are combined into a team score:

• If both members of a team won their games, the team scores the total of their points.
• If one player from each team won, the team with the higher score gets the difference.

The first team to reach 125 wins.

Different bonus sizes

Even among players of the standard game, the bonuses vary: 20 or 25 for gin, 10, 20 or 25 for an undercut, and a game target of 100, 150 in Oklahoma, or 250 under tournament rules. The scoring page sets out who plays what.

Sources for the variant rules above: the pagat.com gin rummy page and Wikipedia's gin rummy article.

Learn the standard game on How to play Gin Rummy, or sharpen it with Gin Rummy strategy.