by Susan Malotte

Created on: October 17, 2008   Last Updated: November 11, 2011

Boredom sets in. You tap your watch to see if the time is correct. The moving van is late. There's no television yet, no computer yet, so what are we to do? Ah ha! Gin Rummy! You grab a deck of cards from the car. You're set - a deck of cards, two people and a small playing surface.

I have become aware that rules vary from person to person, family to family. There is a universal pattern in all Rummy games consisting of three of a kind or three cards of the same suit in a run. In checking with Wikipedia for the definition of Gin Rummy, I learned that under the name Rummy there is a large group of card games, which includes Canasta, Mah Jong, and Gin Rummy. I tend to believe that my mother applied the name Gin Rummy to our version but it appears to be Rummy with her own twist. Many variants apply to Gin Rummy and Rummy games and rules should be discussed before you start playing because even small, insignificant changes make a lot of difference. Our version (or mom's version of Gin Rummy) goes somewhat like this:

1). Deal seven cards to each player

2). Start with a face up discard pile. All future discards go face up, too.

3). When it's your turn draw a card from the stock pile or the discard pile. The catch is, our discard pile contains all discards face up so if you take any card below the top discard but you must play it and the rest of the cards on top are yours to keep. So, watch out for your opponent.

4). Play 3 of a kind or a run in all the same suit; aces are high or low. It's a good idea to cautiously watch your opponents and lay your cards down on the table; you don't want to get caught with them in your hand because at the end of the game cards in your hand count against you and cards on the table count for you.

5). If your opponent accidentally throws a discard which can be played on someone's run or three of a kind, you slap the card and yell "Rummy" and you may proceed to take the card and make the play. Then you proceed with your turn.

6). A player says "one card" and holds up one finger when he gets down to that last card.

7). When a player has put all his cards on the table and has one left for the discard pile he wins the game and yells "Gin Rummy". If he goes out by placing all his cards on the table without a discard he still wins. Nope, he doesn't get to holler "Gin Rummy".

8). Scoring: Ace's are 15 points, face cards and tens are 10 points and all the rest are 5 points. There's an extra 10 points for going out with a discard.

We all have

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