Card By Card

My opponent draws from the deck and discards the 6 of hearts from his hand. I draw the 2 of clubs from the deck and discard the Queen of clubs.

My opponent draws from the deck and knocks with 6. I lose a net of 5 points on the hand. Supposing I had held on relentlessly to my Jack-10s of diamonds, holding out for the 9 or Queen which failed to show up? I would have lost 15 points instead of 5 on my opponent’s knock. What’s more, if I had thrown him wild cards, he might have been able to knock even sooner and inflict a greater loss on me, or he could have ginned.

Score at the end of the fourteenth hand: Wander 178 Opponent 126

Hand Fifteen

I deal the cards and turn up the 9 of hearts as the knock card. My hand is the following:

My opponent refuses the up card, and I in turn pass it up. My opponent draws from the deck and discards the King of clubs. I draw the 10 of clubs from the deck and discard the 8 of hearts, which is partially protected by the 9 of hearts. With a meld and other good possibilities already in my hand, I see no reason to make a more defensive play than this.

My opponent draws the 9 of diamonds from the deck and discards it. I draw the Queen of spades from the deck, which gives me three Queens. I discard the 10 of clubs.

My opponent picks from the deck and discards the Queen of hearts, giving me the fourth Queen. I knock with a count of 7. My opponent has the fourth 5, which he lays off on my 5s, and I win 14 points net.

Under less favorable circumstances I might have opened with a safer discard—the Queen of clubs— and would have probably followed it with the Queen of diamonds. The way I played the hand worked out satisfactorily, because a more defensive tack would have cost me the Queen spread.

Don’t speculate that this is mere good fortune. As I have pointed out before, you have to gear your play to the over-all situation and be prepared for continual changes. In this hand, since my opponent did not pick up any of my discards, there was no reason to digress from the strong play I started out with.

The aim of the expert player is always to stay in control of the game. Not only does he determine his own style of play, but he can utilize his plays to force his opponent into a pattern of play that wifi work to his benefit. In other words, vigorous play on my part can force my opponent to play strongly also, even though he may not be in as good a position to do so as I am. On the other side of the coin, defensive play by me can force him to slow down even if he is sitting there with beautiful cards.

THE BIGGEST PLAYING CARD GAME: GIN RUMMY

A Two Hundred Point Game,

You may have observed that at no time did I pick up a discard of my opponent’s for the sole purpose of speculating. With one exception only, I steadfastly picked up discards to complete a spread. The one exception was a low value turn-up card I accepted that fitted nicely with other low value combinations in my hand and had further merit as a possible knocking card. This pick-up was therefore only partially speculative, since it served a dual purpose.

This does not imply that no situations exist where it is justifiable to speculate. There are isolated cases where it can be a good move, but it should never become a habit for your general method of play. Occasionally you may calculate that a speculative card will be the wedge for a quick knock. Or you may pick one up just to befuddle your opposition, perhaps even to discard it a few plays later. These are very rare and special situations, and this tactic should be discouraged unless you’re riding high in the driver’s seat and feel you can afford to play bolder than is customary.

Perhapsyou have noticed something else in the progression of this game: The five-card spread is something that may be useful in a high knock hand, but it can often prove a disadvantage in a low knock game, because if you end up with a five-card and a three-card meld, that still leaves you with two unmatched cards; and in a low knock game you usually have to rid yourself of all but one unmatched card in order to knock. Five-card melds can be helpful if you are developing a possible second meld at either end of them, which also provides you with safe discards in case the second meld doesn’t materialize.

A common mistake made by inexperienced players is to regard a card as untouchable once it becomes part of a meld. Yet several times in the game just concluded a card was thrown from an existing meld (generally it was from a four- or five-card spread, but sometimes it is the correct move even if it breaks up a three-card meld).

The variety of situations that can come up in gin rummy is almost unlimited. This demonstration game covered a wide diversity of plays and playing strategy, but even some fairly common occurrences failed to arise.

Asan example, there is one play which an advanced player will sometimes make to avert a layoff. Assume a knock card of 8. The player has just drawn a card and now holds the 5-6-7-8 of diamonds, three lOs, and an unmatched Ace, two deuces, and a 3. Normally he would turn down the 3 and knock with 5 points. Let us say, however, that he knows his opponent has the 9 of diamonds as a layoff. The sophisticated player will turn down the 8 of diamonds, precluding the layoff, and knock with 8 points. Even though he is knocking at a higher level, he has managed to change the 9 of diamonds from an asset to a liability in his opponent’s hand and has definitely protected himself against an undercut.

While this game encompassed only a small percentage of the specific situations you will encounter in playing gin rummy, it did embrace most of the basic principles of good play that should be applied to any situation that arises. If you have absorbed these principles, you have taken a giant step toward becoming an expert gin rummy player. If you have the self-discipline to stick to these principles when you play gin rummy tomorrow, or next week, or a month from now, or two years from now—you’re eligible to join the ranks of the experts.

Gin rummy is not a game you grow tired of, and this is especially true if you are constantly improving your game. No wonder that for many years gin rummy has been unchallenged for the number one place as the most popular card game in the world.