Straight Gin
2 Players, Ages 8+
Straight Gin is a 2-player playing card game variant of Gin Rummy. The goal is to form three melds in your hand before your opponent, and end the round.
In this version of Gin Rummy, players are required to form a fully-melded hand to end the game. A similar game called Kanpai can be played with hanafuda.
Cards
| A | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | J | Q | K |
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This game uses a 52-card French-suited playing card deck. Aces are ranked as 1.
If you’re using a Junior Playing Cards deck, be sure to set aside its extra cards.
Setup
Shuffle the deck and deal ten cards to each player. Place the remaining deck adjacent to the field. Flip over the topmost card in the deck to start the discard pile.
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Gameplay
Goal
The goal of Straight Gin is to use all ten cards in your hand to form three-or-four-card melds of sets (same-value cards) or runs (same-suit cards) before your opponent.
You will need two three-card melds and one four-card meld for a completed hand. You may not use a single card for two different melds. For examples of valid melds, refer to the following table.
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Four-Card SetFour same-value cards |
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Three-Card SetThree same-value cards |
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Four-Card RunFour same-suit cards in sequence |
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Three-Card RunThree same-suit cards in sequence |
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Your Turn
When your turn begins, you may either draw one card from the deck or from the discard pile. Then, discard one card from your hand to the discard pile.
Now it’s the next player’s turn.
Continue until either player forms three melds in their hand.
Ending
When either player forms three melds with all ten cards in their hand, they end the round by discarding the unwanted eleventh card from their hand face-down.
Scoring
At the end of the round, the player who ended the round scores 20 points plus the value of their opponent’s un-melded cards (deadwood). Tally the deadwood according to the following table.
| Ace | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | J | Q | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10/ea | |||
If a player manages to form melds totaling eleven cards before discarding (Big Gin), they may instead choose to end the round by revealing their hand, scoring 30 points plus the value of their opponent’s un-melded cards.
Series
Games are best played in a series of 3, 6, or 12 rounds. The player with the highest total score at the end of the series wins!
If the players have identical scores, rejoice in the shared victory!
Strategy
In this game, you will be swapping cards in and out of your hand aiming to collect three melds of sets and runs. While any meld will suffice, because rounds are scored in part by the deadwood in the losing hand, you might be cautious in keeping high-value cards.
