The most important gin rummy terms are about what's left in your hand. A meld is a set (three or four of a rank) or a run (three or more in a row in one suit), and every card outside a meld is deadwood. When your deadwood is 10 or less you can knock to end the hand; with none at all you go gin. If the knocker's opponent ends up with as little deadwood or less, after laying off cards on the knocker's melds, that's an undercut. Below are the terms you'll hear at a US table, grouped by when they come up, with how often each thing actually happens.
Each term is defined the way Poozee's Gin Rummy plays it, with house rules noted where tables differ. The numbers come from the game's own rules engine. Meld counts are exact. Deal facts come from 100,000 deals (200,000 hands). Everything else comes from 2,000 games (19,666 hands) between two of the game's Medium computer players, which knock as soon as they can, plus 2,000 games (13,901 hands) between two Hard players, which knock early and then wait for gin. For the rules in order, see how to play gin rummy.
Quick reference
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Meld | A set or a run |
| Set | 3 or 4 cards of the same rank |
| Run | 3 or more cards in a row in one suit, ace low |
| Deadwood | Cards that aren't in a meld, counted against you |
| Stock | The face-down pile you draw from |
| Upcard | The first face-up card of the discard pile |
| Knock | End the hand with 10 or less deadwood |
| Gin | End the hand with no deadwood at all |
| Big gin | A house rule: all 11 cards meld after the draw |
| Lay off | Add your deadwood to the knocker's melds |
| Undercut | The defender has as little deadwood as the knocker, or less |
| Box (line) bonus | 25 points for each hand won, added at the end of the game |
| Shutout | Winning the game before the loser scores at all |
Cards and melds
Meld
A group of cards that counts for nothing against you: a set or a run. A card can only be in one meld at a time. A standard deck can make exactly 65 different sets (for each rank, four ways to pick three suits, plus all four) and 264 different runs (66 in each suit, from three cards long up to all thirteen).
Two cards that need a third are not a meld yet, and they still count as deadwood:
Some starts are better than others. A pair (like the two kings) can be finished by 2 cards, the other two of its rank. Two cards in a row in one suit can also be finished by 2 cards, one at each end, except A-2 and Q-K, which can only grow one way. Two cards with a gap, like the 7 and 9 of hearts, can only be finished by 1 card, the 8. So when you have to break up a two-card start, a gapped one gives up the fewest chances.
Set
Three or four cards of the same rank, like three 9s. Some players call it a group. You're dealt at least one set in 24.0% of hands.
Run
Three or more cards in a row in the same suit, like the 4, 5, 6 and 7 of hearts. Some players call it a sequence. The ace is low: A-2‑3 is a run, but Q-K-A is not. Some tables allow runs that go round the corner, like K-A-2; Poozee doesn't. You're dealt at least one run in 20.1% of hands, both a set and a run in 4.3%, and at least one meld of either kind in 39.7%.
Deadwood
Every card that isn't in a meld. Aces count 1 point, number cards their number, and jacks, queens and kings 10 each. Your total is your count. When a card could go in more than one meld, the count is whatever the best arrangement leaves:
Melding all four 9s as a set instead would leave the 7 and 8 of hearts loose, for 31 deadwood. Poozee always melds your hand the best way and shows the count under your cards. A dealt hand averages 56.6 points of deadwood, so most hands need several turns before anyone can knock.
The deal and the draw
Stock
The face-down pile left after the deal: 31 cards, since each player gets 10 and one starts the discard pile. You draw from its top. The last two cards are never drawn: when a player discards with only two left and nobody has knocked, the hand is a draw and nobody scores.
Discard pile and upcard
The face-up pile beside the stock. Its first card, turned up after the deal, is the upcard. The non-dealer may take it or pass, then the dealer; if both pass, the non-dealer draws from the stock. In our Medium games the non-dealer took the upcard in 15.7% of hands, the dealer in 14.8%, and both passed in 69.5%.
Draw and discard
Each turn you draw one card, from the stock or the top of the discard pile, then discard one face up. Taking the top discard shows your opponent what you're collecting, and you can't throw that same card back on the same turn. The strategy guide measured when taking the discard pays: only when it goes straight into a meld.
Knocking and gin
Knock
Ending the hand. After you draw, if discarding one card leaves 10 or less deadwood, you can discard it face down and lay out your hand. The other player, the defender, lays out theirs, lays off what they can, and the hand is scored. You never have to knock.
Our Medium players knock at the first chance, and their average knock had 7.1 deadwood. Here's how much deadwood those 19,165 knocks had, and how often each was undercut:
| Knocker's deadwood | Share of knocks | Undercut |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | 24.2% | 0.8% |
| 6 or 7 | 20.5% | 2.3% |
| 8, 9 or 10 | 55.4% | 5.8% |
More than half the knocks had 8 or more, because a player who knocks at the first chance usually gets there with a count just under the limit. A low knock was almost never undercut. Against players who wait for gin, knocking late is far riskier; the strategy guide's undercut table has the numbers by stage of the hand.
Gin
A knock with no deadwood: all 10 cards are in melds. Gin scores a 25-point bonus plus all of the defender's deadwood, and the defender can't lay anything off. On Poozee a knock with no deadwood is gin automatically. Gin ended 2.5% of our Medium hands and scored 48.4 points on average, about three times a normal knock. Hard players, which hold out for it after the first few turns, went gin in 48.3% of their hands.
Big gin
A house rule for when all 11 cards meld after you draw. Instead of discarding, you lay down all 11 for a bigger bonus than ordinary gin. Poozee doesn't play it: you always discard to knock. You lose nothing by it, because 11 cards can't split into 3-card melds alone, so one meld has 4 or more cards and you can discard one of them and still have gin:
Big gin is rare. Between our Medium players, who usually knock long before it can happen, a player drew into it in just 12 of 19,666 hands (12 of 496 gins). Between Hard players it came up in 3.3% of hands, 453 of 6,721 gins (6.7%).
Undercut
When the defender's deadwood, after laying off, is equal to or lower than the knocker's (some players call it underknocking). The defender scores the difference plus a 25-point bonus, so a tie still scores 25. Some rule books use a smaller bonus. In our Medium games 3.9% of knocks were undercut, and an undercut scored 26.7 points on average.
Here's the part to remember: in all 743 of those undercuts, the defender had more deadwood than the knocker before laying off. Every undercut came from layoffs, and the same was true of all 155 undercuts between Hard players. That makes sense: a defender who already had 10 or less would usually have knocked first. So before you knock, count the places your melds leave open for layoffs: one on each set of three, and one at each open end of a run.
Laying off
Lay off
After a knock, the defender can add deadwood to the knocker's melds: the fourth card of a set of three, or the next card at either end of a run. Cards can chain, so the 7 and then the 8 can go on a 4‑5‑6. The knocker can't lay off on the defender's melds, and nobody lays off against gin.
You score 22 - 5 = 17 instead of 51 - 5 = 46. In our Medium games the defender laid off at least one card after 41.4% of knocks, and when they did, it took 5.7 points off their deadwood on average (1.3 cards). The most anyone laid off in one hand was 5 cards. On Poozee, the cards you can lay off rise up when the computer knocks, and Lay off best finds the best layoffs for you.
Scoring terms
- Hand and game: a hand is one deal; a game is played over many hands until someone reaches 100 points. Our Medium games took 9.8 hands on average.
- Gin bonus: 25 points on top of the defender's deadwood. Some rule books use 20.
- Undercut bonus: 25 points on top of the difference. Some rule books use 10 or 20.
- Box or line bonus: at the end of the game, 25 points for every hand you won.
- Game bonus: 100 points for the player who reached 100.
- Shutout: winning the game before the loser has scored at all. The game bonus doubles to 200. Our Medium games ended in a shutout 4% of the time.
The rules guide works out a whole end-of-game tally with these bonuses.
Variant names
- Oklahoma Gin: the first upcard's value sets the most deadwood you can knock with for that hand (a 4 means 4 or less). The hand's score is often doubled when the upcard is a spade, and some groups allow only gin when it's an ace. Poozee always lets you knock with 10.
- Hollywood Gin: not different rules but a way of scoring: three games are kept on one score sheet at the same time.
- Straight gin: a version with no knocking at all, where a hand only ends when someone goes gin.
- Big gin and round-the-corner runs: house rules covered above. Poozee plays neither.
How often each one happens
| Term | How often | How we know |
|---|---|---|
| Dealt a set | 24.0% | 100,000 deals |
| Dealt a run | 20.1% | 100,000 deals |
| Upcard taken | 30.5% | Medium games |
| Knock (not undercut) | 93.7% of hands | Medium games |
| Undercut | 3.9% of knocks | Medium games |
| Layoff after a knock | 41.4% | Medium games |
| Gin | 2.5% of hands | Medium games |
| Gin | 48.3% of hands | Hard games |
| Big gin chance | 3.3% of hands | Hard games |
| Draw (no score) | 8.0% of hands | Hard games |
The gap between the two kinds of player is the whole strategy question in one table. Players who knock early almost never see gin or a dead stock; players who wait for gin get it about half the time, at the cost of more hands that end in a draw.
Keep playing
- Play Gin Rummy against three computer levels, with a Hint button
- How to play gin rummy, the full rules with worked examples
- Gin rummy strategy: when to knock and which cards to keep, tested over 10,000 hands
- Euchre terms, the same kind of glossary for a four-player game
Frequently asked questions
What is deadwood in gin rummy?
Deadwood is every card in your hand that isn't part of a meld. It counts against you: aces 1 point, number cards their number, and jacks, queens and kings 10 each. A dealt hand holds 56.6 points of deadwood on average.
What does knock mean in gin rummy?
Knocking ends the hand. After you draw, if discarding one card leaves 10 or less deadwood, you can discard it face down and lay your hand on the table. In our games between computer players that knock at the first chance, the average knock had 7.1 deadwood.
What is an undercut in gin rummy?
An undercut is when the player who didn't knock ends up with as little deadwood as the knocker, or less, after laying off. They score the difference plus a 25-point bonus on Poozee. In 19,165 knocks between our computer players, 3.9% were undercut.
What is big gin in gin rummy?
Big gin is a house rule: if all 11 cards meld after you draw, you lay them all down without discarding, for a bigger bonus than ordinary gin. Poozee doesn't use it, and it's rare: 12 of 19,666 hands between players who knock early, and 3.3% of hands between players who wait for gin.
What is laying off in gin rummy?
After a knock, the other player can add their deadwood to the knocker's melds: a fourth card on a set of three, or the next card at either end of a run. In our games the defender laid off at least one card after 41.4% of knocks.