The Object of Gin Rummy

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Gary Zyer for Expert Village. Now that we've dealt a hand, let's discuss what the object of the game is. What's the object of the game Gin Rummy? The object is to collect a hand where most or all of the cards can be melded into sets or runs, and the point value of the remaining unmatched cards is low. What is a run and what is a set? A run, or sequence, consists of three or more cards of the same suite in consecutive order. Such as the three, four, five, and six of hearts, or the Ace, two, three of clubs. A set, or group, is three or four cards of the same rank. Such as four Queens or three sevens. The card can belong to only one combination at a time. You can't use a card to be both part of a set of equal cards AND a sequence of consecutive cards. In this case, if you want to use the seven of hearts to join in on this meld, then you would be breaking up the meld of the three sevens. And, therefore, these two sevens wouldn't be worth anything. They'd be considered unmatched cards. Standard Gin Rummy rules play that the Ace is low. Therefore, Ace, two, three would be a good meld. But, Queen, King, Ace would not. Let's take a look at some examples of some winning hands in Gin Rummy. This would be considered a winning hand: four Queens, three fours, and a series Ace, two, three of diamonds. This would be an example of another winning hand in Gin Rummy. We have a series Jack, Queen, King; another series five, six, seven, eight of clubs; and a group of three sixes. Because each hand consists of ten cards, in order to get a winning Gin hand, you will need to form three melds. That would make two melds of three cards, and one meld of four cards."