Playing Gin Rummy

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Gary Zyer for Expert Village. Let's now take a look at the actual play of the game. A normal turn consists of two parts: the draw and the discard. The player whose turn it is starts by drawing, or taking one card from either the top of the stock pile or the top card on the discard pile, and adding it to his hand. The discard pile is face up, so you see in advance what you're getting. The stock pile is face down. So, if you choose to draw from the stock pile, you don't see the card until after you have committed yourself to take it. If you draw from the stock, you add the card to your hand without showing it to the other players. In this case, we're playing with an open hand. To complete your turn, one card must be discarded from your hand and placed on top of the discard pile face up. If you started your turn by taking the top card in the discard pile, you must discard a different card from your hand. Taking the top discard and putting the same card back is not permitted. So, be sure that once you take the card from the discard pile, that you really do need it because you'll have to wait another turn to lay it back down in the discard pile if you don't. In my case, I drew the nine of spades from the stock pile. Now I'm holding eleven cards in my hand. I need to get rid of one. So, I can either take the nine of spades that I just picked, if it doesn't help my hand at all, and I can take that one and put it into the discard pile. Or, if I decide that I would like to keep the nine of spades, I would have to choose another card from my hand and place that card into the discard pile. But, we can only be holding on to ten cards at one time. So, that finishes the second part of the turn, the discard. And now play goes over to the opponent."