Free Gin Rummy

What you do

Birch Cove Gin Rummy is the classic two-player card game, played at a felt card table on the dock of a lakeside cabin, with birches along the shore, a red canoe pulled up on the far side and a loon out on the water. Each player gets ten cards. On your turn you draw a card, from the face-down stock or the top of the discard pile, then throw one away. You are building melds: sets of three or four cards of one rank, and runs of three or more in a row in one suit. The cards left over are your deadwood, and once their points add up to 10 or less you may knock and lay your hand face up. Go gin with no deadwood at all for a bonus. Your opponent is Murray, a big friendly moose in a red buffalo-check scarf, who glances up at the sky while he thinks, beams when a card goes his way and claps his hooves for your good hands.

• Three levels for Murray: Gentle picks up cards that finish a meld but often throws away a card he should keep and waits too long to knock, Steady keeps cards that work together and knocks as soon as he can, and Sharp remembers every discard and every card you pick up, holds back cards you want and picks his moment to knock.
• Your hand is arranged into melds for you, always for the least deadwood, with runs first or sets first, and your deadwood count is always on show.
• The Knock button (Gin when you have no deadwood) appears only when the rules allow it, and names the card it will throw.
• A readable end to every hand: after a knock, the cards you can lay off glow and Murray lays his off one at a time, then the score is added up line by line.
• A game to 100 with the game bonus and a line bonus for every hand won, or single hands, and optional big gin.
• Hints that use only what you can see at the table, and an undo that takes back a card you picked up from the discard pile or a layoff.

How to play

1. Press Play. You and Murray each get ten cards. Yours sit along the bottom, already arranged: melds on their own mats, and your loose cards (your deadwood) at the end with a badge showing their points. Murray’s cards lie face down across the table, and the stock and the discard pile sit in the middle.
2. The first card: the player who did not deal may take the face-up card that starts the discard pile, or pass. If they pass, the dealer may take it. If both pass, the non-dealer draws from the stock instead.
3. On every turn, draw first: tap the stock for its top card, or tap the discard pile to take the card showing. Then throw: tap a card to pick it and tap it again (or tap the discard pile) to throw it. A card you just took from the discard pile cannot go straight back.
4. Build melds. A set is three or four cards of the same rank. A run is three or more cards in a row of one suit, with the ace low only: A-2-3 is a run, Q-K-A is not. Loose cards count against you: face cards 10, aces 1, every other card its number.
5. When throwing a card would leave 10 or less deadwood, a Knock button appears (Gin with no deadwood). Knocking lays your hand face up. Murray then lays off any loose cards that fit your melds, and you score the difference in deadwood, unless he has the same or less, which is an undercut and scores for him. Gin scores 25 plus his deadwood, and nobody lays off against gin.
6. If the stock runs down to two cards with no knock, the hand is a draw. In a game to 100, hands go on until someone reaches 100; the winner adds a game bonus of 100 (200 if Murray scored nothing) and both add 25 for every hand they won.

Controls

• Touch or mouse: tap the stock or the discard pile to draw, or use the Take, Pass and Stock buttons beside the piles. Tap a card to pick it and tap it again to throw it. Knock or Gin sits beside the piles when it is allowed. When Murray knocks, tap a glowing card to lay it off (and then the meld, if it fits two), then tap Done. Undo, Hint, Sort and Menu sit on the shelf below the table, or beside it on a landscape phone.
• Keyboard: the arrow keys move along your hand and Enter or Space picks or throws the card in focus. D draws from the stock, T takes the top discard, P passes on the first card, K or G knocks (or goes gin), N finishes your layoffs or deals the next hand, S switches between runs first and sets first, U undoes, H shows a hint and Escape cancels a pick.
• Restart in the toolbar starts a new game. Menu starts a new game, changes Murray’s level, the game (to 100 or a single hand), big gin, how your melds are arranged and Murray’s speed in Settings, and shows your statistics and the rules. The toolbar also has pause, help, optional sound and fullscreen.

Tips worth knowing

• Throw your high loose cards early. A king or queen that is in no meld costs 10 points if Murray knocks, while a loose 2 costs only 2.
• Keep cards that can grow two ways. A 7 of hearts next to the 7 of spades and the 8 of hearts can finish either a set or a run.
• Watch what Murray picks up from the discard pile. If he takes the 6 of clubs, think twice before throwing him the 5 or 7 of clubs or another 6.
• Knock when you can, early in the hand. Waiting for gin gives Murray more turns to knock first. Late in the hand, with deadwood close to 10, an undercut becomes more likely.
• Count the cards that are gone. If both other nines are already in the discard pile, your pair of nines can never become a set.
• Use the hint to learn. It looks only at the cards you can see and says why: a card that makes a meld, your highest loose card, or a card Murray has shown he does not want.

Accessibility

• Everything can be played with a keyboard: the arrow keys move a visible focus along your hand, Enter or Space picks and throws, and single letter keys draw, take, pass, knock and finish layoffs.
• Every card in your hand is labeled for screen readers with its name and whether it is in a meld or loose, and the piles say what is on top and how many cards are in the stock.
• Your deadwood is always shown as a number, so you never need to add it up yourself, and the game arranges your melds for you.
• Nothing is timed. Murray waits while a menu is open, and his speed can be set to Relaxed.
• Reduced motion places the cards at once instead of dealing and sliding them, stops Murray’s fidgeting and keeps the sparkles small. Sound is optional and never needed to play.

Guides and roundups

• How to Play Gin Rummy: Rules, Scoring and Strategy