Overview
Gin Rummy in Cardems is a two-player game against an opponent. Each round is a draw-and-discard race to make melds and reduce deadwood; the first player to reach 100 total points wins the match.
Objective
Make legal melds, leave as little deadwood as possible, and end a round by knocking with 10 or fewer deadwood points or by going Gin with zero. Accumulate 100 points before your opponent.
Setup
Cardems shuffles one 52-card deck and deals 10 cards to you and 10 to the opponent. One card starts face up in the discard pile; the remaining 31 cards form the stock. You take the first turn.
How to Play
- On your draw step, take the top card from the stock or the top discard.
- You now hold 11 cards. Discard one card to return to 10 cards.
- A card drawn from the discard pile cannot be discarded on that same turn.
- A meld is either a set of three or four cards of the same rank, or a same-suit run of three or more consecutive ranks.
- After a legal discard, knock with deadwood of 10 or fewer. Use Gin only when the remaining deadwood is exactly 0.
In Cardems, Ace is always low, so Q–K–A does not form a run. A card cannot belong to more than one meld; the app chooses the non-overlapping meld combination with the lowest deadwood total.
Knocking, Gin, Undercuts, and Layoffs
What does knocking mean in Gin Rummy?
Knocking is how you end a round. Rather than playing on, you declare that your unmatched cards are worth little enough to compare hands, and both players reveal. In Cardems you may knock when the cards left after your discard total 10 deadwood points or fewer.
Knocking is not a separate turn. You draw as usual, which leaves you holding 11 cards, then discard and knock in the same action.
How much deadwood can I knock with?
Ten points or fewer, counted after the discard. An Ace is 1, cards 2 through 10 count at face value, and each Jack, Queen, and King is 10. The knock stays unavailable while your best possible discard would still leave 11 or more points.
Going Gin
Gin means finishing with zero deadwood, so all ten remaining cards belong to melds. Gin scores the opponent's deadwood plus a 25-point bonus, and the defender may not lay off any cards.
Layoffs
After an ordinary knock, the defender's hand is arranged into its best melds, and any leftover deadwood that fits the knocker's melds may be laid off: onto either end of a run, or into a set that still holds fewer than four cards. Layoffs shrink the defender's deadwood before the two totals are compared, which is exactly what makes an undercut possible.
Undercut
If the knocker's deadwood is lower than the defender's total after layoffs, the knocker scores the difference. Otherwise the defender undercuts and scores the difference plus a 25-point bonus.
A tie counts as an undercut. Cardems awards the round to the knocker only when the knocker's deadwood is strictly lower, so equal totals hand the defender a 25-point round.
Scoring and Winning
| Result | Points awarded |
|---|---|
| Successful knock | Defender’s final deadwood minus knocker’s deadwood |
| Gin | Defender’s deadwood plus 25 |
| Undercut | Knocker’s deadwood minus defender’s final deadwood, plus 25 |
| Stock exhausted draw | 0 |
For example, if you knock with 7 deadwood and the opponent has 18 after layoffs, you score 11. If both finish on 7, the opponent undercuts and scores 25. The match ends when either total reaches 100 or more.
Cardems declares a zero-point drawn round when the stock is empty after a normal discard. It does not recycle the discard pile into a new stock.
Strategy
Watch what the opponent takes from the discard pile, but do not assume every pickup reveals a complete meld. When your deadwood reaches 10 or less, compare the safety of an immediate knock with the risk that the opponent can undercut after layoffs.
Variations
Cardems uses a two-player Gin Rummy ruleset with a 10-point knock limit, Gin, defender layoffs after an ordinary knock, and a 25-point Gin or undercut bonus. It does not offer Oklahoma Gin, Big Gin, a different knock threshold, or difficulty selection.
For the collection's other two-player card game, read the Pişti rules.
FAQ
Can I discard the card I just picked up from the discard pile?
No. That exact card is blocked from being discarded that turn. A card drawn from stock is not subject to that restriction.
What counts as a meld?
A set is three or four of one rank. A run is three or more consecutive cards in one suit. Melds cannot overlap.
Can the defender lay off after Gin?
No. Cardems permits layoffs only after an ordinary knock, not after Gin.
What is an undercut in Gin Rummy?
It is the defender beating the player who knocked. After layoffs, if the defender's deadwood is lower than or equal to the knocker's, the defender takes the round and scores the difference plus 25 points. Because a tie also counts, knocking with a slim margin is a real risk.
Can I knock with more than 10 deadwood?
No. Ten is the fixed limit in Cardems, measured after your discard. There is no Oklahoma-style variable knock threshold in this version.
What happens when the stock runs out?
After the next normal discard, Cardems ends the round as a draw for zero points; the discard pile is not recycled.
