There has been a lot of coverage of the growth of poker and backgammon online and these games have become popular thanks to the networking power of the Internet, which enables players from around the world to pitch themselves against each other.
Following hot on the heels of these 2 games is online Gin Rummy
Gin Rummy is now the third most popular game on the internet, according to some sources, and growing fast. Search hard enough, or rather not that hard at all, and you’ll find people to play all the rummy variants online, including Gin, Kalooki and Oklahoma.
So what is the score? Why is this game becoming so popular? Well, there are skill elements to poker and backgammon, of course but a lot still rides on luck. And the same goes for Gin Rummy. However, this difference is the way that the game pans out. Over the course of a tournament, the different swings in luck experienced by different players will tend to cancel out in the long term, leaving opponents relying on their skill with the cards to put one over their competitors.
So how do you play? Like any card game, Gin Rummy is multi-layered, and skill comes with practice, but it is relatively easy to pick up the basics:
Gin Rummy is played with a standard 52-card pack. Aces have a value of 1 and the ranking of the cards goes from low to high, i.e. A-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-J-Q-K.
Surprise, surprise: to win you must score more points than your opponent.
You are dealt a hand which you improve by skillful card selecting and discarding. You build up so called “melds” and strip out your “deadwood”. There are 2 meld types:
Sets of 3 of a kind or 4 of a kind, e.g. Je-Jc-J`.
Runs of at least 3 cards within the same suit, e.g. 8c-9c-10c-11c.
The “deadwood” sit on the edge of these. The total value of your deadwood cards can be tracked by using the following scoring system
Aces: 1 point,
Face cards: 10 points
All others: as their face values.
That really is the basics. After one or 2 hands you will pick up the gist and just like poker and backgammon, many fans of this game play and practice online for free to hone their skills against others. And just like poker, expect the power base of this popular game to shift as Internet players win more and more tournaments offline as well as online.