Section 4: Gameplay
Normal Turn
After the opening choice, players alternate turns. Every normal turn has two parts:
- Draw: Take either the top face-up card of the discard pile or the top face-down card of the stock.
- Discard: Place one card face up on top of the discard pile.
A player temporarily holds eleven cards after drawing and must return to ten cards by discarding. A card taken from the discard pile may not be immediately returned as that turn's discard. A card drawn unseen from the stock may be discarded immediately.
Players do not expose or announce melds during ordinary play. Melds remain in the hand until someone ends the hand. Once a discard has been released face up and the opponent has drawn, the previous turn cannot be changed.
Knocking
After drawing, a player may knock if the ten cards that will remain after the discard contain no more than 10 deadwood points. The player announces the knock and places the final discard separately or turns it sideways so the end of the hand is unmistakable. Both players then expose their cards.
The knocker arranges the ten retained cards into melds and deadwood. The defender also arranges their own melds, then may lay off unmatched cards on the knocker's melds. A layoff must leave a valid meld. For example, a fourth queen may be added to a set of three queens, and the 4 or 8 of diamonds may extend a displayed 5-6-7 run in diamonds.
Layoffs may be made in a useful sequence. If the knocker has 6-7-8 of clubs, the defender may lay off the 5 of clubs and then the 4 of clubs. The defender may not rearrange the knocker's cards, break the knocker's melds, or use one card in more than one meld.
Declaring Gin
A player declares gin when all ten retained cards form valid melds after the discard, leaving zero deadwood. The opponent exposes their hand and counts all unmatched cards without laying any cards off on the gin player's melds.
The discarded eleventh card is not part of the gin hand. A player who can arrange all eleven cards into melds has an especially strong holding sometimes called big gin, but it counts as ordinary gin unless the players adopted the big-gin variation before play.
Exhausted Stock
If no player has ended the hand and only two face-down cards remain in the stock after a discard, the hand ends as a draw. Neither player scores, and the next hand is dealt. Do not turn over and reuse the discard pile unless that procedure was agreed as a house rule before the game.
Exposed Cards and Honest Play
A player who accidentally exposes a card should return it to the hand and continue unless the exposure makes fair play impossible. Deliberately showing cards, looking through the stock, taking a buried discard, or changing the order of the stock is not allowed. For casual play, resolve honest mistakes by restoring the known position when possible; otherwise redeal the hand without a score.