Section 2: The Deck
Required Equipment
Gin Rummy requires one standard deck containing 52 cards divided into four suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. Remove all jokers and advertising cards before play. No other equipment is required, although players may use paper or another convenient method to record scores.
Card Rank
For forming runs, cards rank from low to high as follows:
Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, jack, queen, king.
An ace is low only. It may begin a run such as ace-2-3 of hearts, but it may not follow a king. Queen-king-ace and king-ace-2 are not valid runs. Suits have no relative rank.
Deadwood Values
- Aces count as 1 point each.
- Cards from 2 through 10 count at their printed value.
- Jacks, queens, and kings count as 10 points each.
- Cards included in valid melds count as zero deadwood.
Meld Requirements
A set must contain three or four cards of one rank. A run must contain at least three consecutive cards of one suit. A single card cannot belong to two melds at the same time. For example, the 7 of hearts cannot simultaneously complete a set of sevens and a 5-6-7 run in hearts.
A player may choose the arrangement that produces the lowest deadwood total. Suppose a hand contains the 4, 5, 6, and 7 of clubs together with three 7s of other suits. The player may use the 7 of clubs in either the run or the set, but not both, and should select the combination that best reduces deadwood.